I-Team

BOSTON (WBZ) ― They are often the forgotten ones -- veterans who suffer serious mental health problems after their military service. The government is supposed to provide help, but I-Team reporter Joe Bergantino has uncovered a situation that begs the question: Did the Veterans Administration abandon dozens of vets who desperately needed assistance?

Irene White's son, Rick Dextraze, suffered a brain injury in the military and ended up a drug addict.

Dextraze says drug rehab counselors at the Brockton VA Hospital recommended Highview. "They said we have a rehab that you can go to. They says it's real good. It's on the water."

"Was there any rehab going on?," asked Bergantino.

Dextraze replied, "no."

A two month I-Team investigation raises serious questions about whether the VA was dumping dozens of seriously disabled vets in the boarding house -- failing to closely monitor their living conditions, as well as their mental and physical health.

"I thought the place was a dump," said Dextraze.

And so did Hull's Veterans Advocate Mike Cunningham who told the town about the problems he saw when he first walked in this place in May 2006. "I can tell you all the complaints."

These are Cunningham's notes on Highview.

The entry way and the main room were very dark, filthy.

The rooms and the entire facility were dirty, worn and smelled of urine.

Many residents appeared to be heavily medicated.

On another visit to Highview, Hingham Veterans Council member Ed Barr went along. "I wouldn't want anyone that I knew or cared about to live there."

In a document, Cunningham notes that Hull's social worker "constantly receives complaints from residents (at Highview) about the way they are treated."

"They were all mentally disabled where they didn't know how to deal with life without somebody else helping them out," explains Dextraze.

Bergantino: They needed that much help?

Dextraze: Yes.

Bergantino: And they weren't getting that?

Dextraze: No.

Here's an example. Hull police, in July 2006, picked up James McCormack, who lived at Highview. Cunningham went to the police station to meet with McCormack and described McCormack "in poor condition, dirty, unkempt and heavily medicated. The toenail on the big toe of each foot completely covered the second and third toes."

Highview owner Chuck Medici's response was that it wasn't his fault. "When people came in and took our room, we had no more responsibility for them than if they had rented a room down the street for $85."

But the VA did give Medici control over the monthly disability pensions of several vets at Highview the VA deemed incompetent.

Medici is now in trouble. He's been criminally charged with banking the disability checks of one veteran for almost a year after that veteran died in a rehab center.

Medici's defense: "This facility failed to notify us and they failed to notify the VA that he was dead."

Dextraze says Medici kept almost $20,000 in rent out of his disability pension for more than a year after he moved out. "I wasn't living there. He wasn't feeding me."

"I was under orders from the VA to maintain a room for him," explains Medici.

Bergantion: But he wasn't staying there.

Medici: Whether he was staying there or not was of no concern of mine.

It doesn't make sense, but we can't get the Veterans Administration's side of this story. The agency refused to talk with the I-Team or turn over any of its documents relating to Highview.

"People fight for their country, they go war, but they come home and I don't believe they do what they should for these people," said Dextraze's mother Irene White. "I witnessed it."

And consider this, the VA was giving Medici control over thousands of dollars in VA pensions every month, but Medici told the I-Team the VA never did an audit to check whether he was properly handling that money -- money that belonged to severely disabled vets who could do little to advocate for themselves.

Chuck Medici insists his boarding house was clean and residents were well treated and that many of the vets' families back him up on that.

He also claims VA social workers visited the home every week and never noted any problems.

As for the town of Hull, it closed Highview down in September 2006 -- citing unsafe electrical problems.

Hull refused to allow any town employees to speak with the I-Team because of the pending criminal charges against Chuck Medici.

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