In Kentucky, liberal trial lawyer Jack Conway faces criticism for his “dysfunctional performance” at his day job as the state’s Attorney General.  The Lexington Herald-Leader reports:

In January 2009, 88-year-old Irene Hendrix was found in a pool of blood at Cambridge Place Nursing Home in Lexington behind a closed door in a room that stored equipment… Investigators closed the case without prosecuting it or issuing a Type A citation that indicates a resident’s life or safety has been endangered because of violations of state regulations. Last week, Scott Owens, an attorney representing Hendrix in a 2009 lawsuit against the nursing home, asked Attorney General Jack Conway’s office to reopen the investigation. Hendrix’s case, Owens said, is an example of an investigation at a Kentucky nursing home that “simply didn’t go deep enough.”… The state’s investigation system, which relies on the attorney general’s office, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ Office of Inspector General and the cabinet’s Adult Protective Services branch — is “so dysfunctional that the nursing homes are not held accountable,” Gullette said, “and the current laws are not protecting the elderly from abuse and death.”

Meanwhile the Herald-Leader’s John Cheves reports that Conway has taken at least $39,800 from the nursing home industry, and that “Type A citations issued against nursing homes by the state sometimes sit in Conway’s office or with local prosecutors for more than 18 months while officials decide whether to pursue criminal charges.”

The Herald-Leader examined the industry’s campaign donations following stories earlier this summer that revealed systemic gaps in the state’s handling of abuse and neglect cases at nursing homes… Attorney General Jack Conway has taken at least $39,800 from the industry for his Democratic U.S. Senate campaign. Most of it came from nursing home chain Kindred Healthcare, based in Louisville, where Conway’s brother-in-law, Henry Gordinier, is senior director for strategic planning. Last year, to the applause of the nursing home lobby and the dismay of reform advocates, Conway joined 30 other attorneys general to ask the federal government to suspend a rating system for nursing homes that the industry says is unfair. Also, the Herald-Leader in July reported that Type A citations issued against nursing homes by the state sometimes sit in Conway’s office or with local prosecutors for more than 18 months while officials decide whether to pursue criminal charges…