NECC Defendants Launch Barrage of Motions

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

With the start of a long awaited trial just weeks away, the eight remaining defendants in the case stemming from a deadly outbreak have launched a series of motions to limit what they contend would be highly prejudicial testimony and evidence against them.
The filings late last week contend that prosecutors intend to make the upcoming trial a replay of the prior trials of Glenn Chin and Barry Cadden, both of whom are now serving prison terms. Allowing prosecutors to do that, lawyers for the defendants contend, would be highly prejudicial
Cadden, Chin and the eight defendants were employees of the now defunct New England Compounding Center, the company at the heart of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak that killed 76 patients and sickened some 700 more.
One of the motions filed Friday asks U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns to order prosecutors to declare in advance of the October trial what evidence and testimony they intend to use in front of the jury to establish that six of the eight defendants were coconspirators.
Stating that the government must prove the existence of a conspiracy, the motion notes that the remaining defendants were not involved in the production of the drug, methylprednisolone acetate, that led to the death of dozens of patients.
"There is good reason to believe that the government will be unable to establish that any of the remaining defendants in fact intended to join Cadden and Chin in the alleged conspiracy," the joint filing states.
They argued that the just because they all were employees of NECC does not establish that they were part of a conspiracy.
The defendants, who are asking for a hearing on the issue, argue that allowing prosecutors to present their disputed evidence runs the serious risk of a mistrial.
Also filed late last week were a series of motions by Kathy Chin, the wife of Glenn Chin, who was an NECC employee and a licensed pharmacist. Chin was not charged with conspiracy. Her lawyer repeated charges in an earlier motion that prosecutors were attempting to bring in extensive evidence that has nothing to do with the four counts with which she has been charged.
Citing hundreds of pieces of evidence prosecutors have listed for possible use at trial, the motion states that Chin "has no way of knowing which of these the government may offer into evidence."
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