Thursday, January 5, 2017

Jury Won't Hear Outbreak Death Toll

 By Walter F. Roche Jr.

 Next week a federal jury in Boston, Mass. will begin hearing arguments on the largest and deadliest drug contamination disaster in the country's history, but federal prosecutors will be barred from telling the jurors just how deadly it was.
Scheduled for opening arguments Monday is the criminal trial of Barry Cadden, a former pharmacist and drug company owner, who is facing charges of racketeering, 25 counts of second degree murder and mail and wire fraud charges.
According to a filing by a federal agent in a related case, 76 patients died from fungus riddled steroids shipped by Cadden's company, the now defunct New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.
 Joseph Ridgley, a special agent for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, wrote in the affidavit, that the criminal investigation turned up 12 more deaths than had been reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And, the total number of patients sickened was 778, up from the the 751 in the official CDC count.
But neither the FDA count nor the lower CDC count can be mentioned in Cadden's trial under a ruling issued this week by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns. Under his order prosecutors can refer to the outbreak in general terms and cite "multiple deaths" but not the case counts.
Nor can prosecutors provide details of any deaths beyond the 25 specifically cited in the 131 count indictment.
In a series of pre-trial motions Cadden's lawyer, Bruce Singal, has sought to limit or even eliminate testimony from some of the prosecution witnesses. Stearns has granted some, but not all of those requests.
The Cadden trial will be followed by the trial of NECC's supervising pharmacist Glenn Chin, who also faces second degree murder charges.
Pretrial filings indicate that Cadden intends to charge that it was "Chin and Chin alone" who was responsible for the deaths.














The death toll in a 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak jumped by 12 to a total of 76, according to a massive filing in the criminal case against those blamed for the outbreak
.
The new death toll numbers were included in an affidavit filed by federal agents to justify the seizure of additional assets from the owners of the New England Compounding Center, the now defunct firm blamed for the outbreak.
According to the filing, the number of victims of the outbreak continued to climb even after officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped updating the case count.
According to the affidavit the number of patients sickened also continued upward reaching 778, 27 higher than the last CDC count of 751.
"The CDC stopped updating its official count as of Oct. 31, 2013," Joseph Ridgley, a special agent for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, wrote in one court filed affidavit.
"This investigation, however, revealed that the total number of infected patients increased and is approximately 778, of which 76 have died," he continued.
The new numbers were included in filings made by federal officials to justify the seizure of $18.3 million in assets held by NECC founder and stockholder Barry Cadden and co-owners Lisa and Douglas Conigliaro.
All three were named in a 131-count indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Boston last month.
The three and 11 others - all owners or employees of NECC- were indicted on charges ranging from second degree murder to mail fraud. They all have entered not guilty pleas. No trial date has been set.
The affidavits totaling 128-pages, which were unsealed this week, detail how Cadden and the Conigliaros paid themselves millions of dollars which had been paid to NECC to provide a fungus tainted spinal steroid injected into the spines and joints of unsuspecting victims.
The 25 counts of second degree murder were lodged against Cadden, who was the chief pharmacist for NECC, and Glenn Chin, a supervisory pharmacist for the Framingham, Mass drug compounding firm.
Under the seizure order assets totaling $1.5 million were seized from Cadden while $16.8 million was seized from Douglas and Lisa Conigliaro.
The Conigliaros were charged in the indictment with violating a bankruptcy court order that had placed a freeze on the $16.8 million.
The owners of NECC already had agreed to contribute nearly $50 million to a $136 million fund to compensate victims of the outbreak. It was not immediately clear how much if any of the additional $18.3 million would be allotted to the victims' fund.
The victims' fund was created as part of the proposed settlement of NECC's bankruptcy case and is subject to approval by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Henry Boroff.
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2 comments:

  1. I don't understand why they can't talk about how many deaths there were due to the incompentency and greed of these people. They shouldn't have any liberties and when I read these posts sometimes I wonder if the judicial system is being too lenient on these people. They still have their millions and can lead a good life and forget what has transpired due to their greed. Not that I don't believe that Karma won't somehow get them. Please someone speak out for the victims.

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  2. I am a Victims husband and I will speak for my wife. She suffered tremendously by their hands and all involved should be punished. She will not have her old life back because of their GREED. I WISH SHE COULD ATTEND BUT SHE IS NOT ABLE TO BECAUSE OF THEM. SHE CANNOT WORK HER OLD JOB. SHE CANNOT DO THE THINGS THAT SHE ONCE DID. THIS INCIDENT HAS CHANGED HER FOREVER. HER INCOME IS GONE. SHE LOST HER 50,000 A YEAR INCOME. SHE HAD WORKED 25 YEARS AT HER CAREER ONLY FOR IT TO BE GONE NOW. THESE 14 DEFENDENTS SHOULD PAY WITH THEIR LIVES. MY WIVES LIFE IS NOT THE SAME.
    I DONT THINK SHE WILL EVER BE COMPENSATED FOR WHAT SHE HAS LOST. GREED TOOK EVERYTHING FROM HER. THEY MUST PAY TOO.
    AN EYE FOR AN EYE!

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