Greystone Patients Died While Official Stalled Investigations: Lawsuit

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ — A whistleblower claims that a state official delayed a probe into dangerous conditions at a Morris County psychiatric facility, and told patient advocates to stop investigating even as residents died.

Nora Locke, who works in the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, also claims she was demoted from her position because she confronted her former boss about conditions at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital.

Locke, an Essex County resident, filed her lawsuit against the Office of the Public Defender, the state of New Jersey, OPD Division of Mental Health Advocacy director Carl Herman, and Joseph Krakora, the former state Public Defender.

Greystone has been under court-ordered supervision following a settlement with the Public Defender’s Office in 2020. While the settlement agreement was being hammered out, two patients died and multiple violent assaults occurred at Greystone, according to Locke's lawsuit.

This included a stabbing death on New Year's Eve 2019, where resident Rashid Davis was found wandering the halls of Greystone with blood on his hand. And several months after the settlement, the Public Defender's Office also claimed a patient choked to death on food that was not in his special diet.

Locke filed her original lawsuit in late January, and submitted an amended complaint on March 11 seeking a jury trial, to be reinstated to her supervisor position with back pay, and related damages.

In her past position as a Deputy Public Defender with the Division of Mental Health Advocacy, Locke was responsible for managing and assigning caseloads for 10 staff attorneys and 10 investigators throughout hospitals in North Jersey, including Greystone Park. The OPD represented many patients at the psychiatric hospital in civil commitment hearings.

Locke claims Herman withheld her authorization to investigate conditions at Greystone Park, even after a number of doctors and administrators came forward in 2017 to report a “man-made humanitarian crisis” at the hospital and a doctor warned of mass resignations at the facility due to the conditions.

Locke said Herman took months to put together documents for a formal investigation, even after she and her staff sent him a memo reminding him of his duties under state law.

Two Assistant Deputy Public Defenders came in to investigate in the fall of 2018 and found probable cause “that there is systemic abuse and neglect of patients at Greystone, and that there is probable cause that ongoing conditions at Greystone expose patients to grave risk of serious bodily harm or death.” the lawsuit stated.

Further investigation found “a horrific series of incidents of preventable deaths, escalating sexual and violent assaults, mismedication and misdiagnosis of patients, systemic malpractice, corruption, and a complete failure to provide adequate medical Care.”

Misappropriated Funds

After the investigation uncovered $18 million had been misappropriated to unknown accounts, Locke said, Herman’s behavior began to change. He told Locke and the Assistant Deputy Public Defenders to “focus on the current conditions at Greystone and don’t focus on the money or the fraud,” and to “get the complaint away from any focus on individual wrongdoing at the high level,” court documents state.

Locke said that she and her team were surprised when Herman announced he was working on a settlement with the state, which was reached in November 2020. And when she approached Herman about enforcing the settlement in 2021, Locke said she and her team were told to "stand down."

Locke contends that she was also demoted as a manager in late January 2023 after continued friction between her and Herman as she tried to proceed with litigation on behalf of patients at a Children’s Psychiatric Medical Center.

She claims that her employers violated the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act by retaliating against her, and violated the New Jersey Law against Discrimination by providing her reasonable accommodations for an anxiety disorder.

Locke is seeking to be reinstated to her position and receive back pay, as well as additional damages for the emotional distress she says she suffered.

Related articles:

• Suspect In Greystone Killing Faced Murder Charges Before
  
• Suspect In Greystone Killing: 'I Did Something Bad'
• Patient Abuse, Deaths In NJ Psych Hospitals Detailed In New Lawsuit
• NJ Psychiatric Hospital Murder Linked To Work Conditions: Lawsuit