Connecticut will settle the trial for the murder by conviction for the visiting nurse for $ 2 million
Hartford, Conn. – Connecticut officials have accepted a settlement of $ 2.25 million of legal action for murder by a sexual offender by visiting Joyce Grayson in a transitional home in 2023 – A case that rekindled calls for better protections for health workers across the country.
A state judge in Hartford approved the settlement Thursday in the unjustified death trial filed by Grayson’s husband. Meanwhile, settlement talks with other accused trials, including Grayson’s employer, continued, said Kelly Reardon, lawyer for Grayson’s family.
Grayson, a 63 -year -old mother and a nurse for 36 years, had gone to the Willimantic transition house on October 28, 2023, to administer medication to Michael Reese, who lived there in probation and after serving a prison sentence for having stabbed and sexually assaulted another woman in 2006.
Police found Grayson who died in the basement of the house later the same day. The medical examiner’s office said that she died of compression of the neck and had undergone force injuries. Reese pleaded guilty of murder and was sentenced last month to 50 years in prison.
The alleged trial that state officials failed to supervise Reese during his probation, failed to ensure that the public was protected from him, failed to hold him when he violated his probation, did not provide adequate mental and drug health programs and allowed him to be alone with nurses on visit despite his violent past. The trial blamed the ministry for correction and surveillance of probation led by the judiciary.
“The family hopes that this colony shows that the state takes its involvement with the author of this horrible crime against Joyce Grayson,” said Reardon. “In this sense, within the framework of the regulations, family members will meet representatives of some of the state agencies involved to discuss the ways in which these types of crimes can be prevented in the future.”
The Office of the Connecticut Attorney General, which represented the State in the trial, did not immediately respond to a request for comments by e-mail on Tuesday. In the settlement agreement, the State does not admit any reprehensible act.
Grayson’s husband Ronald Grayson also continued his wife’s employer, Elara Caring, based in Dallas, Texas, and affiliated, alleging that they have repeatedly ignored workers’ safety problems concerning the treatment of dangerous patients.
Elara Caring called on “unjustified” allegations and said that Connecticut officials were responsible for monitoring and managing Reese activities after determining that he was not a danger to the community and release it in a transitional home. An Elara spokesperson did not immediately return an email asking for comments on Tuesday.
The death of Grayson encouraged Connecticut legislators last year to approve a new law aimed at improving the safety of health workers at home, in particular by granting subsidies to employers to finance emergency alert buttons, friend’s escort systems, follow -up devices and security training.
The murder has also attracted comments and publications on social networks of industry and workers across the country, expressing shock and sadness and calling for greater protections for health workers to increase violence.
In a national survey of nearly 1,000 nurses published last year by the National Nurses United, the largest nursing union authorized in the United States, more than 80% replied that they had known at least one type of work violence in 2023. Almost half of them reported an increase in work violence in the previous year.
