A Peoria native and prominent dermatologist are haggling in court over a book. Here's why

PEORIA – It's the dream of any aspiring author to write and publish a book.

Aaron Warr seemed to have much bigger dreams when he published " The Drive " in 2021. Warr wanted the book to be a sort of modern-day version of "The Great Gatsby," a look into the lifestyles of the city's rich and famous.

But literary success wasn't the only thing on his mind. Warr wanted to dominate television as well, putting together the kind of TV show that could rival something such as "Empire" or "Power" as a dramatic look at life at the highest echelons of society.

"The book was written specifically to be sold," Warr said. "I was in negotiations with one studio in Hollywood and Netflix to convert the book into a series. That is why the book was written."

Warr had everything prepared for it. He even had a movie-style trailer for the book posted on YouTube. But shortly after he released the book, Warr says one person obliquely referenced in it came down hard – and ruined everything.

Fiction or nonfiction?

Warr wants to make one thing perfectly clear — "The Drive: Scandals and Secrets on the World's Most Beautiful Drive" is a work of fiction. The book centers around a male character named Edmund Beard, the former manager of a place called "The Estate" located along Grandview Drive in Peoria Heights.

Beard tells his stories of the high-society events that take place in "The Estate" and of the many quirks of the homeowner, a man known simply as "The King."

The book is marketed as Beard's memoirs of his time at "The Estate," but Warr's real-life background has similarities to the fictional book. Warr worked as a manager and event planner for prominent local dermatologist Carl Soderstrom at the Soderstrom Castle for five years from 2014 to 2019. The relationship, Warr said, went back even further, about five years before he officially began working at the Castle.

"Carl reached out to me from an ad that I ran for event planning," Warr said. "I put together a big 60th birthday party for him – it was so over the top that he hired me on his payroll to do his corporate parties once a year. This all led up to working eventually at the Castle."

Soderstrom's dermatology business grew significantly after he opened his first office in Morton in 1973. By the time he retired from practice in 2021, his business encompassed 10 stores across both Illinois and Iowa, including his main office on North Glen Park Place in Peoria.

Soderstrom, who declined comment for this story, remains on the board of directors, but his name is no longer on the front of the offices. Earlier this year, the business was renamed Core Dermatology , with nary a sign of the Soderstrom label out front.

Warr, working in a different industry, was a local success story himself. He grew up in Peoria and later made a name for himself in Hollywood working for the ABC reality series "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." He frequently trekked back to Peoria to organize Soderstrom's elaborate parties.

Warr became the go-to event planner for the dermatologist after the latter bought the Castle in 2013. Warr continued in that role through 2019, when he decided to depart the company.

Two years later, Warr released "The Drive," which is written through Beard's eyes as the estate manager of the house and, according to him, isn't intended to be any sort of message relating to his time with Soderstrom or anyone else.

"The opening of the book is all about Edmund Beard, told through the eyes of Edmund Beard," Warr said. "The character speaks about various situations seen through the character's eyes. That's how the book was written. That's how the stories were laid out, based on what Edmund observed. Some situations that Edmund observed happened in front of hundreds of other individuals present, so it wasn't hearsay, it wasn't one-on-one, it was Edmund speaking about situations where there was more than one person in his presence."

Soderstrom's attorneys never responded to repeated requests for comments for this story.

Selling the book

Warr said that he had begun sales of the book when he first heard from Soderstrom's attorneys in late 2021. Around 5,000 to 6,000 books had been sold in this time and he was feeling confident enough to open up an Amazon.com account to sell it to more people.

Around this time, the book piqued the interest of the dermatologist's counsel. Warr believes the single sale of a book in Texas to an attorney with Peoria ties led to a lawsuit. In the suit filed by Soderstrom in January 2022 in Texas, he claimed that Warr defamed him through certain passages in the tome.

Soderstrom claims that Warr wrote the book as a way to "get even" with the doctor, who had decided to hire another person to handle financial obligations relating to Warr's job shortly before he left. The suit says that Warr, despite having a flair for event planning, wasn't exactly the best person in terms of handling the financial aspects of his job.

The lawsuit alleges that Warr told his friends and others that his employer was out to get him and acted in a "bizarre" and "damaging" manner following his resignation. The lawsuit also stated that Warr in April 2020 asked Soderstrom for his employment file. Then, three months later, Warr allegedly sent a series of anonymous emails to pageant directors falsely claiming that the doctor committed inappropriate behavior with contestants of the Miss Illinois and Illinois Outstanding Teen competitions.

Soderstrom sent cease-and-desist orders to Warr, which in this version of events, went unheeded. He intended to publish the book, regardless of how his former employer felt about things. Soderstrom said that Warr's accusations breached at least three confidentiality agreements that he signed as part of his employment and felt that releasing the book would cause "irreparable" damage to his reputation.

Soderstrom claimed in the suit that some damage had already been done. He said that a company on the East Coast had reached an agreement to buy the dermatology business, but contacted him to determine the veracity of the allegations after receiving wind of the emails. While he was able to prevent a revocation of the sale, he felt that some doubt had been placed into the mind of the buyer.

