76 on Witness List for Final NECC Trial

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Federal prosecutors have issued a list of 76 possible witnesses in the upcoming trial of the remaining defendants in a criminal case stemming from the deadly 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.
The lengthy list filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass. includes many of the witnesses who testified in the trials of the two main defendants, Barry J. Cadden and Glenn Chin. Both were connected to the New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for the outbreak. Both are now serving federal prison terms following their conviction on racketeering and mail fraud charges.
The list also gives strong indications that much of the evidence and testimony will parallel the path in the first two trials.
Many of the possible witnesses are employees of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the sister agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those were the agencies heading the investigation of the outbreak which sickened 778 patients, killing at least 76 of them.
Joseph Ridgley, a criminal investigator from the FDA and his colleague, Frank Lombardo, appeared and gave key testimony in the earlier trials.
FBI agent Philip Sliney is on the list along with an investigator from the U.S. Postal Service and the Veterans Administration.
Others on the list include officials of various state agencies involved in the outbreak investigation. Those include officials of the Massachusetts Pharmacy Board like Samuel Penta, whose agency licensed the New England Compounding Center.
As in the first two trials, the witness list includes representatives of the hospitals and health care facilities that purchased drugs from NECC. Dr. John Culclasure testified about the use of NECC steroids at the Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center in Nashville, Tenn. and the discovery that many of those patients became sick and more than a dozen died.
Culclasure's role remains unclear, since none of the nine remaining defendants are charged with murder. Chin and Cadden faced 25 counts of second degree murder, including several patients at Culclasure's Nashville clinic. Both were cleared of second degree murder racketeering charges.
Presiding U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns has ruled that prosecutors cannot use evidence and testimony about the deaths in the upcoming trial.
The witness list includes several former employees of NECC and a sister sales company, Medical Sales Management. Among them is Joseph Connelly, who gave key testimony in the earlier trials. Joseph Connelly is the brother of one of the nine defendants, Scott Connelly.
Scott Connelly also was an NECC employee and worked in one of the clean rooms where sterile drugs were prepared. Though he functioned as a pharmacy technician, Scott Connelly had previously surrendered his technician's certificate to Massachusetts officials in the midst on an investigation of his actions.
Other former NECC and MSM employees on the list include Cory Fletcher, Owen Finnegan, Mario Giamei and John Notarianni.
Ann Robinson, who gave critical prior testimony about repeated lapses in the preparation of NECC drugs, also is on the list.
Stearns, who also presided over the two earlier trials, has set an Oct. 2 starting date for the coming trial. Though Stearns set time limits on prosecutors and defense attorneys in the Chin case, he has not indicated if he will take similar steps in the coming trial.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com