LIBERTY — Sullivan County and County Manager Joshua Potosek face a motion seeking to hold them in criminal contempt of court for allegedly violating judicial orders halting the closure of the Care Center at Sunset Lake.

The motion, filed October 13 in State Supreme Court, accuses county officials of continuing to transfer residents after Justice Kevin Bryant of Ulster County issued a temporary restraining order on September 16, later continued through a preliminary injunction.

The motion identifies an October 29 appearance at 10 a.m. at the Ulster County Courthouse in Kingston and calls for responsive papers by October 22.

No finding of criminal contempt has been made in the documents reviewed. The allegations remain subject to judicial determination. The county declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.

In a sworn affidavit supporting the motion, Brittney Siegel, who served as a Care Center senior account clerk, alleges that 11 residents were transferred on September 18, two days after the initial order prohibited further transfers.

The plaintiffs are requesting an evidentiary hearing and asking the court to impose sanctions, which could include fines or imprisonment if criminal contempt is established.

Siegel, who worked at the facility for 13 years and was responsible for its daily census, also alleged that Administrator Kayshawn Macharie instructed employees not to discuss the injunction with residents or their families.

She said the transfers continued until the last residents left the facility in early October.

Jacquelyn Oakley, who served as director of admissions, corroborated the allegations in a separate affidavit, stating that at least a dozen residents were transferred after the September 16 order.

According to Oakley, staff members were not instructed to inform residents that the court had halted the closure process.

“Residents were certainly not told that the court had entered a stay, stopping transfers,” Oakley stated in court documents.

In her affidavit, Oakley reported that the facility had no remaining residents and that there were still 39 staff members.

Lou Setren, chairman of the Care Center’s Family Council, described in court documents an incident on September 18 in which he encountered a resident, identified as E.H., preparing to be transferred. According to his sworn affidavit, Setren asked whether she wanted to leave, and she responded, “No.” He said the resident was transferred that day.

In another affidavit, Krecia Goebel stated that her father was transferred to a Delaware County nursing home on September 18 without her signing a transfer plan as his power of attorney.

Goebel, who had contacted the receiving nursing home herself to seek a placement, described her father’s distress following the move and said the transfer increased her travel time to visit him from approximately 20 minutes to more than an hour.

These allegations come amid an ongoing lawsuit challenging the county’s decision to close the publicly-owned nursing home.

Justice Bryant previously found that the plaintiffs had demonstrated a likelihood of success in their claim that the Legislature violated New York’s Open Meetings Law by discussing and advancing the closure during an improperly convened March 26 meeting.

The Legislature subsequently voted 5-4 in public session on October 1 to close the facility while pursuing proposals from potential new operators.