Apathy and Politics. Part Two.

When we examine the application of law in the Commonwealth with regard to basic regulation, we cannot observe in theory — we have to look at what’s actually happening. 

Abstract ideals like “rule of law” and “public trust” lose all meaning when no one is enforcing them. It’s not enough to claim that bad things are rare or that systems are doing their best. We have to be honest about what happens when those systems are tested and the stakes range from important to a matter of life and death. 

So let’s test it. Let’s look at a case that should have shocked the conscience of every Virginian and prompted immediate action but didn’t. 

Does Virginia Care for the Infirm?

My mother is in a nursing care facility or what most of us call a nursing home. She had several massive strokes, is partially paralyzed with epilepsy, and diabetes—she needs constant care. I understand the devastation of illness that requires care beyond what can be safely given at home. I share this so you understand, I am not just commenting, I am invested here. In a safer, properly regulated Virginia.

I recently read a story that broke my heart and hit close to home. It was about a family whose loved one had vomited feces before dying at a Virginia nursing care facility with a history of regulatory violations. I didn’t even know that was medically possible, but now that it’s known, you and I can’t just ignore it. 

That tragedy took place in 2015, but I only learned of it because it was revisited in a recent report of nursing home abuse. The new story was also preventable, also negligent, also heartbreaking – and not remotely unusual for the Commonwealth. Virginia is ranked 38th in the nation for nursing home care with a 59% increase in complaints from 2018 to 2024.² The rate of complaints this year has already surpassed the previous. Current standards are not meeting the need for dignity in patient care. 

Virginia’s nursing homes are not under-regulated because the problems are unknown. They are under-regulated because we accept the slogan that “less government” is better, lumping all regulation into the “government overreach” bucket. It is left to the corporate facility to decide what constitutes care. This is why some regulation is life saving. It forces corporations to account for a minimum standard, not invent their own based almost exclusively on profit over performance.

As Virginia Mercury documented, local nursing care facilities may go years without proper inspection. Complaints about abuse or dangerous conditions are dismissed without in-person follow-up by VDH inspectors. Elder neglect becomes standard operating procedure as the minimums are lowered and measured against the worst care rather than a standard of care.

The feds are now involved in regulating Virginia nursing care because Virginia’s response has been so deficient, so pro-business that civil rights are not being respected.

CBS6 recently reported on one such case that was so disturbing, it has changed my world view. There is a new category of evil that I didn’t have the framework for prior to hearing about this case. An aide working in a Virginia nursing home was fired for sexually assaulting patients at the nursing facility. There were multiple instances of brutal sexual assaults. The offender used threats of violence and attempted to offer drugs as bribes to prevent victims from seeking help. 

The alleged offender was reported by co-workers. The first facility fired him, and alerted authorities. The offender was not charged and proceeded to secure employment at another facility where he re-offended. It appears he chose victims who were unable to communicate or defend themselves, some were medically sedated. In one case the victim was quadriplegic. 

Multiple witnesses identified the aide responsible and could testify on behalf of the victims. These witnesses made official statements to protect their patients. The nursing home itself reported it to authorities.

This is where Virginia laws and regulations fail. The police will say they are only responsible for the criminal charges. VDH (Virginia’s Department of Health) will say that they only regulate the facility, this was an individual who violated the law. VDP (Virginia’s Department of Health Professionals) will likely say no one told them since the license was not revoked for this perpetrator.

None of these regulators or authorities communicate. Not only is this a loophole, it’s a failsafe to prevent accountability for the crimes that occur because of Virginia’s preference for a deregulated state. Let’s not forget that Governor Youngkin is so impressed with the cost savings, we are headed to a 35% reduction in regulations. 

No charges were brought.

The regulatory agencies didn’t suspend any licensing. The case was dropped. 

During her recorded interview with News 6, Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor demonstrated the smug indifference of many Virginia regulators and authorities. There was cause to bring charges. There was evidence. There were witnesses. Reports were made. The problem with the case, according to Taylor, was the victims.