Soderstrom asked that the Texas court grant him a temporary restraining order preventing the book from reaching further into the market and requiring Warr to pay damages and attorney's fees resulting from the loss of reputation.

The court granted the temporary restraining order five days after Soderstrom filed the lawsuit. Within days, the book was taken out of publication.

Warr discovered he had pending book orders from at least four other places in the U.S. from people he wasn't familiar with. He canceled those orders to ensure that the lawsuits didn't metastasize from the original Texas one. But it was cold comfort for him, because he hasn't been able to sell the book for over two years now.

"I have boxes of books that I cannot do anything with," Warr said. "The court granted him access to my phone records (and) Google searches. He tried to get access to my Gmail, PayPal, FedEx (accounts). This is a civil matter and there are people who have done far worse against the law where these things are not granted. Some were granted, some were not, but he asked for access to these things more than once."

Warr provided the Journal Star with court documents showing that Soderstrom's attorneys attempted to subpoena Amazon, AT&T, FedEx, Google and PayPal for documents pertaining to the book, such as sales records, cellphone records, shipping records, email records and account information.

In addition, he provided a letter from AT&T, showing that the company had acknowledged the lawsuit and asking if he wanted to contest the subpoena, which he did.

He attempted in March 2022 to get the Collin County, Texas, court to limit discovery, but that was shot down in December of that year.

In the meantime, Warr says that Soderstrom began attacking his character to multiple people, enough that in 2023, he filed a countersuit in Peoria County stating that the dermatologist made "false and defamatory statements" about him. Warr asked the court to grant him damages in excess of $250,000.

An amended complaint against Soderstrom filed on March 27, 2024, shows more detail into some of Soderstrom's alleged statements. For starters, Warr's complaint said that Soderstrom complained that he was squatting at his home and had misappropriated funds designated for events at the Castle. The complaint said that the dermatologist told a pair of nurses, along with board members of his company, about these alleged misdeeds. Warr says the accusations are untrue.

Several others reported that Soderstrom's attorneys repeated the same accusations of Warr to them, according to the lawsuit. In Warr's countersuit, he said the dermatologist was engaging in "willful, wanton, malicious, and intentional misconduct."

Soderstrom responded in a pair of motions to dismiss the case. In the first one, he said that the statements made in Warr's countersuit didn't meet the standard of defamation against him.

The first motion states that the defamation portion of Warr's countersuit didn't take note of the context of the statements, how they could be made with "such malice," the people to which those statements were made, when they were made and how Warr was supposedly damaged by the statements. In addition, he countered Warr's claims of defamation by saying that he had the right to publish the statements through the judicial process.

The second motion said that Warr had failed to allege any kind of action toward a third party that would impact his ability to make money off the book. In addition, it said that Peoria County Circuit Court did not have jurisdiction to determine the merits of Soderstrom's Texas lawsuit, as it said that Warr's claim for tortious interference was based off of the case.

The alleged statements made by Soderstrom, Warr said, have wrongfully vilified him as a "troublemaker" and were an attack on his character. He's perplexed as to how he could allegedly make those statements considering how long the two had worked together.

"If I was such a troublemaker, I think one would have gotten rid of me a long time ago," Warr said.

From daydreams to dragons: The story of Soderstrom Castle in Peoria Heights

Unwanted mail

Warr's lawsuit encompassed more than just him and Soderstrom. Other people said they received letters from the dermatologist's attorneys, asking them to appear in court or risk legal penalties.

Several people who knew Warr and bought the book, or even simply commented on social media, told the Journal Star that Soderstrom's attorneys sent subpoena-type notices for them to appear in court. Many of them ignored the requests and were not bothered again.

Angie Toland was one of the first people to buy "The Drive" and soon posted a comment on the author's Facebook page with a picture of the book. She's known him for well over 35 years. Two weeks after she made the Facebook comment, a letter came addressed for her in the mail from Texas.

"At first, I was like, 'I haven't been subpoenaed for anything, so I don't know what that looks like,'" Toland said. "I don't know what the seriousness of it is except for what I'm looking at. I don't know the validity of it because I don't have experience with this stuff. I was startled (and) scared. I was like, 'What the hell is this? What's going on?'"

Molly Crusen Bishop, a freelance writer and author, caught a glimpse of a link to buy "The Drive" and found the book to be worth her while. About two months after purchasing it, she was sent a similar letter to the one sent to Toland, where she was summoned to appear in court the next day in Collin County.

"It was really bizarre," Crusen Bishop said. "I'm in Chillicothe, Illinois, and I'm being requested to come say something about a lawsuit in Texas within 24 hours. You can't even purchase an airline ticket."

Bishop said the letter looked like it was fake. She didn't have the money to afford a plane ticket to Texas, so she threw the letter out.

