Silverado Senior Living Lawsuit: Charges, Appeal, and Civil Suits

The Silverado Senior Living lawsuit that drew national attention — the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s 2023 felony prosecution over 14 COVID-19 deaths at the company’s Beverly Place memory care facility — ended in dismissal, and a California appeals court unanimously upheld that dismissal on August 20, 2025. Civil lawsuits filed by families of the deceased remain ongoing, and the company has faced separate legal actions unrelated to the pandemic.

What Happened at Beverly Place

On March 19, 2020, Silverado Beverly Place in Los Angeles admitted a new resident transferred from a psychiatric unit in New York City, then one of the country’s worst COVID-19 hotspots. Prosecutors alleged the facility did not quarantine the resident or require a COVID-19 test before admission. The resident showed symptoms the next day and tested positive that evening.¹

Sixty residents and 45 employees contracted the virus. Thirteen residents died, ranging in age from their 30s to 94. A 32-year-old nurse, Brittany Ringo, tested positive on March 25, 2020 and died on April 20, 2020.²¹

The Felony Charges and Why They Were Dismissed

After a two-and-a-half-year investigation led by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, District Attorney George Gascón filed charges on March 14, 2023 in case BA512525. Silverado Senior Living Management, Inc. and three executives were charged with 13 felony counts of elder endangerment and five felony counts of violation causing death.³ The individual defendants were CEO and co-founder Loren Shook, Beverly Place administrator Jason Russo, and vice president of clinical services Kimberly Butrum.²

Gascón alleged that Silverado had put “financial gain in profit over the safety considerations for their patients and employees.” A Silverado spokesperson called the charges “baseless.”¹

The case never reached trial. On October 25, 2023, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kerry L. White dismissed all charges.⁴ The dismissal turned on a Fifth Amendment problem with the state’s evidence.

During the outbreak investigation, administrator Jason Russo had participated in eight formal interviews with the California Department of Social Services between April 2020 and August 2021, alongside daily email and telephone contact. California regulations require assisted living administrators to cooperate with DSS investigations, and refusing can lead to revocation of a facility’s license or the administrator’s professional certification.⁵

Silverado’s defense argued Russo’s statements were effectively compelled under threat of losing his career, and therefore protected under the Supreme Court’s ruling in Garrity v. New Jersey. Judge White agreed that Russo’s belief he had no choice but to cooperate was objectively reasonable.⁵

Once the statements were deemed compelled, the prosecution had to show its case rested on evidence independent of Russo’s testimony, the standard set in Kastigar v. United States. The CalOSHA investigator conceded he had “commingled” roughly 7,800 pages of records without tracking what came from where, and could not separate the compelled material from the rest. The court found Russo’s statements had shaped the “scope and manner” of the entire investigation and dismissed the 28-count case against all four defendants.⁵

The 2025 Appeals Court Ruling

The District Attorney’s Office appealed. On August 20, 2025, a three-justice panel of the California Second District Court of Appeal unanimously affirmed the dismissal in People v. Silverado Senior Living Management, Inc. (Case No. B334247). Justice Chavez wrote the opinion, joined by Acting Presiding Justice Ashmann-Gerst and Justice Richardson.⁵

The prosecution argued that Russo’s belief he was compelled to speak was not objectively reasonable because the relevant statutes did not explicitly mention Fifth Amendment protections, that the trial court should not have relied on defense expert Joel Goldman’s testimony about industry consequences of noncooperation, and that Russo’s co-defendants lacked standing to benefit from his Fifth Amendment claim.⁵

The appeals court rejected each. Statutory penalties including license revocation and industry exclusion made Russo’s belief reasonable, Goldman’s expert testimony was properly admitted and subject to cross-examination, and the prosecution had forfeited the standing argument by not raising it below.⁶

The District Attorney’s Office said it was “very disappointed” but maintained its belief in the case. No further criminal action has been reported.⁷

