Silverado Senior Living Management

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has announced that Silverado Senior Living Management, Inc., and three managers have been charged in connection with 14 COVID-related deaths at its residential care facility in 2020.

“The investigation revealed that the Silverado management team was aware of the risks associated with admitting a new resident from a high-risk area and failed to follow the appropriate procedures to protect their employees and the vulnerable people in their care,” District Attorney Gascón said. “These careless decisions created conditions that needlessly exposed Silverado staff and its residents to serious injury and – tragically – death.”

Loren Bernard Shook (dob 1/18/51), Jason Michael Russo (dob 4/14/73) and Kimberly Cheryl Butrum (dob 11/24/55) were charged in case BA512525 13 felony counts of elder endangerment and five felony counts of violation causing death. The Irvine-based company also face the same charges.

Arraignment is expected today in Department 30 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

The complaint alleges that in March 2020, Silverado is accused of admitting a new resident from a psychiatric unit in New York City, which was a COVID-19 epicenter at the time. Upon arrival at the company’s Beverly Place facility in Los Angeles’ Fairfax District, the resident allegedly was not medically assessed for the virus or other conditions.

The resident began displaying COVID symptoms the following morning and ultimately tested positive for the virus. After the resident displayed symptoms consistent with COVID, they were allegedly not placed into respiratory isolation.

Additionally, the managers are accused of not following accepted clinical standards and did not take appropriate steps to quarantine the new resident or require testing prior to admission. The facility also allegedly failed to prohibit entry of individuals who had engaged in domestic or international travel within the last 14 days to areas where COVID cases have been confirmed.

As a result, there was an outbreak at Beverly Place where 14 people, ranging in age from 32 to 94, died. Forty-five employees and 60 residents were also infected and sickened by the virus.

Those who died were:

Brittany Ringo, Elizabeth Cohen, Joseph Manduke, Catherine Apothaker, Jakob Khorsandi, Albert Sarnoff, Dolores Sarnoff, Myrna Frank, Frank Piumetti, Jay Tedeman, Luba Paz, Kaye Kiddoo, Richard Herman Michael Horn.