Prosecutors: NECC Convictions Must Stand

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Federal prosecutors today asked a federal judge to deny motions for acquittal filed in behalf of three pharmacists convicted last year on charges stemming from the probe of a deadly 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.
Charging that the petitions for acquittal or a new trial simply rehashed arguments already rejected during the eight week trial, the prosecutors said the jury's guilty verdicts against Gene Svirskiy, Christopher Leary and Alla Stepanets should stand.
The three were employed at the New England Compounding Center, which was shuttered in the wake of the outbreak which took the lives of more than 100 patients who had been injected with contaminated steroids shipped by NECC.
The three were not charged, however, with playing any role in the specific drug blamed for the outbreak but for producing and shipping other contaminated, mislabeled and untested drugs to health facilities from Florida to upstate New York.
Svirskiy and Leary were convicted on charges of racketeering, conspiracy, mail fraud and violations of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, while Stepanets was convicted on six counts of violating the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act.
In the Friday filings Assistant U.S. Attorneys George Varghese and Amanda Strachan wrote that none of the arguments raised in the acquittal motions "justify the extraordinary step of overturning the jury's verdict in this case."
Citing the motion filed in behalf of Svirskiy, the prosecutors said, "The jury was presented with abundant evidence of Svirskiy's "knowing participation in NECC's fraudulent scheme."
And, they argued, the fact that the pharmacists never actually interacted with any of NECC's customers was irrelevant.
Cited were internal emails copied or sent to Svirskiy and Leary detailing repeated sterility and other problems in the clean room where they worked. The emails also showed the defendants were aware untested products were being shipped to customers despite promises to the contrary.
Svirskiy had also argued that he was prejudiced when U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns barred testimony about racial slurs and anti Semitic statements made by co-defendant Glenn Chin.
Stearns concluded the statements would just inflame "for no particular reason."
Chin was convicted in a separate trial and is currently serving an eight year prison term.
Labeling some of the arguments "the last gasp of the convicted," the prosecutors added, "There was absolutely nothing wrong" with the prosecutions closing arguments in the trial that ended in early December.
In Stepanets' case, prosecutors said claims that her role at NECC was merely clerical were disproved by evidence and testimony during the trial. They noted she approved for shipment drugs prescribed for
obviously fictitious patients such as L.L. Bean and Filet O' Fish.
The three were convicted along with Gregory Conigliaro and Sharon Carter in last year's trial. They also have filed motions for acquittal or a new trial and a hearing is scheduled for Feb. 26. Two final NECC defendants are scheduled for trial in March.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com