2021 Leaves Victims With Questions Unanswered

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

As another year comes to a close, key questions remain unanswered for victims and perpetrators of a deadly 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.
Barry Cadden and Glenn Chin have yet to learn if they are likely to spend the rest of their lives in prison. Both have appealed a Michigan ruling that they must stand trial on 11 counts of second degree murder.
Victims of the outbreak and their survivors also are awaiting the outcome of the Chin and Cadden Michigan murder charges. The charges stem from the deaths of 11 patients who were injected with contaminated steroids, produced at a drug compounding firm where the two played key roles.
Victims also are anxious to know when or if the $82 million restitution order will ever be fully enforced. Most involved in the case concede it is unlikely the full $82 million will ever be distributed to the 379 victims.
Cadden and Chin, as a result of the same federal appeals court ruling, had their sentences boosted, Cadden now faces a 15.5 year federal sentence while Chin's was increased to 10.5 years.
During the year victims did get the final $11.5 million distribution from the settlement of related civil litigation.
A federal appeals court meanwhile reversed the acquittal of two other employees of the New England Compounding Center, the compounding drug company where Cadden was president and part owner.
Gregory Conigliaro and Sharon Carter were convicted of conspiring to defraud the federal government.
Another defendant Gene Svirskiy finished his sentence in 2021 and was released. Svirskiy, court documents show, plans to resume working in another compounding pharmacy, part owned by a member of the Massachusetts board which regulates pharmacists.
A company formed by Gregory Conigliaro, meanwhile, purchased a Cape Cod seaside house for $3 million.
Cadden's Wrentham Mass. house, which had been seized by the federal government, was sold off at auction for $1.3 milllion.
Another defendant, Robert Ronzio, who cut a deal with federal prosecutors and became their star witness, has had his sentencing hearing delayed and delayed. The session is now scheduled for Feb. 8 of next year.
Ronzio was head of sales at NECC and gave extensive testimony about the company's operations. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the federal government,
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

Pharmacist Files Appeals Notice in Federal Case

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

One of the former pharmacists convicted of racketeering and related chargesnhas filed notice of a series of appeals including the recent addition of $3,312 to an $82 million restitution order.
The notice was filed today in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass. for Barry J. Cadden, who was president and part owner of a drug compounding firm that caused a nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak.
In the same filing Cadden is disputing his 14.5 year federal jail sentence. The appeals go to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, which has already turned down other Cadden appeals.
The addition to the restitution order comes even though lawyers for Cadden had earlier stated he had no objections to the addition.
Government lawyers had sought the increase because the award to one of the outbreak victims had been inadvertently omitted from the $80.1 million claim.
The restitution was also impossed on co-defendant Glenn Chinn, who was a supervising pharmacist at the same Massachusetts compounding company as Cadden.
Both Cadden and Chin are currently being held at the Livingston County Jail in Michigan awaiting trial on charges of second degree murder in the deaths of 13 county residents who were victims of the 2012 deadly outbreak.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

Cadden, Chin Apppeals Denied Again

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

For the second time the Michigan Court of Appeals has denied the petitions of Glenn Chin and Barry Cadden to have their 13 second degree murder charges efectively thrown out.
In a one paragraph order issued Wednesday the court ruled that the appeals lacked merit "on the grounds presented".
The two are facing the charges brought by the Michigan Attorney General for their roles in the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak which ultimately took the lives of 100 patients.
The two worked for the New England Compounding Center, the Massachusetts company that shipped thousands of vials of contaminated steroids to health facilities across the country.
The case was sent back to the Appeals Court for reconsideration last month by the state Supreme Court. The brief decision cited a 2003 case in which a mother faced murder charges in the death of her child. The appeals panel had already rejected the appeal in a terse one paragraph decision.
Lawyers for Cadden and Chin had argued that there was insufficient evidence for the charges to be sent to a jury.
Chin's lawyers had argued that prosecutors had failed to identify a single act by Chin that caused the deaths of 13 Michigan residents, who died after being injected with fungus laden preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate.
Cadden was president and part owner of the the now defunct NECC. Chin was the pharmacist in charge of the clean room where the contaminated drugs were prepared.
Barring another appeal to the Supreme Court, the case will now go back to Livingston County for trial. Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com