Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Stage Set for NECC Verdict Reversals?
By Walter F. Roche Jr.
Setting the stage for possible reversals of unanimous guilty verdicts returned by a jury, a federal judge is asking lawyers for two of the defendants in the recent trial stemming from a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak to submit arguments that could clear their clients.
In a one-page order issued today in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass. District Judge Richard G. Stearns set a Jan. 25 deadline for lawyers representing Gregory Conigliaro and Sharon Carter to submit briefs supporting a motion to reverse the guilty findings of a 12-person jury.
Conigliaro was the vice president and part owner of the New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for the 2012 outbreak that took the lives of dozens of patients across the country. Conigliaro was convicted on a charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S.Food and Drug Administration.
In his order Stearns invited Conigliaro's lawyers to submit a brief focusing on the argument that it was a legal impossibility for the FDA to be defrauded because the agency itself was not sure it had jurisdiction over NECC.
Dan Rabinowitz, Conigliaro's lawyer, already has raised the same argument in motions filed before the two month trial that ended last week.
Stearns himself has questioned the FDA fraud charge in comments made during the trial of co-defendant Barry J. Cadden, who was NECC's president and part owner.
"It's hard for me to see what the FDA was defrauded of," Stearns said on March 13 of last year during the Cadden trial. Cadden was convicted on racketeering and mail fraud charges and is now serving a nine-year federal prison sentence.
Federal prosecutors have argued that the FDA had clear authority to act against NECC because the company was actually a drug manufacturer and not a small family owned pharmacy as Conigliaro had claimed.
During the trial Janet Woodcock, a top FDA official, said NECC was masquerading as a pharmacy to avoid stricter FDA scrutiny.
Stearns called on Carter's lawyer to submit a brief by the Jan. 25 deadline focusing on whether there was sufficient evidence to prove she was a participant in a conspiracy. Carter was NECC's director of operations, overseeing order processing, packaging and shipping personnel.'s job at NECC was to verify drug orders before they were shipped to doctors and health facilities.
Stearns's order invites "discussion on the issue of whether there is a sufficient factual basis to support her (Carter's) membership in the conspiracy to defraud the Food and Drug Administration as alleged in the indictment," the order states.
Stearns order sets a Feb. 15 deadline for the U.S. Attorney to respond to the defense briefs. A hearing with oral arguments will follow on Feb. 20.
Conigliaro and Carter were two of five former NECC employees to be found guilty by the jury last week. One defendant, Joseph Evanosky was found not guilty.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com
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I couldn’t read whole article, I wanted to throw up. Does anyone give a sh** about the victims. This whole trial has been undermined by this judge from the very 1st day in court.
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing should be re-tried in a state with victims and a judge who’s community was effected. I’m sorry that these people choose themselves and jobs over another’s well being.
The whole place was aware, the local inspectors were aware, the state goverment was aware, multipul state goverments were aware of this fined, dirty, interstate racketeering organization.
What a joke this is. Like oh nevermind disheartened in mid America
Thanks
They were attempting to defraud the FDA by staying out of its jurisdiction, which would have been the appropriate overseeing authority given the way in which large quantities of drugs were produced for bulk distribution. NECC made every attempt to elude the higher standards required by the FDA, while they were clearly not following the compounding guidelines of the limited "patient-practitioner-pharmacist" relationship. Had the FDA been aware of the practices at NECC, I believe they would have been clear in understanding their jurisdiction. NECC's roots may have been as a family compounding business, but they were absolutely not that same company in 2012.
ReplyDeleteI do not know all the legal terminology to defend the jury's unanimous guilty verdict. Yet, I am filled with disgust at the idea that there is an opportunity for these defendants in particular, to avoid their responsibility to all those impacted by their practices.
OMG! Can we sue the FDA for being ignorant about what they can and can not oversee? This just makes me so angry. Government officials in every direction knew what was going on and turned a blind eye to it.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I’m Glad you can get your comment published! Of course the government officials knew what was going on, why do think you it never got much attention and still doesn’t. This was the biggest mass murder by a compounding pharmacy gone rogue in American history, and people that should’ve been safe guarding patients safety and health let it happen right in front of their eyes! NECC had been involved in several random deaths and lawsuits quite a few years before 2012, that should’ve been a red flag to someone in the FDA and the Massachusetts Pharmacy Board!
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