Because of their disabilities and cognitive issues, some could not give clear testimony. Taylor stated that because of this, she didn’t believe a conviction was likely. She chose not to bring the case on behalf of the victims and their families. Some of us could have been on that jury. Do you think you’d manage to sort the facts and come to a clear decision even if the victim is disabled? Not only do I think any of us could, our conscience should demand it.

Watch the interview yourself. But be warned: the details are disturbing.

Taylor defended her inaction by claiming that prosecution would have taken longer than the four months between the assaults. What she failed to acknowledge is that a person charged with sexual assault and processed would create a record of behavior. 

In a properly regulated state, that record could have prevented further abuse during a background check or triggered licensing revocation. It was Virginia’s failure to regulate that created new opportunities for a predator.

This is how Virginia ensures favorable state marketing slogans like the best state for business. No charges, no crimes to report. The state saves money. Prosecutors protect their conviction ratios. Offenders continue to offend. Corporations build more facilities.

And yes, I am expressing my opinion that this is well understood and that favorable metrics matter more than people to the officials who enjoy their political perks. 

Subsidizing Cruelty

Attorney General Jason Miyares joined a mult-state republican led suit in 2024 to prevent a federal minimum staff requirement in nursing homes. But why? His first concern was likely the optics given that Governor Youngkin had declined the bipartisan requests from legislators for more patient facing staff in nursing homes. 

Youngkin opted for inspectors instead. That is quite a subsidy for corporations who can now bypass the “burden” of staffing costs. Instead, the taxpayers pick up the tab for the salaries of additional inspectors who will not contribute to improved care, but will focus on catching up on the years’ deep backlog of complaints. Miyares’ stated concern in the suit was that this measure and more aides would put the nursing homes “out of business”. 

Nursing facilities have a very low closure rate. Why would nursing homes continue operating if they have such poor profit margins? We see restaurants open and close all the time, but nursing homes remain open for decades. That’s because of a practice called “tunneling” where the profits that are earned are not fully disclosed as they relate to the facility.⁷ That’s a topic for another day.

The Attorney General’s duty is to lead the charge for consumer protections – including patient care rights, but AG Miyares chose to ignore the backlog of complaints and answer the call of lobbyists who led this coalition to stop the expansion of caregivers instead. This may explain a portion of his unusually good fortune in campaign financing that has otherwise lagged for his running mates.

Senior rights advocates successfully demonstrated in court that the federal measure would save 13,000 senior lives every year.³ Miyares and Co. thankfully failed to block the federal requirement. This lawsuit, like many other sensational filings by Miyares leading up to his re-election run, was a failure and waste of taxpayer dollars. The suit was in direct contrast to bipartisan calls for more aides and a slap in the face of voting Virginians who didn’t support the lawsuit. Another clear win for the lobby that organized the suit and another headline paid for with tax dollars.

Unsafe to Drink.

Let’s look at something universal. A basic need. Water.

How did you feel when you learned that regulators failed to alert the public to water contamination in Hanover, Henrico and Chesterfield? WIth complete disregard for the already eroded public trust because of the January 6th water crisis in Richmond, authorities decided against alerting counties of the contamination event on April 23, 2025. Does this show that regulators are atoning for prior failings or at least respectful of your right to know when there is contamination?

The rate of fluoridation was reported as 2.67 milligrams per liter with the target range sitting at 0.7 mg/L. It was nearly four times “safe” levels as designated by the EPA.⁵

VDH cleared the water as safe to drink while the field director for the Office of Drinking Water stated there was no way to be sure due to a lack of training that equated to the water plant employees not taking any measurements.⁵ Again, who is responsible? VDH or ODW? Who is telling the truth?? How can we trust the reported levels if we can’t confirm proper testing?

The water regulations simply were not followed or enforced at the plant even after regulators were deployed. 

