OKLAHOMA CITY – A southeastern Oklahoma hospital administrator against whom accusations of sexual harassment were referred to the state Attorney General’s Office for presentation to a grand jury, was fired the day after allegations surfaced that he and a subordinate were seen engaging in sex shortly after the conclusion of a virtual meeting that was broadcast over the internet by a camera that hadn’t been turned off.
McCurtain Memorial Hospital CEO Brad Morse was sacked by the hospital’s Medical Management Board of Trustees during a special meeting Feb. 18 following an 80-minute closed-door executive session and after hearing from three women who alleged Morse treated them inappropriately. The termination vote was unanimous.
Afterward, the hospital released this statement: “The employment of McCurtain Memorial Hospital’s Chief Executive Officer was terminated by the Board of Trustees after an internal investigation revealed he had engaged in inappropriate conduct and violated the terms of his Employment Agreement and the policies and procedures of the Hospital. The Board of Trustees will begin the search for a new CEO immediately and intends to work diligently to find a qualified individual to fill the role. The Hospital will not be making any additional statements on the facts and circumstances which led to Mr. Morse’s termination at this time. Until a new CEO is selected all day-to-day business will be managed by the Hospital’s Chief Financial Officer with the assistance of the Board.”
Morse became chief executive officer of the 111-bed hospital in Idabel in December 2018. In 2020 he promoted a $44 tax package issue that included increases in property, sales and lodging taxes to finance hospital improvements. The 5-mill ad valorem levy would have continued for 25 years, while the quarter-cent sales tax and the 2% lodging tax hike would have lasted for 30 years. Voters rejected all three measures on Nov. 3, 2020.
McCurtain Memorial is owned by McCurtain County, which leased the facility to a hospital authority that subleases it to McCurtain Memorial Medical Management, a non-profit corporation. After Morse’s firing, the hospital authority opted to not renew its contract with the management corporation when it expires in December.
Morse’s dismissal occurred nine months to the day after the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, at the request of District Attorney Mark Matloff, launched an “inquiry” into allegations that Morse had physically assaulted several McCurtain Memorial Hospital employees.
Matloff is the chief prosecutor for McCurtain, Pushmataha and Choctaw counties.
After OSBI investigators interviewed three women who claimed Morse touched them inappropriately during their employment at the hospital, Matloff asked the OSBI to elevate its activities from an inquiry to a full investigation. Subsequently five employees who claimed Morse touched them improperly were interviewed by the OSBI.
After an investigation that extended for almost six months, the OSBI submitted a 116-page report that was critical of the hospital and its CEO. According to OSBI Agent Donnie Long:
In mid-February 2021 a woman from the hospital accounting department told then-CFO Charles Cave that she was being sexually harassed by CEO Brad Morse. Cave informed the director of the hospital’s Human Resources Department – and she advised Cave that she, too, had been harassed by Morse, but didn’t report it for fear she would lose her job.
The two women told Cave they didn’t want to report their complaints until they had time to “think it over.”
Both women subsequently gave prepared statements to Cave during the second week of April 2021. Cave ultimately received statements from three women and one man, and mailed copies of the statements to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Oklahoma City, Agent Long wrote in his report.
Cave mailed a certified letter to each McCurtain Memorial Hospital board member on April 8, 2021, informing them about the allegations lodged against CEO Morse and included copies of the complainants’ statements.
Cave also sent a letter on April 9, 2021, advising the hospital board members that some employees had begun seeking legal counsel.
OSBI Agent Long reported that on June 21, 2021, he spoke with Walter Frey, then-chairman of the McCurtain Memorial Medical Management Board of Directors, and scheduled a formal interview with Frey on June 24. However, Long wrote that on June 23 he received a call from an Oklahoma City attorney who informed Long she was cancelling the interview.
And in a letter dated September 22, 2021, Long was asked to contact the OKC law firm before conducting interviews with any other members of the hospital’s board of directors.
During a meeting of the McCurtain Memorial Hospital Authority board on Nov. 15, 2021, County Commissioner Jimmy Westbrook called for the resignations of Morse and Frey.
When Morse declined, Westbrook declared, “Fine. I now move to call for a grand jury investigation.” Morse claimed that only one side of the story was being discussed and called it “a witch hunt.” In response, Westbrook placed a call to the district attorney; Matloff left a basketball game and arrived at the hospital board meeting minutes later.
Matloff asked Morse and Frey why they didn’t want to talk to the OSBI, and said, “There’s only one side because you wouldn’t talk.”
Matloff informed Jerry Ellis, a former state legislator who is publisher of the Southeast Times newspaper in Idabel, that he was submitting the necessary paperwork for a grand jury to the state Attorney General’s Office on Nov. 22, 2021.
The latest multicounty grand jury — the state's 19th — was impaneled in January and meets in Oklahoma City. The McCurtain County issue reportedly is scheduled for consideration this month.
Frey was killed in a traffic accident on Dec. 8, 2021, and Cave no longer works at the hospital.