Cadden/Chin Seek Case Dismissal

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Lawyers for the two former pharmacists facing second degree murder charges are asking a Livingston County district court judge to dismiss the charges because state prosecutors have failed to show how 11 patients died following their injection with fungus laden steroids.
In separate briefs filed in Michigan the lawyers for Barry Cadden and Glenn Chin say that the state Attorney General's office also failed to show that the two acted with malice in their roles in the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.
Assistant State Attorney General Gregory J. Townsend, meanwhile has argued that the two should be bound over for trial on the murder charges because probable cause has been shown that the two "committed these 11 counts of second degree murder."
District Court Judge Shauna Murphy has set a June 24 date for a final pre-trial hearing on the case.
Cadden was president and part owner of the New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for the outbreak. Chin was a supervising pharmacist in the clean room where the contaminated steroids were compounded.
In his final 37-page brief Townsend cited "compelling evidence" against the two "establishing the independent basis for conspiracy."
Stating that the charges were properly brought in Michigan, Townsend wrote that "the defendants knowingly created a very high risk of death or such harm would be a likely result of their actions."
Noting that the prosecution presented 16 witnesses and 80 exhibits, the brief also disputes the claim by Cadden's attorney that the charges should be dismissed because a federal jury already has declined to convict his client on second degree murder charges.
"The state should not now be allowed a do-over when all of the relevant evidence has already been presented and found wanting by a jury," wrote Gerald J. Gleeson, Cadden's attorney.
Charging that the attorney general "cherry picked" testimony to present "an exaggerated and inaccurate characterization of NECC's operations,"Gleeson also argued that it was Chin and not Cadden who prepared the tainted drugs.
Chin's lawyer, James D. Buttrey, however, argued that the drugs became contaminated after Chin had done the compounding and he noted that prosecutors failed to produce any evidence on just how the methylprednisolone acetate became contaminated.
Gleeson also raised that issue stating "The state has still failed to put up any evidence as to precisely how the contamination occurred."
In his brief Townsend stated that the both Cadden and Chin were responsible for allowing the unsanitary practices to exist in the preparation of drugs.
"Both defendants were well aware that these practices were both illegal and created a very high risk of death, Townsend's brief states.
"Production, profits and greed were more important than ensuring the health and safety of the public," the prosecution's brief states.
Townsend also disputed Gleeson's double jeopardy claim citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling which held that a state government can pursue state charges even if the federal government prosecuted based on the same events.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com