CHESTERFIELD 鈥 A construction company based in Springfield, Missouri, is accusing Mercy Health of retaliation after the company reported allegations of bribery, extortion and sexual assault involving a former top executive of the Catholic health care system.
In a lawsuit filed in Greene County, Pitt Development Group says Mercy stopped working with it in April 2022, a few months after Pitt鈥檚 leaders told Mercy鈥檚 chief financial officer and others about allegations involving Donn Sorensen, who left as Mercy鈥檚 executive vice president of operations in December 2021.
Pitt Development Group claims Mercy launched an internal investigation, and other court filings indicate Mercy reached a confidential settlement with a woman involved in the allegations after she was contacted by the hospital鈥檚 investigators in December 2021.
Sorensen quietly left Chesterfield-based Mercy in December 2021, a hospital spokeswoman confirmed, leaving behind a chief role at the tax-exempt hospital chain that had paid him over $4.5 million the prior year, according to a filing with the Internal Revenue Service.
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Pitt Development Group 鈥 owned by actor Brad Pitt鈥檚 brother 鈥 and Mercy have been feuding for two years, but the lawsuit鈥檚 allegations about Sorensen elevate the litigation into something far more salacious than a construction contract dispute.
Mercy hasn鈥檛 directly responded to the allegations in court filings, but its lawyer, former federal prosecutor Thomas Rea of Thompson Coburn, has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit for failure to state a claim.
The hospital system doesn鈥檛 deny that Sorensen and another top development official, John Farnen, left Mercy.
鈥淲hile Mercy does not comment on personnel issues or comment on pending litigation, we can confirm both Donn Sorensen and John Farnen have not been employed by Mercy since December 2021,鈥 Mercy spokeswoman Bethany Pope said in an email. 鈥淲e will always vigorously defend and safeguard Mercy鈥檚 excellent reputation and uphold our long-standing commitment to sound business practices.鈥
Reached by phone briefly Wednesday, Sorensen said he wasn鈥檛 a party to the lawsuit between Pitt Development Group and Mercy. He said 鈥渢he time will come鈥 when he will tell his side of things but didn鈥檛 respond to follow-up requests for an interview.
Sorensen was a regular on the local philanthropic gala circuit, while serving as one of the public faces of the multibillion-dollar health system founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1871.
It was Sorensen who brought on Pitt Development Group to build out more than a dozen Mercy clinics from St. 不良研究所导航网址 to Springfield, the southwest Missouri city where he got his start in the system and, according to media reports, , the actor鈥檚 brother. Pitt, who ran a technology business in Springfield, only incorporated Pitt Development Group in 2015, after Sorensen brought him on to scout land and begin building the Mercy clinics in 2014.
While Pitt鈥檚 family had some experience in development 鈥 his father built the subdivision he lives in 鈥 the new firm was focused on Mercy work. Pitt brought on homebuilder and developer Brian Hayes, the former mayor of the Springfield suburb of Nixa, as general manager. Pitt and that it wasn鈥檛 taking on new clients so it could focus on its Mercy projects.
Sorensen served on the board of one of Pitt鈥檚 nonprofits, , and the two were part of a group that pledged big investments in Ferguson and along West Florissant Avenue on the fifth anniversary of Michael Brown鈥檚 death and the civil unrest that followed. Pitt and Musick Construction, another big Mercy contractor, built a Mercy clinic, opened in mid-2021, on the West Florissant land the nonprofit bought next to the Boys & Girls Club.
鈥楧isturbing鈥 connection
But by late 2021, Pitt Development Group says its employees discovered a 鈥渄isturbing鈥 connection between Sorensen and an architect who used to live in St. 不良研究所导航网址, Steve Warlick.
It started, according to Pitt Development Group鈥檚 lawsuit, when Sorensen and Farnen, Mercy鈥檚 vice president of planning design and construction, told the company in late 2021 to pay Warlick $65,000 in order to continue its agreement to build clinics for Mercy. Pitt, however, was already using another architect on the Mercy clinics.
