Judge orders nursing home owner to allow inspectors inside

Feb. 25—ROWLEY — In an effort to keep state workers from entering his nursing home earlier this month, Sea View Retreat owner Stephen Comley Jr. padlocked the front gate and refused to allow state inspectors inside, according to court documents.

It took a Feb. 18 Salem Superior Court order to force Comley to allow them access, something that took place the same day, according to Rowley police Chief Scott Dumas.

Dumas, on Thursday, said Essex County Sheriff's Department officials served Comley with the court order that day. Rowley police were on scene as a precaution.

Comley's decision to lock the front gate on Feb. 15 came after he rebuffed a Feb. 1 effort by a Massachusetts Department of Public Health official to inspect the Manor Drive facility after receiving word that it may be closed.

Sea View Skilled Nursing & Rehab Services has been owned by the Comley family since 1954. Licensed to care up to 140 residents, there were about 30 residents there as of September 2021 Around the same time, Comley threatened to close the facility if the state forced him to vaccinate all employees by Oct. 10.

In his court affidavit, Stephen Davis, Division of Health Care Facility Licensure and Certification director, was responding to a Jan. 31 report from a state ombudsman who rang the front door but no one answered.

"There were no cars in the facility's parking lot and the facility appeared to be closed," Davis wrote in his affidavit.

Davis visited the facility the next day and asked a staff member if it was still open and if so, how many residents were there. The employee declined to answer, referring Davis to Comley. Comley called Davis a short time later and said the facility was still open but would not confirm the number of residents. Comley then called Rowley police complaining that Davis had trespassed on his property. Davis then called Comley back and asked to go inside.

"Mr. Comley refused to permit me to enter," Davis wrote.

By noon, Comley had reversed course and agreed to allow Davis to enter the facility with a police officer. However, once inside the building, Comley refused to allow them to walk out of the entryway. Davis and the officer then left the facility.

Under state law, inspection agents may visit and inspect any licensed long-term health care facility at any time for any reason. The next day, the state issued a complaint against Comley for violating that law.

Roughly two weeks later, on Feb. 15, two different department agents attempted to gain entry, this time accompanied by Dumas. They arrived to find the front gate locked and Comley outside.

"Comley refused to open the gate for them, unless they complied with his unauthorized demand to sign a waiver of rights document for the benefit of an unknown persons that Comley referred to as 'members.' (The agents) declined to sign Comley's document. Comley refused (the agents) access to the facility," a court document reads.

Believing Comley would continue to deny Department of Public Health officials access to his facility and unable to confirm the facility was operating, the department filed an injunction request in Salem Superior Court. That request was granted on Feb. 18.

"The department has made multiple attempts to access the facility without success due to tactics employed by Comley. When a licensee refuses to allow the department entry, as in the case with Sea View and Comley, the commonwealth is reasonably and deeply concerned about what is happening out of sight of the regulator," Assistant Massachusetts Attorney General Maryanne Reynolds wrote in her brief to the court.

Neither Comley nor his Salem-based attorney, Thomas Beatrice, returned phone calls seeking comment.

When a reporter called Sea View Retreat on Friday to ask whether the facility was open, a receptionist said "not technically."

Dave Rogers is a reporter with the Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @drogers41008.