Hidden camera catches alleged abuse at state-run veterans home
The veteran’s wife is now speaking out for the first time with News 12's senior reporter Tara Rosenblum in the hope that her story helps protect other residents.
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Warning: Some may find video in this report disturbing.
Shocking hidden camera video, obtained exclusively by News 12, appears to show a Gulf War veteran being assaulted inside a state-run veterans home in Westchester County.
The veteran’s wife is now speaking out for the first time with News 12's senior reporter Tara Rosenblum in the hope that her story helps protect other residents.
Angela Sangro says she still remembers marrying her best friend, Albert O’Toole, in 2019 as the happiest day of her life.
O’Toole served in the Gulf War, where Sangro says an explosion left him with a traumatic brain injury. Years later, he received a devastating Alzheimer's diagnosis.
She made the difficult decision to place him in the VA as his condition worsened.
Sangro says that at first, O’Toole was thriving at the federal facility in Montrose. But after he was moved across campus to the state-run veterans home, she says everything changed.
"That was the biggest mistake that I made was moving him," she says.
Sangro says her husband began rapidly declining, including appearing agitated and heavily medicated during visits - sometimes appearing with mysterious bruises and injuries.
That’s when Sangro decided to secretly place a camera inside his room - never imagining what it would actually record.
The video, now being shown publicly for the first time, begins with O’Toole’s longtime aide yanking food out of his hands.
Sangro describes what seems to happen seconds later on the video.
"He picks him up by his neck and throws him in the chair. And then he forcefully pulls him into the chair and punches him in the side of the face or the neck," she says.
Moments later, the video appears to show the aide striking O'Toole in the head with a broom, before forcing him back into a restraint chair.
At one point on the video, O'Toole can be heard crying out in pain.
"You hear him screaming and nobody comes to check on him. Where are the other aides?" she says. "I don't know how I missed it. I was there every single night."
According to a felony complaint obtained by the Turn To Tara team, the aide seen in the video is Matthew Cox.
He was arrested in April, accused of "grabbing the victim" by the neck, "forcefully restraining him" and "striking" O’Toole inside the state-run home.
The state Health Department said Cox was put on leave and later fired.
However, a VA spokesman confirmed that Cox still remains employed by the federal VA, pending the outcome of the case.
Sangro says after getting few answers as to why, she decided to Turn To Tara.
"I think people need to hear about it because they need to make sure that their veterans are OK in that home," she says.
The Turn To Tara team's investigation found that the problems may be more widespread than just her husband's case.
Data found in the investigation revealed that the state-run home racked up more than 47 complaints and 25 citations between 2021 and 2025.
This included deficiencies in involving restraints, medications and failures to report suspected abuse, resulting in warnings and staff terminations.
The home was also hit with more than $29,000 in fines in April 2025, issued through Medicare after a state inspection cited failures to prevent and report alleged abuse.
For Sangro, the findings are both deeply troubling and personal.
She says her husband fought for his country, and now she is fighting for him.
"I never dreamt that this would be our life," she says. "I can't even sleep anymore. I just watch him at night on that camera to make sure nobody's hurting him."
