Originally published in the Daily Voice, June 23, 2026

The call for action came during a press conference held Monday, June 22, at Cortlandt Town Hall, where state Sens. Shelley Mayer and Pete Harckham, Assemblymembers Dana Levenberg, Matt Slater, and Chris Burdick, and Cortlandt Town Board Member Robert Mayes joined the veteran's wife, Angela Sangro. 

According to a recent News12 report, Sangro secretly installed a camera in the room of her husband, Albert O'Toole, after growing concerned about his care at the state-run facility. 

O'Toole, a Gulf War veteran who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, PTSD, and other medical conditions, had previously lived at a federal veterans facility on the same campus before being transferred to the state-run home, News12 reported. 

Sangro told News12 that after the move, she noticed her husband appeared increasingly agitated, heavily medicated, and sometimes had unexplained bruises and injuries.  

Within a day of installing the camera on March 1, Sangro captured footage that allegedly showed a staff member grabbing O'Toole by the neck, forcefully restraining him in a chair, striking him, and later hitting him with a broom while he cried out in pain, the outlet reported. 

News12 reported that Cox was arrested in April. The state Department of Health said he was placed on leave and later fired. 

However, a spokesperson for the federal Department of Veterans Affairs told the outlet that Cox remains employed by the federal VA but has been removed from patient care duties pending the outcome of the criminal case. 

At Monday's press conference, lawmakers said the allegations raise serious concerns about oversight and conditions at the facility.

“We are calling on the Attorney General and the state’s Department of Health to immediately investigate the treatment of veterans at the state-run Veterans Home in Montrose,” Harckham said, calling the alleged abuse "deeply troubling."

Mayer called the alleged abuse "unacceptable" and "disturbing" and said the case raises broader concerns about accountability at state-run veterans homes.

Sangro said at the press conference that she hopes the attention surrounding her husband's case will help protect others.

"I hope all the awareness this case is now generating will help end the kind of abuse that my husband has suffered through," she said.