LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles County judge has dismissed all charges against memory care giant Silverado, as well as its CEO Loren Shook and two other executives.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón brought the charges in March, and they were related to 14 COVID-related deaths at Silverado communities. The complaint claimed that Silverado hadn’t followed proper clinical protocols when admitting a resident in March 2020, which lead to an outbreak at one of the operator’s facilities.
The charges were shocking at the time they were brought — both for retroactively charging a company for mistakes made at the very outset of the global pandemic, and for bringing felony-level charges against three executives of the company.
Upon the case’s dismissal, the Silverado executives had strong words regarding the charges, calling them “baseless” and “egregious.”
David Schless, president and CEO of the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA), applauded the dismissal as well.
“The criminal charges were outrageous and completely unwarranted given the circumstances of this tragic outbreak, which took place at the outset of the global pandemic before the world fully understood the spread of the disease and before the industry had access to testing kits and other necessary tools to fight COVID-19,” says Schless.