BOSTON — The CEO of Dallas-based Steward Health Care Monday filed a lawsuit against a U.S. Senate committee that voted to hold him in contempt for failing to testify on the bankrupt hospital network’s financial problems despite his being subpoenaed.
The lawsuit filing came the day before Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre is set to step down as Steward’s CEO as part of an agreement reached earlier this month.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington D.C., names nearly all members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, including chair U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont.
The lawsuit alleges the committee is violating de la Torre’s constitutional rights.
“As alleged herein, Defendants are collectively undertaking a concerted effort to punish Dr. de la Torre for invoking his Fifth Amendment right not to be ‘compelled...to be a witness against himself,’ and to continue to command his sworn testimony by compulsion without regard to the validity of his invocation,” the lawsuit reads.
In the lawsuit, de la Torre is asking the court to rule that all actions related to the enforcement of the subpoena are invalid and unconstitutional.
“Dr. de la Torre has invoked his inalienable rights under the 5th Amendment of the US Constitution, which no one — not the Congress, not the President, not the Judiciary — has the right to deprive him of while he faces the criminal accusations the Committee has hurled at him. No one can be compelled to testify when they exercise this right under these circumstances,” de la Torre’s attorney William “Bill” Burck said in a statement.
The Senate committee approved a criminal contempt resolution against de la Torre on Sept. 19 after he refused to attend a hearing, and the Senate approved the measure last week. The criminal contempt resolution refers the matter to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to criminally prosecute de la Torre for failing to comply with the subpoena.
The committee, in the hearings, attributed much of Steward's financial mismanagement to de la Torre, a Dallas resident, and brought his lavish lifestyle, including a yacht and contributions to an elite North Texas private school, under scrutiny, according to testimony and allegations from Senators, including Sanders.
“For months, the committee has invited Dr. de la Torre to testify about the financial mismanagement of Steward Health Care,” Sanders said earlier this month. “Time after time, he has arrogantly refused.”
The Senate Committee authorized the investigation into the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care July 24.
Steward Health Care, one of the country’s largest private health systems, filed for bankruptcy in May and since has faced scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, closed hospitals, and faced allegations of insufficient care.
Since then, Steward has been working to sell its more than a half-dozen hospitals in Massachusetts but received inadequate bids for two other hospitals — Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in the town of Ayer — both of which closed as a result, the Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, Sanders alleged during a hearing that de la Torre amassed hundreds of millions of dollars personally, buying a $40 million yacht and a $15 million luxury fishing boat.
Steward operates about 30 hospitals around the country, including facilities in Texas, Massachusetts, and other states, according to their website.
Ralph de la Torre, a former cardiac surgeon, got a controlling stake in Steward in 2010 when the company’s private equity owner Cerberus Capital Management acquired a six-hospital Massachusetts health system he led.
De la Torre owns an 11,108-square-foot home in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas, valued at $7.2 million by the county, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Sanders’ office said Steward disclosed $3 million in contributions to the Greenhill School in Addison, where his sons reportedly attend.
“Its quarterly magazine lists de la Torre’s donation as originating from the 'de la Torre Family Foundation.' But the only active, tax-exempt foundation in Ralph de la Torre’s name is the Texas-based 'De La Torre Charitable Trust,' which listed just $7,034 in cash at the beginning of 2022 and reported no donations from 2021 onward, public tax filings show,” a spokesperson for Sanders told WFAA on Greenhill. ”His faltering hospital chain filled the gap. Steward Health Care Systems LLC — the entity that oversees and manages all of Steward’s community hospitals — made $3 million in donations to the Greenhill School between May and August 2023, according to documents filed in the hospital chain’s bankruptcy case.”
Greenhill opened the Rosa O. Valdes STEM + Innovation Center, a new 52,000-square-foot facility for math, science, technology and robotics classes in March. The center is named for de la Torre’s mother in March, the Wall Street Journal reports.
A Steward spokesperson previously didn’t respond to a request for comment on the Greenhill contributions. Greenhill School didn’t respond to a request for comment about the contributions.
According to its website, Steward operates five hospitals in Texas -- in Port Arthur, Odessa, Big Spring, Houston and Texarkana. Healthcare Systems of America (HSA) recently assumed operational control of Steward's Medical Center of Southeast Texas and St. Joseph Medical Center in Houston.
It’s unclear how many people the hospital system employs in Texas or in its headquarters overlooking Klyde Warren Park.
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