Connolly Gets 2 Years Probation

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A federal judge today sentenced a one time pharmacy technician to two years probation for his role at a now defunct drug compounding company that caused a deadly national outbreak of fungal meningitis.
U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns imposed the sentence on Scott Connolly in his Boston, Mass courtroom. Connolly had entered a guilty plea to 10 counts of mail fraud and could have faced a sentence of up to 33 months.
But Stearns followed the recommendation of federal prosecutors who stated that Connolly became a valuable prosecution witness and testified extensively against his former colleagues at the New England Compounding Center.
Connolly reached a plea agreement with the prosecution nearly a year ago under which they agreed to drop racketeering and related charges which could have brought a multi-year jail sentence.
The charges against Connolly stem from the fact that he was working as a pharmacy technician at NECC even though he had voluntarily surrendered his technician's certification as a result of a state investigation of unrelated charges.
Connolly was one of 14 people connected to NECC who were indicted following a two year probe of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak which sickened nearly 800 patients. Over 100 of them have died.
Connolly's attorney had argued for one year of probation, citing the assistance he provided to prosecutors.
While working for NECC, Connolly prepared dozens of vials of cardioplegia, a drug used to stop a patient's heart during open heart surgery. As his lawyer pointed out, there was no evidence that the drugs he prepared caused any patient harm.
Trial testimony showed that Connolly used NECC president Barry Cadden's sign on and password so regulators would not realize he was working as a technician. In addition Connolly would leave the clean room where he normally worked when state or federal regulators visited NECC's Framingham, Mass. facilities.
Of the 14 NECC related defendants who were indicted, only one has been cleared of charges. Cadden, who was president and part owner of NECC is serving a nine year sentence and supervising pharmacist Glenn Chin is serving an eight year sentence.
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