EASTON, Pa. — Northampton County Executive Tara Zrinski asked a judge to quash or seal the grand jury report on Gracedale Nursing Home. The home’s administrator argued through her lawyers that it should not be made public. Both positions are in responses filed with the report and released Thursday.
The Northampton County Investigating Grand Jury of 2024 found that agency dependence “rose to 75% during Morton’s first eight months as administrator.” It detailed repeated cases of residents with dementia leaving the home and reported “considerable complaints related to bullying within the employee ranks.” District Attorney Stephen Baratta laid out the findings at a news conference Thursday, when the report and responses were made public.
Its seven recommendations are advisory. The last calls for “an additional investigation into the policies and procedures of the Upper Nazareth Police Department” over how it handles calls from Gracedale.
“Nowhere in the report is there an attack of any one person employed by the county government,” Baratta said.
Zrinski said in a statement Thursday that the report “raises serious issues about the care, safety, staffing, security, and management systems at Gracedale.” Of Administrator Michelle Morton, she said, “She has my confidence as this work continues.”
In a June 30 letter to President Judge Craig A. Dally included in the filing, Zrinski took a different position. “The Grand Jury Report should be quashed and/or sealed and not made available to the public,” she wrote. She asked that if he released it anyway, he hold off so she could petition the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Morton’s lawyers at Post & Schell wrote Aug. 3 that the report “is not fully accurate and does not provide context” and “should not be made public.” Under the state Investigating Grand Jury Act, they argued, a report must “relate to organized crime or public corruption, or propose recommendations for legislative, executive, or administrative action in the public interest,” and this one does neither. The grand jury had cited that recommendations clause as its authority. Dally released the report.
Morton’s lawyers wrote that agency use fell from about 80 percent in February 2025 to about 56 percent. They also wrote that “none of the issues raised in the Report were related to insufficient staffing.”
Former County Executive Lamont McClure, Zrinski’s predecessor, filed his own response. He called the report “a politically motivated hit job” launched when Baratta “believed he could damage the Undersigned’s Congressional campaign.” McClure lost the May 19 Democratic primary in the 7th Congressional District to Bob Brooks.
McClure’s response lists Gracedale’s 2025 staffing hours per resident day against the state minimum of 3.2. Only August, at 2.83, fell below it. McClure blamed that on a change in staffing agencies.
Zrinski’s responses agree with some recommendations. The grand jury called for a separate cabinet-level position for Gracedale. She answered: “Agreed, this is already an initiative of the current County Executive, and has recently been approved by County Council.” Council created the Continuum of Care department on a 5-4 vote in May and confirmed Thomas Carson to run it in July. He started Aug. 17.
State and federal records show continuing problems. The Pennsylvania Department of Health lists Gracedale’s license as “Provisional II,” with 32 patient-care inspections logged since April 2025. Medicare’s Care Compare gives the 688-bed home one star overall and one star on health inspections, and flags it for abuse citations. ProPublica’s Nursing Home Inspect counts 22 deficiencies and $144,328 in fines. It lists the home as a candidate for the federal Special Focus Facility program.
The investigation began with the June 23, 2025, assault of a hospice resident with an intellectual disability. The first of four 911 calls came in at 2:53 a.m. The report says an Upper Nazareth officer closed that call at 3:00 a.m. without responding. Police reached the room at 3:27 a.m.
Agency nurse Octavia Lasha Robinson, 43, faces a first-degree misdemeanor count of abuse of a care-dependent person, plus simple assault and summary harassment. Her trial before Judge John M. Morganelli is set for Oct. 5.