Heritage Ministries Lawsuit: Vendors, Wrongful Deaths, and Defamation

The Heritage Ministries lawsuit picture actually covers several separate cases: at least six state-court suits filed against the Chautauqua County, New York senior care nonprofit in 2025 over unpaid vendor bills and resident deaths, plus a federal defamation case in Alabama where Heritage Ministries is the plaintiff, suing members of country singer Rory Feek’s family and a music news publisher. The suits are unfolding as the organization cuts benefits, closes facilities, and works to restructure its debt.¹

The Vendor and Contract Suits

Most of the litigation against Heritage Ministries comes from companies that say they were not paid. By late 2025 the organization was facing at least six state-court cases, and two of them had already produced more than $600,000 in combined judgments.¹

The individual claims include:

Supplemental Health Care, a staffing agency, obtained an order from a Chautauqua County judge directing Heritage to pay $81,257 for services provided in 2023 and 2024.
The estate of a Vinecroft retirement community resident won a $59,215 breach-of-contract judgment in March 2025 after Heritage failed to return a deposit following the resident’s December 2023 death.
A Monroe County medical staffing agency sued in August 2025 over nearly $30,000 in unpaid bills.
A Jamestown-area food service company sued in May 2025 for $100,585 in unpaid invoices.
A Rochester-based environmental services company sued in February 2025 for $16,545.

An earlier federal case brought by Quest Diagnostics in December 2022 sought roughly $350,000 for mandatory COVID-19 staff testing performed in 2020; that case was in court-ordered mediation as of August 2023.² A separate breach-of-contract matter, Heritage Ministries v. Porpiglia, involving Heritage Park Rehab and Skilled Nursing, was settled in November 2023.³

Wrongful Death Suits From Resident Families

Two of the 2025 cases were filed by families of residents who died in Heritage facilities. Both families allege negligent care. Heritage’s attorneys have denied the allegations, and both cases remain pending.¹ The court records available do not name the residents or specify the facilities involved.

The Defamation Case Heritage Filed Against the Feeks

One high-profile lawsuit is easily confused with the others because of the Heritage name, but here the ministry is the plaintiff. In September 2024, Heritage Ministries, an affiliate called Heritage Barns LLC, and three members of the Brandstadt family filed a defamation suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. The defendants are Heidi Caroline Feek, Carena Elizabeth Liptak, and Townsquare Media Inc., the parent company of the country music news outlet Taste of Country. The docket classifies the action as assault, libel, and slander.⁴

The suit appears to trace back to an August 2024 Taste of Country article by Liptak, in which Heidi Feek, adult daughter of country singer Rory Feek, publicly accused her father of leaving her younger sister Indiana in the care of Homestead Heritage, a faith-based intentional community that has faced past allegations of child abuse. Heidi Feek said she and her sister Hopie were pursuing legal action against their father.⁵ The article included accounts from two individuals alleging sexual abuse and inadequate health care within the Homestead Heritage community.⁶

The full complaint is not publicly available through the docket, so the exact statements Heritage Ministries and the Brandstadts contend are defamatory are not visible in the accessible court records. The plaintiffs demanded a jury trial and filed an amended complaint in August 2025. Townsquare Media and Liptak moved to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction but withdrew that motion in May 2025. Country Mutual Insurance Company was granted leave to intervene in April 2025; the docket does not specify whether the intervention concerns coverage or a duty to defend. Discovery is underway under a confidentiality order before Judge Liles C. Burke.⁴

One note on names, because it matters here: Heritage Ministries, the New York senior care nonprofit, is a distinct organization from Homestead Heritage, the intentional community the Taste of Country article discussed. The lawsuit sits at the intersection because of Heritage Barns LLC and the Brandstadt family plaintiffs, but nothing in the accessible record suggests the New York facilities are connected to the allegations reported about Homestead Heritage.