There was a third water contamination event within five months occurring on May 28, 2025 – at least that we know of. There were mechanical issues that clogged a filter and led to a boil water advisory that time. I’m sure everything will be fixed when the data centers move in and use the water, though. No worries, Virginians.

I don’t drink public water. I’ll bet the Governor doesn’t either, at least not in Richmond.

Our Case: A Microstudy of Collapse

Not to beat a dead horse, but I became aware of the failings in Virginia’s regulatory system after our ceiling collapsed in a brand new home. My introduction into Virginia law was a series of HVAC failures and illegal building practices hidden by a builder and shielded by the state’s regulatory agencies. Regulators altered the investigation record with false licensing information. This action prevented citation and protected the “member” contractor who violated Virginia law. The government blocked our constitutionally protected right to equal protection under the law. Our children got sick, not for a time, but life-altering illnesses that will require ongoing treatment.

In trying to understand how this could happen, I started cross referencing the ineptitudes displayed by the current administration and DPOR (the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation) with Virginia law. I came to realize they had the authority to act by law. Internal documents and investigation documents show they were aware of wrongdoing by many licensees in the state. They chose not to act because they interpret the law to allow regulators the discretion over when to apply the law. They choose who to protect based on undefined standards that are not written in the law, but are based on what the compliance officer called legal concepts. Sounds discriminatory to me, but I’m not from the South and perhaps brought some misconceptions about equal protection under the law in my carpet bag when I moved here.

I obtained a memo that highlights one such conversation between DPOR Director Brian Wolford and the Attorney General’s office. The director details awareness, outlines how DPOR doesn’t ignore cases because of interpretation of law, but because they don’t believe the will to act is strong enough in the commonwealth attorneys. 

Clearly, DPOR believes the benefit of colonial immunity will supersede my constitutionally protected civil rights. I suppose the only way to test the theory is in a federal court. 

The bad contracting and fraud? It happened again. Multiple times. To many other families as Director Wolford noted to the tune of “millions of dollars”, but families don’t have lobbyists to break through the thick wall of indifference and save themselves from “burden” of regulatory losses in the state for business.

What does it say about a state when the homeowner whose child is harmed is denied access to a fair hearing, while the contractor who built a house that fell apart is treated as a member and a protected class with fraudulent assertions of licensing even if the law is violated?

It says that justice has been inverted. It now protects the member. The corporate representative. Agreements to “compliance” override legal protections in a corporate oligarchy. The political marketplace is catering to corporate interests, not consumers.

And it says something else too: that DPOR, the Governor’s office, and every agency that failed to act did so because they assumed, correctly, that the average Virginian wouldn’t care and this would all fade away. Just like the NICU, the nursing home deaths, and sexual abuse. Just like the water crisis.

Deserved Consequences

We do not have bad leaders by accident. We have them because we refused to hold them accountable. We refused to study the systems. We refused to listen to the watchdogs, the whistleblowers, the parents, the patients, the poisoned.

In philosophy, that refusal to act is not neutral – it is guilt by inaction. Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann studied the process by which majorities go quiet. It could be from fear, fatigue, or distraction. She dubbed this process, “The Spiral of Silence”. It is the period during which the morally bankrupt consolidate power. 

In Virginia, that spiral has become a vortex.

If we want better leaders, we have to become better citizens. Not performatively, not temporarily, but radically.

That means showing up.
Filing FOIAs.
Demanding coverage.
Telling stories.
Refusing to look away.
Pursuing truth.

The moment you think, “That’s not my problem,” it becomes your legacy.

The minute you scroll past the stories of parents whose children were harmed in NICUs or ignore the sexual assault of the elderly in nursing homes, you endorse the state’s refusal to act because it’s uncomfortable to process.

When your neighbor’s house collapses and they uncover institutional corruption that threatens the safety of the neighborhood but the hearing seats are empty, the collapse becomes cultural.

And when that happens, the punishment isn’t just bad leadership.

The punishment is living under it.