Appellate Court Upholds Decision to Dismiss Charges Against Silverado, Company Leaders

A California appellate court has upheld a judge’s previous decision to dismiss criminal charges against Silverado and several of its leaders.

CEO Loren Shook, along with company leaders Jason Russo and Kim Butrum, previously faced more than a dozen felony counts of elder endangerment and violation causing death. Irvine, California-based Silverado also faced charges.

Former Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón first brought the charges against the company in 2023 after a two-and-a-half year investigation into a Silverado community where 14 people, including a staffer, died in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020.

Later that year, a judge dismissed those charges, but the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed to appeal the decision.

Last week, a three-justice panel upheld the original judge’s decision to dismiss the charges against Shook, Russo, Butrum and Silverado. At the center of the decision was whether certain statements Russo made to state regulators investigating resident deaths were compelled in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Silverado contended that Russo’s statements to regulators were compelled as he was “statutorily required” to answer their questions to keep his certification and employment. The appellate court panel agreed and found “the Fifth Amendment precluded their use in subsequent criminal proceedings.”

“The trial court further found the prosecution failed to prove that its case relied on evidence wholly independent of the compelled testimony and dismissed the action against all defendants,” wrote the court.

In a statement, Shook said that the decision “reaffirms what families, care partners, and industry leaders have always known – Silverado is a trusted leader, unwavering in its commitment to protect and uplift the lives of those we serve.”

“This decision honors our team members who stood strong each day through a 100-year pandemic that evoked chaos and fear across the nation and the world,” he said.

In an interview with Senior Housing News in 2024, Shook said the ordeal taught him to focus on “love” instead of fear.

“As humans, our first reaction [to the unknown] is to fear,” Shook said. “But our culture is based on the foundation of love being greater than fear.”

With this ordeal put to rest, Shook can again focus on handing the reins to new top leader Wayne Sanner, who is working as “CEO designate” during the transition.

“Let’s stay cutting-edge, let’s partner with the academic research community, let’s be bold,” Sanner told SHN earlier this year. “We have to try and see what our residents can do versus being in a mindset of what they can’t do.”

Silverado has 26 communities in nine states.

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