The Financial Crisis Behind the Litigation

Heritage Ministries has openly acknowledged that it has fallen behind on many of its bills. CEO Lisa Haglund has pointed to federal and state funding cuts, inflation, rising operating costs, legacy debt predating the pandemic, and a shrinking regional workforce.⁷ The organization has said Medicaid covers roughly 85 percent of its residents and that it loses about $185 per day on each Medicaid-funded resident.¹

To conserve cash, Heritage has eliminated holiday pay and double-time pay for per diem employees, paused 401(k) matching contributions, and rolled out a voluntary furlough program allowing employees to take about two weeks off unpaid. The holiday-pay reduction and the furlough program are each projected to save roughly $100,000 a year. Haglund and about a dozen administrators have deferred their own salaries.⁷ Haglund has said Heritage is working with the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency to restructure loan financing and interest rates and is also pursuing emergency state aid.¹

Facility Closures and Where Things Stand

On January 28, 2026, Heritage Ministries announced the closure of Heritage Village, its skilled nursing facility in Gerry, New York. The facility had been operating with fewer than 40 residents after a steep, pandemic-era census decline, and leadership said continuing operations there was no longer financially viable.⁸ Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel called the closure a reflection of “broader, systemic pressures facing the nursing home industry” and said the county’s Office for Aging Services was helping affected residents and families.⁹

Heritage had already closed affiliates in Illinois and Washington state and was looking to sell its Pennsylvania facility. As of early 2026, the organization said it was consolidating skilled nursing into Heritage Park and Heritage Green in Chautauqua County. Haglund described the Heritage Village closure as a step taken to “save other buildings” and said leadership was streamlining other affiliated entities as part of a long-term stabilization plan.¹⁰ No bankruptcy filing has been publicly reported.

Regulatory History at the New York Facilities

The wrongful death cases arrive against a documented regulatory backdrop at the two facilities Heritage is consolidating into. Heritage Green Rehab and Skilled Nursing has drawn 16 deficiency citations across multiple inspection reports. A December 2021 standard inspection flagged “immediate jeopardy to resident health or safety” over insufficient nursing staff. A February 2026 complaint inspection cited the facility for failing to have a registered nurse on duty for the required eight hours per day and for not selecting a full-time director of nursing. As of mid-2026 the facility’s last full standard inspection was more than two years old, and staffing sat at 2.61 nurse hours per resident per day against a state average of 3.7, with a 48.4 percent nursing staff turnover rate.¹¹

Heritage Park Rehab and Skilled Nursing in Jamestown received seven citations between 2018 and 2021 across two state surveys. The most serious was a 2021 incident in which staff placed bedrails up for a resident whose care plan specifically prohibited them; the resident was found with their head wedged between the rail and the mattress, suffering lacerations. That citation was classified as an immediate jeopardy to resident safety. A 2019 survey also cited the facility for failing to report a resident-to-resident verbal abuse incident to the state survey agency and for failing to verify one worker’s screening through the nurse aide registry. Neither Heritage Park nor Heritage Green had been assessed federal fines or Medicare payment denials within the most recent three-year reporting window.¹² Both Heritage Park and Heritage Village appeared on the New York State Department of Health’s registry of nursing homes with enforcement actions for the period from February 2016 through January 2026.¹³

1
The Buffalo News. Heritage Ministries Faces Lawsuits and Financial Distress
2
The Post-Journal. Forcing Us to Think Different
3
Trellis Law. Heritage Ministries v. Porpiglia, Judith
4
CourtListener. Heritage Ministries v. Feek
5
Taste of Country. Rory Feek’s Daughters Are Pursuing Legal Action Against Him
6
Taste of Country. Rory Feek’s Daughter Heidi Feek Shares Concerns About Her Younger Sister’s Safety
7
The Post-Journal. Heritage Ministries Implements Cost-Saving Changes
8
The Post-Journal. Heritage to Close Gerry Campus
9
Chautauqua County. County Executive Wendel Issues Statement Following Heritage Village Closure
10
Heritage Ministries. Heritage Announces Strategic Consolidation of Skilled Nursing Services
11
ProPublica. Heritage Green Rehab and Skilled Nursing
12
Medicare. Heritage Park Rehab and Skilled Nursing
13
New York State Department of Health. Nursing Home Enforcement Search