鈥淲hen PDG advised it had no need for Warlick鈥檚 services, Sorensen told PDG to consider the payment 鈥榮ocial capital,鈥欌 the builder鈥檚 lawsuit says. 鈥淧DG became concerned about Sorensen and Warlick鈥檚 reasons for wanting Warlick paid despite him doing no work. PDG then discovered a disturbing connection between Sorensen and Warlick that related to business dealings, personal dealings and the sexual exploitation of women.鈥
The lawsuit is sparse on other details. Pitt Development's report to Mercy executives included allegations of 鈥減otential bribery, extortion and sexual assault of women, including those below the age of 18," according to the suit.聽
But it says that after the company informed Mercy Chief Financial Officer Cheryl Matejka and the hospital鈥檚 former Vice President of Financial Planning Brian Day about 鈥淪orensen鈥檚 conduct,鈥 Mercy opened an internal investigation into Sorensen. Following the December 2021 investigation, Sorensen and Farnen left the hospital system, Pitt Development Group鈥檚 lawsuit says.
Farnen, who worked for Kwame Building Group for a year after leaving Mercy and now lives in Florida, acknowledged he had heard about Pitt Development Group鈥檚 allegations but denied asking Pitt to pay Warlick.
鈥淗onestly, I don鈥檛 remember anything about that, and I haven鈥檛 heard about that,鈥 Farnen said. 鈥淚 really have no idea what they鈥檙e talking about.鈥
Asked if he left Mercy on good terms, he replied, 鈥淵es, and I really don鈥檛 have anything else to say鈥 before ending the phone call.
Mercy did open an internal investigation in late 2021, according to other court documents reviewed by the Post-Dispatch, and Mercy reached a confidential settlement with a woman involved in the conduct alleged by Pitt Development Group. The Post-Dispatch is not identifying her because of the allegations of sexual exploitation. She declined to comment.
Mercy did not answer questions about why it entered into a settlement with the woman or why Sorensen and Farnen left.
Warlick is the former president of BatesForum and appears to have had a business relationship with Sorensen. The two were , and they, along with Farnen, were all at a 2017 fundraiser for Care to Learn, Doug Pitt鈥檚 charity. When Bates, which counted Mercy as one of its largest clients, merged in 2018 with Forum Studio, Clayco鈥檚 architecture subsidiary, Sorensen was quoted in
A year later, , which has since been rebranded as Lamar Johnson Collaborative. Warlick, who also got his start in Springfield, told . He now works for an architecture firm in northwest Arkansas.
Warlick, in a statement, denied the allegations.
鈥淚 was never brought in for questioning in Mercy鈥檚 internal investigation and only became aware of these allegations against me after filing a lawsuit for defamation in October 2023,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 categorically deny any allegations as to wrongdoing of business dealings, personal dealings and/or sexual exploitation of women.鈥
Warlick鈥檚 lawsuit is against the woman who reached the settlement with Mercy. The two were in a relationship, according to the court filings, and it says her allegations of domestic abuse 鈥渨ere utterly and completely false without one scintilla of truth.鈥
The suit says she has made 鈥渕alicious鈥 and false allegations 鈥渢o third parties鈥 that he subjected her to 鈥渟ex trafficking鈥 and that her claims and an order of protection she filed were made in an attempt to interfere with Warlick鈥檚 business relationship with Mercy and take some of the hospital鈥檚 business for herself.
The two filed orders of protection against each other in early 2020 but dismissed them later that year.
Warlick, in a statement, said that he had become aware of his own 鈥渄isturbing connection between Pitt Development Group and Sorensen鈥 prior to Pitt Development鈥檚 鈥渨histleblowing.鈥
Construction dispute
Pitt Development Group鈥檚 lawsuit was filed in the wake of an ongoing dispute with Mercy over the construction of one of its clinics. The Springfield builder had already filed one lawsuit in November, shortly after Warlick鈥檚 defamation suit, accusing Mercy of stiffing the firm on more than $2 million in payments for a clinic in Oklahoma.
Mercy has countered that Pitt Development Group had blown its February 2022 deadline to finish the project by almost a year, and the construction project was plagued with problems.
The underlying dispute involved Mercy鈥檚 push, when Sorensen and Farnen were still leading the development project, to significantly bring down costs on its small clinics, according to legal filings and a person familiar with the matter. Mercy pushed Pitt Development Group to develop a prototype for such clinics. But problems arose with the project due to the push for what court filings say was a new 鈥渃ost-effective鈥 clinic design. But once Sorensen and Farnen left, new management didn鈥檛 agree with the cheaper cost and butted heads with Pitt Development Group.
Mercy used a construction firm that was a Pitt competitor to find problems with construction and then sought to void its agreements with Pitt, the company says in court filings.
An attorney for Pitt Development Group did not respond to a request for comment.