Jurors Get Details on Outbreak Deaths

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

BOSTON - Case by case, picture by picture jurors hearing the second degree murder trial of Glenn Chin were shown pictures of the 25 victims named in the indictment charging him with second degree murder.
Ann Burgess, a registered nurse specializing in forensics, read from the autopsies and death certificates for each of the victims. Many of the documents listed contaminated steroid injections as a cause. Some also named the deadly fungus, exserohilum rostratum.
Chin, whose case could go to the jury by the end of the week, has been charged with racketeering, and mail fraud in addition to the 25 counts of second degree murder.
The charges stem from a two year federal grand jury probe of the deadly fungal meningitis outbreak caused by steroids Chin compounded at the now defunct New England Compounding Center.
There were eight victims from Michigan, seven from Tennessee, three each from Indiana and Maryland, two from Virginia and one each from North Carolina and Florida.
Prosecutors began questioning their last witness Wednesday, a criminal investigator from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Chin's lawyer Stephen Weymouth said he only plans to call two witnesses, one of them another FDA investigator whose testimony is likely to be brief.
Closing arguments could come before the weekend leaving only the instructions from U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns to the jury before deliberations can begin.
Burgess said Diana Reed, 56, a Nashville, Tenn. victim had been injected three times with methylprednisolone acetate from NECC. The records showed the injections were administered at the Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center on Aug, 21, Sept. 4 and Sept. 18. She died on Oct. 3, 2012, leaving behind her husband who suffers from Lou Gehrig's Disease.
Thomas Rybinski, the victim whose case first signaled the oncoming outbreak, died of "complications of aspergillus meningitis" after receiving a single injection at the same Nashville clinic, the jury learned.
Donald McDavid, 67, died after two injections at a Crossville, Tenn. clinic. His original death certificate listed "pending further study" as the cause. It was later amended to list an aneurysm and exserohilum as the cause.
In other testimony, one of Chin's lawyers, Robert Sheketoff, cross examined a key prosecution witness, Eric Kastango. Kastango had testified Tuesday that NECC and Chin had test results showing multiple problems in the clean room where sterile drugs were prepared, but then did nothing to remediate the problems.
Sheketoff questioned whether Kastango's testimony was influenced by the fact that prosecutors had hired him as a consultant during the NECC investigation.
"Do you have a bias because one side has paid you?" Sheketoff asked.
No, said Kastango, who earlier testified he was paid about $30,000.
Shetekoff  repeatedly questioned whether it was Chin or his boss, Barry Cadden, who made all the decisions at NECC.
"He (Chin) was the supervisor of the clean room," Kastango responded, adding that it was Chin's responsibility to read the industry rules for the operation of a clean room.
Asked if Cadden, NECC's president, was concerned about following the rules for a compounding pharmacy, Kastango said, "He (Cadden) was concerned about the bottom line."
Cadden, who was indicted along with Chin and 12 others, already has begun serving a nine year federal prison sentence after being found guilty of racketeering and mail fraud charges. He was acquitted on the second degree murder charges.
Thetakoff also asked whether Chin and "everyone in that clean room" should have quit their jobs because of all the violations.
"Absolutely," Kastango responded, "all should have quit."

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TENNESSEE VICTIMS

Marie Hester, 78, died Nov. 1, 2012
Eddie Lovelace, 78, died Nov. 2, 2012
Donald McDavid, 67, died Nov. 4, 2012
Diana Reed, 56, died Oct. 3, 2012
Thomas Rybinski, 55, died Sept. 29, 2012
Carol Wetton, 71, April 14, 2013
Earline Williams, 72, died Oct. 15, 2012



MICHIGAN DEATHS

Karina Baxter
Paula Brent
Gail Gipson
Donna Kruzich
Lyn Laperriere
Mary Plettl
Sally Roe
Emma Todd

INDIANA DEATHS

Pauline Burema
Kathy Dillon
Alice Machowiak

MARYLAND DEATHS

Bahman Kashi
Brenda Rozek
Edna Young

VIRGINIA DEATHS

Kathy Sinclair
Douglas Wingate

FLORIDA DEATH

Godwin Mitchell

NORTH CAROLINA DEATH

Elwina Shaw