性骚扰指控让纽约州长安德鲁·科莫丢掉了工作。现在，许多人希望看到他为一桩丑闻负责，这一丑闻触及了他作为大流行英雄的声誉核心，并可能产生生死攸关的后果——他的政府对养老院疫情的处理。
在一项激烈的调查发现科莫对11名女性进行性骚扰的几个月前，同一位司法部长得出结论，政府低估了养老院数千人的真实死亡人数，死亡人数可能是由一项州命令造成的，该命令实际上迫使这些养老院接受康复中的新冠肺炎患者。
不管骚扰指控的后续行动如何，死于养老院的1.5万多名纽约人的家人表示，他们也希望追究责任，并敦促州议员和美国司法部在科莫离任后继续调查他。
“养老院的人和他们的家人还没有清算的一天，”薇薇安·扎亚斯说，她把母亲在纽约西伊斯利普养老院的死亡归咎于科莫。
“这还不是一场胜利，”她说。"当整个养老院的丑闻被揭露时，就是胜利."
在这位民主党人宣布辞职之前，纽约议会一直在朝着弹劾科莫的方向前进，他对养老院的处理也是其中的一部分，已经收集了超过50万页的证据。
议员们现在正在权衡，一旦科莫在两周内下台，他们是否能够也应该推进弹劾。司法委员会的一名成员表示，弹劾将等同于“报复”委员会的其他成员要求至少发布一份报告。
“如果他犯了罪，仅仅因为他辞职，这些调查不会消失，”国会议员罗恩·金说，他是来自皇后区的民主党人，他的叔叔死在一家养老院。“为妇女伸张正义是第一步。为失去亲人的家庭讨回公道是一个漫长的过程，因为这涉及到整个生态系统。”
库莫离任后将成为州长的副州长凯西·霍楚尔(Kathy Hochul)誓言，在公布养老院死亡数据时，她的政府将“完全透明”。
联邦调查也可能带来答案。特朗普司法部一年前开始要求纽约州提供养老院记录，并在去年夏天扩大了调查范围，此前美联社(Associated Press)的一份报告发现，纽约州官方公布的长期护理机构中新冠肺炎死亡人数可能严重不足。
美国司法部对政府经营的养老院可能存在的侵犯公民权利行为进行了一次狭窄的调查，调查结束时没有引发全面的调查。但三名知情人士告诉美联社，联邦检察官进行的更广泛的审查仍然有效，因为他们没有被授权公开讨论调查。
其中一名知情人士称，其关注的焦点包括该州是否有意操纵养老院死亡数据，以及科莫及其助手是否向司法部提供了虚假或不完整的信息，这可能构成联邦犯罪。
知情人士说，在调查的早期，科莫政府不与检察官合作，几个月来没有出示文件和其他要求的数据。
美国司法部发言人周三没有回应就调查现状置评的请求。
在调查中接受采访的人中有金和另一名议员，他们因提请注意养老院危机而引起科莫的愤怒，该州参议员古斯塔沃·里维拉(Gustavo Rivera)说，他在5月份接受了三个小时的询问。
周二，当科莫发言时，里维拉正飞往一个会议，当他在座椅靠背电视上观看辞职过程时，他发现自己不得不压抑自己的喜悦。参议院卫生委员会主席、布朗克斯民主党人说，科莫关于养老院的决定是州长“做一些让自己看起来不错的事情”的一个例子
当病毒在大流行的早期席卷纽约时，科莫确实看起来很好，他的“实话实说”每日简报赢得了全国观众，在简报中，他演讲、拉拉队并说服他的选民保持“纽约强硬”
许多人称赞他是对唐纳德·特朗普总统领导下的白宫对新冠肺炎无效回应的制衡。科莫接着写了一本关于危机中领导力的书。
即使州长的一些明显失误开始引起注意，这种坚定的形象仍然占据了上风。
在大流行早期，政府发布了一项指令，禁止养老院仅仅因为人们有新冠肺炎就拒绝他们，从而释放了医院空间。该指令最终被推翻，但被倡导者指责传播病毒并导致死亡。
在政府拒绝公布数据和回答有关该政策的问题长达9个月后，美联社今年获得的记录显示，根据该命令，纽约州有9000多名康复中的冠状病毒患者从医院被释放到养老院，比该州卫生部门此前披露的数字高出40%以上。
纽约总检察长莱蒂蒂亚·詹姆斯(Letitia James)在1月份的报告中指出，尽管科莫的指令符合联邦指导方针，但它“可能使一些设施中的居民面临更大的伤害风险。”
但科莫政府长期以来一直认为，感染的养老院员工——不是康复中的新冠肺炎患者——才是感染的真正驱动力，根据州法律，如果新冠肺炎患者没有能力安全护理他们，养老院有责任拒绝他们。
政府统计养老院死亡人数的方式与几乎所有其他州都不一致:它只统计那些死于养老院财产的居民，而不是那些被送往医院后死亡的人。
詹姆斯的报告出来后，科莫政府最终公布的数据证实了许多人的怀疑:官方死亡人数下降了50%，相差4200多名受害者。
州长的一名高级助手梅丽莎·德洛萨(Melissa DeRosa)试图解释政府为何迟迟不公布死亡数据，她说，官员们“冻结”了这些信息，担心这些信息会被特朗普的司法部“用来对付我们”。
科莫的办公室没有立即回应周四就调查发表评论的请求。
格蕾丝·科鲁奇的父亲在从疗养院出院后因新冠肺炎在医院去世，她发现科莫辞职让她眼前的幸福化为泪水。她说，她担心他会逃避任何真正的惩罚，因为她认为他的所作所为让病人和老人付出了生命。
“我担心他们不会发现事情发生的原因，”科鲁奇说。"这些都可能被藏在地毯下面."
