Gov. Cuomo reneges on his promise to promote State Whistle-blower from hostile work environment and instead allows years of continual retaliation

DELMAR, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, September 28, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Mr. Jeffrey Monsour is a hero and champion for the most vulnerable; he has suffered greatly for simply doing what is right and just to protect innocent children and adults with disabilities from severe harm or premature death. Mr. Monsour became famous years ago for bringing to light to the New York Times documents that he obtained through Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) revealing the regular recycling of people that abuse people with disabilities within a corrupt mental health care system http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/nyregion/13homes.html. The massive award winning in depth New York Times "Abused and Used" investigative reporting series was a runner up for a Pulitzer Prize http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/nyregion/abused-and-used-series-page.html?mcubz=3. Instead of moving swiftly to put major legislative reforms in place to stop and prevent the rampant physical and sexual abuse and deaths of people with disabilities occurring within New York State's extremely dangerous mental health care system, Governor Cuomo chose to continue to ignore what was going on behind closed doors, set up his own discriminatory internal reporting agency that bypasses the 911 call systems and normal criminal justice system and go after whistle-blowers. Mr. Monsour is an amazing person and advocate, one of the finest, he has exposed numerous life threatening systemic problems that the Cuomo administration has refused to address and stop that directly endanger the safety, health and lives of countless vulnerable people with disabilities and he has suffered horrendous retaliation.

The bizarre retaliation tactics were just brought to new low levels when Mr. Monsour was directed by his supervisor to report to a mailbox screwed to a tree. The Capital District local Times Union paper just brought this incredibly disturbing story to light http://m.timesunion.com/news/article/Whistleblowing-OPWDD-employee-goes-not-to-12233350.php?cmpid=email-mobile

"This is how the Cuomo administration reacts when a New York State employee exposes Abuse, Taxpayer Waste, Mismanagement, and the fleecing of BILLIONS of Americas Medicaid dollars. If you dare seek justice in court the Cuomo administration will spend countless taxpayer dollars on attorneys in hopes of concealing the truth from the jury." - Jeffrey Monsour

One of the largest and most deadly matters that Mr. Monsour asked the State to do was to radon test their facilities and group homes to protect the disabled and his fellow workers. New York State acknowledged they knew of these dangers but ignored Mr. Monsour and the immediate safety, health and lives of hundreds of thousands of residents and State and private caregivers. New York State's failure to radon test and mitigate known dangerous mental health facilities and group homes has cost many people their lives. Radon gas is odorless, radon gas is extremely dangerous, radon gas is deadly. Radon gas and is the number two cause for lung cancer killing 21,000 nationally every year, many hundreds in New York State. What will it take for New York State to simply do what is right and provide safe care and services for people with disabilities? One of the other significant life threatening systemic problems within the New York State mental health care system is the falsifying of fire drills records and false claims that staff were able to get residents with disabilities out of a group home in a timely and safe manner. Mr. Monsour's appeals to the top were ignored and soon after four former Willowbrook residents that came out of a horrible abusive Willowbrook State Institution, which became nationally known because of the horrors that were exposed there by Geraldo Rivera, died in a group home fire. When "life or death" matters are ignored and the safety of our most vulnerable is not the number one concern and whistle-blowers such as Mr. Monsour are treated with scorn and disdain, obviously people will die due to the gross negligence. A well known civil rights attorney taught me that this is considered "gross and deliberate indifference" or in other words, who the hell cares if this specific group of people live or die, we do not care, and people die as a result. People that believe this way have no business being in any position of authority; they are an extreme danger to innocent people with disabilities that rely on other to care for them with excellence. Massive reforms must take place in New York State's mental health care system, currently 7,800 calls are being reported to Governor Cuomo's wrongfully named and fraudulently operated Justice Center abuse hotline for the disabled that keeps almost everything from the local police. Let me say this again, 7,800 reports a month, these numbers are massive, they are astronomical and the deaths occurring in this unsafe system are between 11 and 13 every single day. Governor Cuomo's top officials are keeping most deaths from being reported to County elected District Attorney's and Medical Examiners which is illegal and allowing State and private providers to investigate deaths occurring in their own facilities and group homes. This is why whistle-blowers like Jeffrey Monsour and many others are retaliated against in such ways and pushed out. Mr. Monsour has stood his ground and refused to allow the State of New York to destroy him financially, to destroy his impeccable reputation of caring for our most vulnerable and is taking the State to federal court in November. The horrors and gross negligence will continue to surface until Governor Cuomo and his negligent agencies are sincerely reformed and finally made safe.

What is important now is that Governor Cuomo's schemes are exposed and that the 1,000,000 New Yorkers with disabilities are finally provided much better and safer services and the justice they deserve with the billions of America's federal Medicaid dollars coming into New York State annually. Federal law US Code 42 Section 15009 says very clearly that these funds are only to go to programs that are free from abuse and neglect, not to New York State programs and facilities that are rampant with abuse and neglect. Thank God for amazing whistle-blowers like Jeff Monsour.

Michael Carey
Mr.
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The incredible life and tragic preventable death of Jonathan Carey, who was disabled, had autism, was non-verbal & only 13 when he was killed by his caregivers