Reply #8: They did inform the families. [View All]

According to other workers in the home, all the families were called and informed that these patients weren't going to be moved because the stress of an evacuation could kill them. The owners stayed in the home with their family, including their own grandkids.

Foti should have never charged them with homicide. They made the wrong decision, but the decision wasn't haphazard or lazy or irresponsible. They considered the options, consulted the families, and made a decision based on their best information.

Put yourself in the place of the jury for a moment--a jury who had lived through the same thing. Nine times out of ten a hurricane scare is just a scare. Anyone on the Coast has been through that. These things miss their projected target more often than they hit it. So let's say the Manganos did evacaute, and a patient or several patients died as a result of the evacuation--that's not improbable in this case, as we saw with Rita. Then let's say the levees held and the nursing home escaped with no damage whatsoever. Would the state be able to charge them with homicide for making the wrong choice then?

In other words, if either decision could have led to fatalities, then either decision could have led to murder charges. Which means that the real crime was being a nursing home manager when a hurricane came. The jury apparently rejected that premise. Instead of looking at the outcome of the decision, the jury looked at the decision-making process, and apparently decided the Manganos were not negligent. At least that's how I read it--I'm sure we'll hear more about why the jury ruled that way in the days to come.