Steve Christopher, an architect, first met Warr when he was producing a film in Peoria around 15 years ago and has maintained a relationship since then. His relationship with Soderstrom dates back further. He said he has attended many events at the Castle.

One of those events, according to Christopher, is actually in the book itself, with a fictionalized account of his wedding at the Castle.

"Through Aaron, we were able to make arrangements with Doc (Soderstrom) to make a charitable contribution to a charity," Christopher said. "He was limited in how he could use (the Castle) as a venue, but because of our connections with Aaron (and) Dr. Soderstrom being willing to do that, we were able to have our wedding there."

As it turned out, the Christopher wedding was the last night that Warr worked for Soderstrom. Shortly after purchasing the book a few years later, he found out about the letters people were receiving.

"Basically, (they) were giving particulars as to what the letter said," Christopher said. "Everyone was like, 'Did you get one yet? Did you get one yet?' People are commenting on it because it's a weird thing to get for a book you thought was a made up story."

Christopher was also skeptical of the letter when he first got it. He has seen many legal documents to know that this particular one wasn't exactly binding.

"It had all the signs of a non-binding scare letter that really had no substance about it," Christopher said. "I may have commented on the Facebook post too, 'Don't get too excited about this; it's not signed, there's nothing that needs to be done here.'"

Former Journal Star business editor Paul Gordon never actually read "The Drive." But he congratulated Warr via social media on the achievement of writing the book. For one reason or another, he also received a letter.

"My first thought was, 'What the hell?'" Gordon said. "After that, I thought, 'Why would I be subpoenaed? I don't have the book.' Based on the subject matter of the book, I was not surprised."

Curious about why someone who didn't read the book would get a letter, he spoke with Warr. He reiterated that the letters were not binding.

Everyone who spoke on the record to the Journal Star had a consistent story to tell: They felt uncomfortable with the way Soderstrom used his power to intimidate those who knew Warr.

Toland was stunned at the number of people who received a letter. She felt that Soderstrom's attorneys were taking advantage of people who may not have had the ability to quickly travel to Texas and appear in front of a judge.

"How many people didn't know and was ignorant to it and actually believed it and the turmoil that it would have caused them in their lives? That's a shame. That's terrible. What lawyer in their right mind would do something like that? The whole thing has been shockingly sick and gross."

Crusen Bishop said that she was unnerved by the entire experience. She didn't know Soderstrom personally. She had work done at his offices, but never had a face-to-face encounter. She felt that the letters were harassing Warr and others.

"It seemed over the top," Crusen Bishop said. "Why would they do that? If it's fiction, and their names aren't in there, why would you give validity to it by trying to scare people?"

Christopher felt a sense of disappointment with how things played out. He was of the impression that Soderstrom and Warr had a relatively normal working relationship. He felt bad that his friend had been dragged into a legal morass.

"Honestly, if Dr. Soderstrom hadn't said a word, nobody would have known," Christopher said. "You'd have maybe the 10 people who knew that some of the stories were based on (them) loosely, and even then, I didn't know how much of the stories that were based on his experience (and) how literal they might be. To this day, I don't know how literal they might be because it's written as a make-believe story."

Gordon, the former editor, said that he isn't surprised about Soderstrom's actions relating to Warr and his book. He said that plenty of other prominent Peorians were in the book through pseudonyms, making it important to him that he, at the very least, protected their identities.

"It doesn't surprise me that he took this action," Gordon said. "Does it change my opinion of him? No, because I didn't think that much about him before this. I just didn't give him that much thought before this."

Trying to figure it out

Warr's claims have found an unsympathetic audience in Texas, where a judge ruled in favor of Soderstrom's suit in May, asking the author to pay $380,000 as well as prejudgment interest on that amount at an annual rate of 8.5%.

In addition, Warr is barred from promoting or selling the book, making any other kind of legal claim against Soderstrom or even being within 2,500 feet of each other if one knows that the other is present. Warr has appealed the Texas ruling.

Soderstrom filed suit in Peoria County Circuit Court on May 13 asking that they provide notice of the Texas payment to Warr in order to ensure that the judgment is paid.

In response to the decision in Texas, Warr filed an appeal with the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Texas, stating that the Collin County order was impermissibly broad and did not provide him with the right to file a lawsuit or paying attorney's fees under Texas law. The appeal remains pending.

As Warr tries to move forward with his life and various jobs, he's not seeking to garner anyone's sympathy. Rather, he wants to stand up for friends and family who were willing to listen to his story and received unwanted harassment as a result.

"These were people calling me, upset, crying, telling me, 'What do I do?'" Warr said. "They're the ones that I feel bad for."

With the book no longer being sold, Warr claims that he has lost revenue and an opportunity to turn the book into a television or streaming show. He's still hopeful he can revive any sort of plans for a show based off the book, but the situation he finds himself in has colored his view of people and how the world works.

"If you have money, you can have anything in this world that you want, even if it doesn't belong to you," Warr said. "You can just take something."

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: A Peoria native and prominent dermatologist are haggling in court over a book. Here's why