US Senate committee approves proceedings against CEO of Steward Health Care

BOSTON (AP) — Members of a U.S. Senate committee investigating Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy passed two resolutions Thursday to hold CEO Ralph de la Torre in contempt of court – one for civil contempt and another for criminal contempt – for failing to testify before the committee.

The votes come after de la Torre refused to attend a committee hearing last week despite a subpoena. Both resolutions will be sent to the full Senate for consideration.

Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said de la Torre’s decision to ignore the subpoena left the committee no choice but to bring contempt of court charges.

“For months, this committee has called on Dr. de la Torre to testify about the financial mismanagement and what happened at Steward Health Care,” Sanders said at Thursday’s hearing. “He has arrogantly refused to appear time and time again.”

Alexander Merton, an attorney for de la Torres, said in a letter to the committee on Wednesday that the committee’s request to allow him to testify in court was a violation of his rights under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The Constitution protects de la Torre from being coerced by the government into giving a sworn statement to portray him “as a criminal scapegoat for the systematic failures of the Massachusetts health care system,” Merton wrote, adding that de la Torre would agree to testify at a later date.

“Our fear that the hearing could be used to ambush Dr. de la Torre in a pseudo-criminal trial was made clear last week when the Committee called witnesses who described Dr. de la Torre and Steward executives as ‘healthcare terrorists’ and advocated for Dr. de la Torre’s detention,” Merton added.

The resolution for civil enforcement of the subpoena directs Senate Counsel to file suit in the District Court for the District of Columbia to compel de la Torre’s testimony before the committee.

As part of the resolution of the criminal contempt issue, the matter would be referred to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who would prosecute de la Torre for failure to comply with the subpoena.

“Even though Dr. de la Torre may be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Even though he may own fancy yachts and private jets and luxurious properties around the world. Even though he can afford some of the most expensive lawyers in America, Dr. de la Torre is not above the law,” Sanders said.

Texas-based Steward, which operates about 30 hospitals nationwide, filed for bankruptcy in May.

Steward has tried to sell half a dozen hospitals in Massachusetts, but the company received inadequate offers for two other hospitals, Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in the town of Ayer, and both hospitals were forced to close.

A federal bankruptcy court this month approved Steward’s sale of other Massachusetts hospitals.

Steward also closed pediatric wards in Massachusetts and Louisiana, closed neonatal wards in Florida and Texas, and eliminated the maternity ward of a Florida hospital.

At the same time, de la Torre personally earned hundreds of millions of dollars and bought a $40 million yacht and a $15 million luxury fishing boat, Sanders said.

Ellen MacInnis, a nurse at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston, testified before the committee last week that patients were exposed to preventable harm and even death under the direction of stewards, especially in understaffed emergency rooms.

She also said there was a case where Steward failed to pay a supplier who supplied funeral boxes for the remains of deceased newborns that had to be taken to the mortuary.

“Nurses were forced to pack the babies’ remains into shipping boxes,” she said. “These nurses pooled their own money, went to Amazon and bought the funeral boxes.”