Conigliaro, Carter Seek New Trial

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Charging that prosecutors only gained his conviction by sloshing through "swampy ground," the former vice president and part owner of a rogue drug compounding firm is asking for a new trial on charges he conspired to defraud the federal government.
In a 16-page filing in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass. lawyers for Gregory Conigliaro said prosecutors presented improper evidence including a statement that Conigliaro made millions from the now defunct New England Compounding Center.
He was joined by co-defendant Sharon Carter, who is also asking for a new trial on similar grounds.
The two defendants' filings were countered by federal prosecutors who filed a 12-page brief upholding the two convictions and concluding that none of the claims by Conigliaro warranted "the extraordinary relief of a new trial."
The two were among 14 indicted in late 2014 following a two year probe of the 2012 fungal meningitis, caused by contaminated NECC drugs. More than 100 patients eventually died after being injected with the fungus laden steroids.
Carter and Conigliaro were convicted of conspiring to defraud the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by contending that NECC was a small family owned company and not subject to federal regulation.
Carter and Conigliaro were convicted after an eight week trial. The presiding judge. Richard G. Stearns later overturned the jury's decisions and acquitted the two only to have the the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals restore the convictions.
In the Conigliaro appeal, Gregory Rabinowitz, his attorney, argued that prosecutors, despite a decision by Stearns, improperly charged that the former NECC officer made millions from the company.
In addition he wrote that jurors may have concluded that NECC was "the cause of it all" because of improper testimony and comments by prosecutors.
He also argued that jurors may have wrongly concluded that Conigliaro was guilty on the basis of so-called spillover evidence presented against co-defendants facing more serious charges.
The brief filed in behalf of Carter concluded it would be "a miscarriage of justice" were the appeal to be denied.
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