Cuomo exit isn't stopping push for answers on nursing homes
Sexual harassment allegations cost New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo his job. Now, many want to see him answer for a scandal that cut to the heart of his reputation as a pandemic hero and may have had life-and-death consequences — his administration's handling of outbreaks in nursing homes.
Months before a blistering investigation found Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women, the same attorney general concluded that the administration understated the true death toll in nursing homes by thousands and that fatalities may have been fueled by a state order that effectively forced such homes to accept recovering COVID-19 patients.
Whatever action may lie ahead on the harassment claims, families of the more than 15,000 New Yorkers who died in nursing homes say they want accountability, too, and are urging state lawmakers and the U.S. Justice Department to keep investigating Cuomo after he leaves office.
“The nursing home people and their families have not had a day of reckoning," said Vivian Zayas, who blames Cuomo for her mother’s death in a West Islip, New York, nursing home.
“This not a victory yet,” she said. “A victory is when the whole nursing home scandal is blown open.”
New York’s Assembly had been moving toward impeachment of Cuomo before the Democrat announced his resignation, and his handling of nursing homes was set to be a part of that, with more than a half-million pages of evidence gathered.
Lawmakers are now weighing whether they can and should push forward with impeachment once Cuomo is out of office in two weeks. One member of the Judiciary Committee said impeachment would amount to “vengeance.” Other members of the committee have pushed to at least issue a report.
“If he committed a crime, just because he resigns those investigations are not going to go away,” said Assembly member Ron Kim, a Democrat from Queens, whose uncle died in a nursing home. “Justice for the women is the first step. Getting the justice for the families who lost loved ones is a longer journey because it involves a whole ecosystem.”
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who will become governor after Cuomo’s departure, vowed her administration will be “fully transparent” when it comes to releasing data on nursing home deaths.
A federal investigation could also bring answers. The Trump Justice Department began requesting nursing home records from New York a year ago and widened its inquiry last summer after a report by The Associated Press found the state’s official toll of COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities was probably a significant undercount.
A narrow Justice Department inquiry into possible civil rights violations at government-run nursing homes ended without triggering a full-blown investigation. But broader examinations by federal prosecutors remain alive, three people familiar with the matter told the AP on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.
Its focus includes whether the state intentionally manipulated data on nursing home deaths and whether Cuomo and his aides provided the Justice Department with false or incomplete information, which could constitute a federal crime, one of the people said.
Early in the probe, the Cuomo administration was not cooperative with prosecutors and for months did not produce documents and other requested data, the people said.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment on the status of the investigation.
Among those who have been interviewed in the probe are Kim and another lawmaker who drew Cuomo’s ire for calling attention to the nursing home crisis, state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, who said he sat through three hours of questioning in May.
Rivera was flying to a conference on Tuesday as Cuomo was speaking and found himself having to muffle his delight as he watched the resignation unfold on a seatback TV. The Bronx Democrat who chairs the Senate's Health Committee said Cuomo's decisions on nursing homes were an instance of the governor "doing something to make himself look good.”
As the virus engulfed New York in the early days of the pandemic, Cuomo did indeed look good, gaining a national audience for his tell-it-like-it-is daily briefings in which he lectured, cheerleaded and cajoled his constituents to stay “New York tough.”
Many hailed him as a counterweight to the ineffective COVID-19 response they saw coming from the White House under President Donald Trump. Cuomo went on to write a book about leadership in a crisis.
That resolute image prevailed even as some of the governor’s apparent missteps began gaining notice.
Early in the pandemic, the administration moved to free up hospital space by issuing a directive barring nursing homes from refusing people just because they had COVID-19. The directive was ultimately reversed but was blamed by advocates for spreading the virus and contributing to deaths.
After the administration refused to release data and answer questions about the policy for nine months, AP obtained records this year showing more than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients in New York state were released from hospitals into nursing homes under the order, more than 40% higher than what the state health department previously disclosed.
New York Attorney General Letitia James' report in January noted that while Cuomo's directive was in line with federal guidance, it “may have put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities.”
But the Cuomo administration has long contended that infected nursing home employees — not recovering COVID-19 patients — were the real drivers of infections and that it was incumbent upon nursing homes under state law to refuse COVID-19 patients if they were not equipped to care for them safely.
The administration also tallied nursing home deaths in a way that was out of step with nearly every other state: It counted only those residents who died on nursing home property, not those who succumbed after being sent to a hospital.
After James’ report came out, the Cuomo administration finally released data that confirmed what many suspected: The official death count was off by 50 percent, a difference of more than 4,200 victims.
A top aide to the governor, Melissa DeRosa, tried to explain the administration’s delays in releasing data on deaths by saying officials “froze” over worries the information was “going to be used against us” by Trump’s Justice Department.
Cuomo’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday on the investigations.
Grace Colucci, whose father died of COVID-19 at a hospital after being released from a nursing home, found her immediate happiness about Cuomo’s resignation dissolve into tears. She said she is fearful he will evade any real punishment for what she believes he did that cost the sick and old their lives.
“I’m afraid that they won’t find out why it happened,” Colucci said. “This may all be brushed under the rug.”
