NECC Jury Ends 4th Day of Deliberations

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Boston--The jury considering the criminal case against six former employees of a defunct drug compounding company adjourned at 4 p.m. today ending the fourth full day since the case was formally sent to them.
The defendants were employees of the New England Compounding Center, the company that caused a deadly nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak.
The six,including Gregory Conigliaro, an NECC vice president and part owner, have been charged with racketeering, conspiracy, mail fraud and violations of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act.
They were indicted along with eight others following a two-year probe of the 2012 outbreak.
The jurors deliberate behind closed doors within the Moakley Federal Courthouse in the city's seaport district. They are visible, and then from a distance, only during lunch breaks.
Defendants, their lawyers and other interested parties spent the day wandering the courthouse hallways and visiting the second floor cafeteria. The jurors will deliver their verdicts in the seventh floor courtroom of U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns, who has presided over the trial which began with opening arguments on Oct. 15.
In the previous trials of co-defendants jurors deliberated by up to five days. Deliberations in the trial of Barry J. Cadden deliberated five days while deliberations in the trial of Glenn Chin lasted three days.
Cadden, NECC's president and part owner, is serving a nine-year prison sentence while Chin, an NECC supervising pharmacist, is serving an eight year term.