Chin Seeks 37 Month Sentence in NECC Case

By Watlter F. Roche Jr.

Glenn Chin, the 49-year-old former pharmacist convicted of racketeering and mail fraud for his role in the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak is asking the judge presiding over his case to limit his sentence to 37 months.
In a 25-page filing today Chin's lawyer argued that the only victims of the outbreak were the physicians and health care providers who purchased drugs from Chin's company not the nearly 800 patients who were sickened or the 76 who died after injection with drugs Chin prepared.
"While the patients have endured terrible suffering they do not meet the definition of vulnerable victims," the sentencing memorandum states.
The recommendation is in sharp contrast to the one submitted late last week by federal prosecutors who asked U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns to send Chin to jail for 35 years.
The recommendations come before a hearing scheduled for Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass.
Chin argued that several so-called enhancements sought by prosecutors to lengthen his sentence, such as the large number of victims and the fact that Chin, a supervising pharmacist at NECC held a position of trust, did not apply to the facts of his case.
Citing the statements of federal prosecutors themselves, Chin stated that co-defendant Barry J. Cadden ran NECC, making all decisions and personally directing all of Chin's activities.
Chin's motion also disputes the of value losses federal prosecutors claim resulted from his criminal activity. Some of those drugs were not defective even though they were prepared by an unlicensed technician, the filing notes.
And literally for years, the filing states, NECC shipped drugs without any complaints or problems.
"Mr. Chin should not be sentenced based on drugs that were not proven deficient at trial," the brief states.
Noting that Chin was a salaried employee who did not share in profits as Cadden did, the motions concludes that imposing the 35 year sentence would result "in an utter travesty of justice."
Cadden already is serving a nine year prison sentence based on his conviction on similar charges. Proecutors had sought a 35 year sentence in his case also.
Both Cadden and Chin were cleared of second degree murder charges in the deaths of 25 patients.
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