Thirteen residents and a nurse died in the blast, prosecutors said.
Los Angeles prosecutors announced felony charges Tuesday in connection with a deadly outbreak of COVID-19 that occurred at an upscale assisted living facility early in the pandemic.
The charges, which include felony elder endangerment, follow a two-and-a-half-year investigation into the outbreak at the Silverado Senior Living Management facility, LA County District Attorney George Gascón said during a press briefing Tuesday.
Sixty residents and 45 employees of Silverado Beverly Place contracted COVID-19 in what Gascón called “one of the worst outbreaks of COVID-19” at an assisted living facility in California. Thirteen residents and a nurse died, Gascón said.
The investigation began after the death of the staff member identified as 32-year-old Brittany Ringo.
Prosecutors allege that Silverado admitted a new resident on March 19, 2020, despite protocols at the time that limited outside visitors, including patients. The facility also failed to test the patient for COVID-19 or quarantine the patient for 14 days before admission, as required by health protocols, according to prosecutors. The new patient began showing symptoms of COVID-19 a day after arriving and tested positive for the virus that night, according to Gascón.
Ringo was allegedly ordered to accept the new resident, who “came directly to the facility from the airport” from a COVID-19 “hotspot” in New York City, Gascón said. He tested positive for COVID-19 on March 25, 2020, and died on April 20, 2020, according to the district attorney.
“We have evidence to support that protocols were not followed due to financial considerations in receiving this patient from New York,” said Gascón. “We believe that Silverado has placed the interests and financial gain of profit over safety considerations for their patients and employees.”
Silverado Senior Living Management and three managers — CEO Loren Shook, administrator Jason Russo and Kimberly Butrum, a vice president — have been charged with 13 counts of felony elder endangerment and five felony counts of violation causing death by COVID- 19 outbreak, said the prosecutors. The arraignment was expected on Tuesday.
Jeff Frum, senior vice president and spokesman for Silverado, told ABC News in a statement that it denies all charges.
“Silverado’s top priority is and always will be to provide world-class care, respect and dignity to people with dementia and a caring environment for our associates. We deny all allegations filed against us – they are baseless and grossly contradict the facts. We look forward to presenting our case during the legal process,” he said in the statement.
“We will always mourn the loss of residents in the pandemic and the frontline heroes who care for them,” Frum continued. “We have taken the pandemic seriously since the beginning. We have recognized the unprecedented threat of COVID-19 to society, especially to people with dementia and their caregivers. We have set standards for the entire healthcare industry. memory care.”
At the start of the outbreak, Silverado defended its actions in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.
“Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our residents and the colleagues who care for them every day, and we are proud of the dedication and professionalism of our team during this pandemic,” Frum told the paper in March 2020.
The facility specializes in caring for elderly residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia, prosecutors said.
The case is being treated as an industrial workplace accident, prosecutors said. The investigation, led by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, took two years because of the COVID-19 restrictions at the time and because many employees left the facility, prosecutors said.
The charges follow a lawsuit against the facility filed last year by relatives of several residents and the nurse who died.