Civil Lawsuits from Families

The criminal dismissal does not end Silverado’s exposure. In December 2020, a group of plaintiffs including a current resident, families of three deceased residents, the family of nurse Brittany Ringo, and two residents who recovered sued Silverado Beverly Place, the corporate parent, and CEO Loren Shook in Los Angeles County Superior Court. One of the named cases is Joe Ann Clack et al. v. Silverado Senior Living Inc. et al., case number 20STCV47881.⁸

The Ringo family’s suit, brought by Brittany’s parents Craig Ringo and Kim Bruner-Ringo, also named UCLA Medical Center as a defendant, alleging that a power failure and ventilator malfunction contributed to her death.⁹ As of 2025, the civil lawsuits were reported as ongoing.⁷

Other Silverado Lawsuits

Holley v. Silverado: Elder Abuse and an Unenforceable Arbitration Agreement

Diane and James Holley sued Silverado’s Newport Mesa facility in Costa Mesa, California, alleging elder abuse, neglect, and wrongful death after their mother, Elizabeth Holley, was transferred to a hospital in November 2017 with a broken arm, a broken hip, and multiple bruises. She died in February 2018. On August 7, 2020, the California Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled for the Holleys on a key procedural question, holding that the arbitration agreement signed during admission was unenforceable because the Holleys had been only temporary conservators of their mother’s person and lacked authority to waive her legal rights without her consent or a court determination that she lacked capacity.¹⁰¹¹ The California Supreme Court denied Silverado’s petition for review in November 2020.¹²

EEOC Pregnancy Discrimination Settlement

In 2017, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Silverado’s Oak Village facility in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, alleging the company fired caregiver Shaquena Burton rather than accommodating her pregnancy-related medical restrictions with light-duty work available to non-pregnant employees. Silverado settled in January 2018, paying Burton $80,000 and agreeing under a consent decree to revise its anti-discrimination policies, train managers, and report light-duty requests to the EEOC.¹³

Egbert v. Silverado: FLSA Retaliation

In November 2022, former manager Sabra Egbert sued Silverado in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, alleging she was fired for complaining about unpaid after-hours work in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. When Silverado moved to compel arbitration, Judge George C. Hanks Jr. denied the motion in July 2023, ruling the company’s arbitration agreement was “illusory and unenforceable” under Texas law because it allowed the company to change the terms unilaterally. The case was terminated in June 2024.¹⁴

1
ABC7 New York. Assisted Living Facility Faces Felony Charges Over Deadly COVID-19 Outbreak
2
ABC News. LA Assisted Living Facility Faces Felony Charges in Deadly COVID Outbreak
3
Los Angeles County. Silverado Senior Living Management, Three Managers Charged in Connection With 14 COVID-19 Related Deaths
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ABC7 Los Angeles. Charges Dismissed Against Silverado Senior Living in COVID Deaths Case
5
Midpage. People v. Silverado Senior Living Management, Inc.
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MyNewsLA. Appellate Court Panel Upholds Decision to Dismiss Case Over COVID Deaths
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McKnight’s Senior Living. Appellate Court Upholds Dismissal of Criminal Charges Against Silverado in COVID-19 Related Deaths
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Law360. Calif. Care Facility Sued Over Deadly COVID-19 Outbreak
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McKnight’s Senior Living. Staffer Died Because Resident Wasn’t Properly Screened, Lawsuit Alleges
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Justia. Holley v. Silverado Senior Living Management
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McKnight’s Senior Living. Memory Care Operator May Appeal as Court Denies Arbitration in Elder Abuse, Wrongful Death Lawsuit
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FindLaw. Holley v. Silverado Senior Living Management Inc.
13
EEOC. Silverado to Pay $80,000 to Settle EEOC Pregnancy Discrimination Lawsuit
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Bloomberg Law. Silverado Senior Living Must Defend Manager’s FLSA Suit in Court