Business
BOSTON (AP) — Members of a U.S. Senate committee investigating Steward Health Care's bankruptcy passed two resolutions Thursday to carry CEO Ralph de la Torre in contempt of court – one for civil contempt and one other 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 might be sent to the complete 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 disregard the subpoena left the committee no selection 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 events 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 permit 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 federal 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 comply with 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 within the District Court for the District of Columbia to compel de la Torre's testimony before the committee.
As a part of the resolution of the criminal contempt issue, the matter could 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 corporate received inadequate offers for 2 other hospitals, Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center within the town of Ayer, and each hospitals were forced to shut.
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 identical time, de la Torre personally earned a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of dollars and purchased 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 didn’t pay a supplier who supplied funeral boxes for the stays of deceased newborns that needed 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.”
image credit : www.boston.com