Senior living company, 3 managers charged in COVID deaths

Irvine-based Silverado Senior Living Management Inc. and three of its managers at the time were charged in connection with 14 COVID-19-related deaths at a residential care facility in Los Angeles, District Attorney George Gascón announced Tuesday.

The investigation into Silverado Beverly Place began after the facility reported the April 20, 2020, death of a 32-year-old employee, Brittany Ringo, according to the county’s top prosecutor.

“As required by the protocols at the time, the facility was closed to outside visitors by Silverado in March of 2020. Yet, despite these protocols, an exception was made to admit a patient from New York,” Gascón said at a news conference detailing the charges. “Ms. Ringo died from COVID-19 after being exposed while working as a licensed vocational nurse for Silverado when she was directed on March 19, 2020, to admit this new resident who came directly to the facility from the airport. This individual had just arrived from a clinical setting in New York — a COVID-19 hot-spot at the time.”

The district attorney said the new resident — who began displaying COVID-19 symptoms the morning after arriving and tested positive that evening — had not immediately been tested for COVID-19 and had not been required to quarantine in isolation prior to admission as required by health protocols in place at the time, according to the district attorney.

“Those protocols were intended to slow the spread of this dangerous virus, especially while working with vulnerable populations. We have evidence to support that the protocols were not followed due to financial considerations of accepting this patient from New York,” Gascón said.

Jeff Frum, senior VP of sales & marketing for Silverado, told City News Service that the company “denies all charges filed against us — they are baseless and egregiously contradict the facts. We look forward to presenting our case during the legal process.

“We will always grieve the loss of the residents to the pandemic and the frontline hero who cared for them,” Frum continued. “We have taken the pandemic extremely seriously since the start. We recognized COVID-19’s unprecedented threat to society, particularly for people living with dementia and their caregivers. Silverado was a leader in developing protocols for people living with dementia and many of these same protocols became standards for the entire memory care industry.”

Ringo tested positive for COVID-19 six days after the new resident’s arrival and died less than a month later, with 13 of the facility’s residents dying and more than 100 other residents and staff members being diagnosed with COVID-19 as a result of the outbreak, according to the district attorney.

The other people who died were identified as Elizabeth Cohen, Joseph Manduke, Catherine Apothaker, Jake Khorsandi, Albert Sarnoff, Dolores Sarnoff, Myrna Frank, Frank Piumetti, Jay Tedeman, Luba Paz, Kaye Kiddoo, Richard Herman and Michael Horn.

“We do not have to prove that COVID was brought in by this particular patient,” said Marc Beaart, the DA’s director of fraud and corruption prosecutions. “We simply have to show there was a positive test and that the protocols were not followed.”

Loren Bernard Shook, the company’s chief executive officer; Jason Michael Russo, an administrator at the time; and Kimberly Cheryl Butrum, a vice president, were charged with 13 felony counts of elder endangerment and five felony counts of violation causing death, according to the District Attorney’s Office. The national chain, which specializes in caring for elderly residents with Alzheimer’s disease and/or dementia, is facing the same charges, Gascón said.

The company has pleaded not guilty, with arraignment set April 4 for the three executives, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

More from Health