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Three people working for a senior living facility in Los Angeles County have been charged in connection with a COVID outbreak that killed 13 residents and an employee in 2020.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney announced Tuesday that Loren Bernard Shook, 72, Jason Michael Russo, 49, and Kimberly Cheryl Butrum, 67 — all managers at the Silverado Senior Living Management, Inc., — were charged with 13 counts of elder endangerment and five counts of violation causing death.
The Silverado Senior Living Management, Inc., which is based in Irvine, is also charged with elder endangerment and violation causing death.
“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,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Gascón said in a press release. “These careless decisions created conditions that needlessly exposed Silverado staff and its residents to serious injury and – tragically – death.”
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According to prosecutors, the outbreak occurred at Beverly Place in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles after the facility accepted a patient from New York City in the early days of the pandemic without testing the person for COVID-19 or placing the person in quarantine when they tested positive for the disease.
In a statement to PEOPLE, Jeff Frum, Silverado Senior Vice President and spokesman, said “Silverado’s top priority is and always has been providing world-class care, respect, and dignity to people living with dementia and a caring environment for our associates,” he wrote. “We deny 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. 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.”
An arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. It is unclear if Shook, Russo or Butrum have retained attorneys to speak on their behalf.
source: people.com
