New Evidence Links Cadden to Faked Prescriptions

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

BOSTON, Mass - Federal prosecutors presented new evidence today linking Barry Cadden to fake prescription lists produced as part of the case against him on racketeering and second degree murder charges.
Documents introduced into evidence show Cadden, the former president and part owner of the New England Compounding Center, was the verifying pharmacist on fake prescription lists including such names as Chris Rock, David Spade and Matthew Perry.
The documents were filed at the tail end of a long session in which Cadden's lawyer, Bruce Singal, repeatedly challenged and questioned Frank Lombardo, a special investigator for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who has been on the witness stand since Tuesday.
The records introduced included NECC drug order forms with a verification page attached. On each verification page, Cadden's name was checked as the verifying pharmacist.
After the 15 jurors left for the day U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns called on Singal and Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Strachan to stop wasting time on irrelevant issues.
"Can't you agree on these exhibits?" Stearns asked.
"Yes, we will try" Strachan replied.
The exchange came on the fourth day of testimony in the case against Cadden who faces 25 counts of second degree murder. He was indicted following a lengthy probe of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak, which took the lives of some 76 patients across the country.
NECC, the now defunct Framingham, Mass. drug compounding firm has been blamed for shipping more than 17,000 vials of fungus laden steroids to health facilities across the country.
Earlier in the session Singal repeatedly challenged Lombardo, who Wednesday introduced a series of items seized from NECC in 2012 including over a dozen chemicals used in drug production that had passed their expiration dates.
Singal asked whether there were bottles of the same chemicals at NECC that had not expired and, if so, why they weren't they produced.
Lombardo said he didn't know.
"Nobody looked, did they?" Singal retorted.
Singal also asked whether Lombardo had any proof the expired chemicals were ever used after the expiration dates, which ranged from 2003 to 2012.
Lombardo said he didn't know.
Strachan raised repeated objections to Singal's questions. Most were turned down by Stearns.
At one point Singal repeatedly challenged Lombardo over the wording of a document. After 10 minutes in which Lombardo said he couldn't answer the questions, Singal conceded that he was looking at the wrong document.
Singal also questioned NECC environmental monitoring reports Lombardo had produced earlier in the week showing mold and other contamination. Charging that there were many other reports that
showed no contamination, Singal said, "You didn't show us those pages, did you, Mr. Lombardo?"