Murder and Negligent Homicide of Military Veterans at VA Hospital

Times Union

By BRENDAN LYONS, Staff writer
First published: Tuesday, November 22, 2005

VA murder doc Paul Kornak has been Sentenced today at U.S. District Court in Albany receiving 71 months in federal prison, just under 6 years for pleading guilty to a 41 count grand jury indictment including murder and negligent homicide for the deaths of 5 veterans in 2002 at VAMC Albany, NY.

Kornak never completed medical school but was allowed to sit as, and sign his name as Dr. Kornak. Falsifying the patient records of over 70 veterans inpatients, the 5 murdered veterans were entered into a “clinical trial” for cancer treatment that they were not eligible to be in.

2 VAMC Pharmacists caught the lethal prescriptions, and when trying to report it to VA Administration, they were both fired from their jobs. After repeated trips to the Albany FBI, and the VA Inspector Generals Office, the news media pressured the FBI into an investigation. The 2 Pharmacists eventually became our Grand Marshalls for our Memorial Day parade followed by an entire battalion of VA nurses in full uniforms, all loudly blowing on whistles that they held in their mouths as they marched down Central Avenue.

Kornak used a Defense that he was only answering to higher ups at the hospital, and in fact, an unindicted co-conspirator was fired from the VA along with Kornak, but has relocated into another hospital in Georgia and is still practicing medicine under the name of Dr. Holland. Kornak’s attorney has said that Holland is still under investigation, and that other “higher ups” at VAMC Albany may still be prosecuted in separate actions. Today’s actions only dealt with Paul Kornak.

Viewers can Google out most of the news coverage on Paul Kornak including the Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s announcement page detailing their “official” statement for the press on the Paul Kornak case.

The sentencing should be detailed in tomorrows edition of The Times Union at www.timesunion.com of which you will only have prior to midnight to cut and paste the story for your collection.   

At this time, WNYT TV should be posting the story on their web page at www.wnyt.com which includes an interview with one of the wives of the murdered veterans.

The families had to take out second mortgages to pay for the Defense attorney, and have already prosecuted a similar civil case on wrongful death, using the Nuremburg Treaty from the Nazi era against patient experimentation as the main body of law for pleadings.

Kornak’s lawyer has said there will be no appeal to the sentencing.

Read all about it: http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=422212&category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=11/22/2005