Nursing Home CEO Arrested for Not Providing Workers' Compensation

The president and CEO of a Bronx nursing home that has been the focus of a probe by Attorney General Cuomo, and the site of multiple employee protests, has been arrested.

The president of Kingsbridge Heights Rehabilitation and Care Center, Helen Sieger, 55, was charged with failing to provide workers' compensation coverage for 400 employees between May 31, 2007 and June 26, 2008, Mr. Cuomo's office announced. Six employees claimed to have been injured at work during that time.

The arrest was the first under a new law in New York that makes failure to provide workers' compensation insurance a Class E felony instead of a misdemeanor. The law took effect on April 12, 2007. "Employers who think they can wait until they get caught before getting workers' compensation insurance are in for a rude awakening," Mr. Cuomo said in a statement.

A lawyer for Ms. Sieger, Steven Kartagener, said his client entered a plea of "not guilty" and was released from custody after a court appearance yesterday. Mr. Kartagener conceded that the workers' compensation policy had lapsed, but he said Ms. Sieger "engaged in many good-faith efforts to re-obtain this type of insurance and was unable to do so."

But officials from 1199 SEIU, which represents Ms. Sieger's employees, praised her arrest. In February, employees went on strike after they said Ms. Sieger let their health coverage lapse. Calling her prosecution a "tremendous victory," the president of 1199 SEIU, George Gresham, said in a statement: "Families' loved ones are in her care and violations such as this reflect an extremely questionable commitment to quality care."