Media outlets and politicians alike have mischaracterized, maligned and disseminated outright misinformation regarding Dr. Ralph de la Torre, including baseless claims that Dr. de la Torre used the Steward Health Care System as his personal bank account, leading to corporate bankruptcy.
In reality, despite a broken U.S. hospital system, Dr. de la Torre continues to fight for Steward’s facilities and the communities they serve, and as of September 11, 2024, a tentative deal has been brokered and approved in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on an interim basis to maintain services at 29 of 31 Steward hospitals. As Founder and CEO, Dr. de la Torre has done everything in his power to save Steward Health Care’s hospitals.
Dr. de la Torre cannot be permitted to provide sworn testimony at this time, given that the Senate HELP Committee Hearing was seemingly designed as a vehicle to violate Dr. de la Torre’s constitutional rights, including his Fifth Amendment rights.
The U.S. Constitution affords Dr. de la Torre inalienable rights against being compelled by the government to provide sworn testimony that is specifically (yet baselessly) sought to frame Dr. de la Torre as criminal scapegoat for the systemic failures in Massachusetts’ health care system. The HELP Committee’s disregard for Dr. de la Torre’s request to reschedule the Hearing in light of legal restrictions substantiated the concern that the true purpose of the Hearing was, not to gather facts within the Committee’s constitutional and congressional remit, but instead a pseudo-criminal proceeding with the goal of convicting Dr. de la Torre in a court of public opinion.
It is inappropriate for him to testify on matters related to Steward’s bankruptcy while those proceedings remain live and ongoing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
On August 28, 2024, Steward prohibited Dr. de la Torre from speaking on its behalf regarding any “bankruptcy-related issues” because those matters had already been delegated exclusively to an independent sub-committee of Steward’s board of managers established on December 19, 2023.
Dr.de la Torre needs to respect the ongoing reorganization and settlement effort announced on August 30, 2024 by remaining silent regarding the reasons for Steward’s bankruptcy, particularly because a federal court mediation order prohibits him from discussing anything exchanged in the mediation that led to the recently-announced agreement in principle. The agreement was approved on an interim basis by the U.S. bankruptcy court on September 11, 2024, with a final hearing scheduled for September 17, 2024.
It is not within the HELP Committee’s purview to make predeterminations of alleged criminal misconduct under the auspices of an examination into Steward’s bankruptcy proceedings, and the fact that its Members have already done so smacks of a veiled attempt to sidestep Dr. de la Torre’s constitutional rights by seeking sworn testimony on matters for which the Committee has pre-determined his guilt. Dr. de la Torre’s testimony before the Committee under these circumstances would be wholly inappropriate.
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Rebecca Kral:
rkral@Longacresquare.com
