Prosecutor: Cadden Viewed Company as His ATM

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

BOSTON, Mass.  The head of a now defunct drug compounding firm blamed for the death of 76 patients treated the company as his own personal ATM machine, Assistant U.S. Attorney George P. Varghese told jurors today.
In opening arguments in the case against Barry Cadden, who is facing charges of 25 counts of second degree murder, Varghese said Cadden placed profits over patients and literally made millions in the process.
"NECC was Barry Cadden's baby" Varghese said.
Bruce Singal, Cadden's lawyer, countered charging that Varghese was distorting the truth and there was no evidence of murder.
Acknowledging that the patients' deaths were "shocking to say the least," Singal said Cadden was trying to do the right thing and displayed emails in which Cadden wanted to investigate and correct any errors.
The opening arguments before U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns centered on the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak caused by tainted spinal steroids shipped from the New England Compounding Center in Framingham. According to court documents some 778 patients were sickened in the outbreak.
Cadden is specifically charged with second degree murder in the deaths of 25 patients. Varghese displayed pictures of those victims one by one, including an Ocala Florida man, who had lived "a very healthy lifestyle" and was in good health until he was injected with methylprednisolone acetate produced by NECC.
Varghese charged that even as the outbreak was unfolding Cadden was not forthcoming when first contacted by state and federal regulators. Meanwhile as more victims were sickened doctors were left scrambling for a diagnosis.
"Every single day mattered," Varghese charged but "Cadden didn't tell the truth."
The prosecutor said he would be presenting evidence of multiple incidences of contamination of NECC products including the use of outdated chemicals to produce a pediatric cancer drug.
He said in another case NECC issued doses of a numbing drug for patients undergoing cataract surgery at a Boston hospital, but the numbing agent was completely missing.
Singal disputed both of those examples contending that NECC produced the cancer drugs because doctors were begging for it. And, he said, the chemical when tested proved 97 per cent effective regardless of the age of its components.
He said Cadden himself ordered an inquiry into the incident with the eye numbing agent.
Singal also displayed a copy of an email in which Cadden was critical of an outside testing firm which had not been doing its job.
And Singal said far from failing to notify officials,  Cadden had personally called a hospital administrator to warn that a suspect drug should be set aside and placed "in quarantine." He played a recording of that phone call for jurors.
He read from an email in which Cadden warned employees not to "pencil whip" environmental reviews. Some NECC employees, Singal said, were trying to trick Cadden.
Singal also said that NECC in fact had an excellent record of complying with sanitary and environmental standards.
"Of course mistakes were made," Singal said, "but they weren't criminal. They weren't murder."
He said that Varghese had implied that Cadden was "the owner" of NECC when in fact he only owned 17.5 per cent. His wife had an equal share, but the majority owner held 55 percent.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

Judge Loosens Cadden's House Arrest

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Defendant Barry Cadden will be allowed to be away from his Wrentham, Mass. home for 17 hours a day during his trial on second degree murder and racketeering charges.
U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns Friday approved a motion filed by Cadden's lawyer, Bruce Singal, to allow his client to be away from home from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays to attend court sessions and prepare for those court sessions.
Under his former confinement order Cadden was only allowed to leave his home from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. limit will remain in effect on weekends.
Under a schedule set by Stearns both sides will make opening statements in a session set for 9 a.m. Monday. A heavy snowstorm moving through New England over the weekend could cause delays.
Cadden is one of 14 persons charged in a 131 count indictment issued by a federal grand jury following a two year probe of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak, which, according to court documents, caused the death of 76 patients across the country. The dead were among the 778 sickened by fungus loaded drugs produced by the company Cadden helped found, the New England Compounding Center.
Two of the defendants have entered guilty pleas to reduced charges and two other have had charges dismissed. Some of the charges were dismissed against another defendant, but she and seven others are scheduled for trial in April.
Glenn Chin, a supervising pharmacist at NECC, who faces the same charges as Cadden, will go on trial after Cadden's trial is completed.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

Twelve Jurors, Three Alternates Selected

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

With opening statements just days away, twelve jurors and three alternates have been chosen to hear the second degree murder charges against the part owner of a Massachusetts drug compounding firm blamed in the deaths of 76 patients.
The jurors were selected today from a panel of 175 called to jury duty earlier this week. They will hear the case by federal prosecutors against Barry J. Cadden, who has been charged with racketeering and 25 counts of second degree murder.
Five men and ten women were selected to hear the case which could last several months. Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Monday morning in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass.
U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns is presiding over the case. A former federal prosecutor, Stearns was presiding over the trial of mobster James "Whitey" Bulger until Bulger's lawyers succeeded in having him disqualified due to his role at the U.S. Justice Department while the case was being investigated.
Cadden's legal team is headed by Bruce Singal, a veteran criminal defense lawyer, who once served as the head of the state Consumer's Council.
Pretrial filings indicate that Cadden will contend that he was not personally aware of adverse laboratory reports and other warning signs that NECC was producing highly contaminated drugs.
In papers filed by codefendant Glenn Chin, Chin's lawyer stated that he had learned that Cadden planned to blame Chin for all the lapses.
NECC has been blamed by state and federal regulators for the deadly 2012 outbreak of fungal meningitis. Court filings in a related case show that some 76 patients died in the outbreak, out of 778 who were sickened.
The victims were injected with methylprednisolone acetate riddled with fungus. One federal regulator referred to the NECC Framingham, Mass. operation as a "fungal zoo."
The company ceased operations in the fall of 2012 and filed for bankruptcy at year's end.
Contact: wfrochejr@gmail.com

Jury Won't Hear Outbreak Death Toll

 By Walter F. Roche Jr.

 Next week a federal jury in Boston, Mass. will begin hearing arguments on the largest and deadliest drug contamination disaster in the country's history, but federal prosecutors will be barred from telling the jurors just how deadly it was.
Scheduled for opening arguments Monday is the criminal trial of Barry Cadden, a former pharmacist and drug company owner, who is facing charges of racketeering, 25 counts of second degree murder and mail and wire fraud charges.
According to a filing by a federal agent in a related case, 76 patients died from fungus riddled steroids shipped by Cadden's company, the now defunct New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.
 Joseph Ridgley, a special agent for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, wrote in the affidavit, that the criminal investigation turned up 12 more deaths than had been reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And, the total number of patients sickened was 778, up from the the 751 in the official CDC count.
But neither the FDA count nor the lower CDC count can be mentioned in Cadden's trial under a ruling issued this week by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns. Under his order prosecutors can refer to the outbreak in general terms and cite "multiple deaths" but not the case counts.
Nor can prosecutors provide details of any deaths beyond the 25 specifically cited in the 131 count indictment.
In a series of pre-trial motions Cadden's lawyer, Bruce Singal, has sought to limit or even eliminate testimony from some of the prosecution witnesses. Stearns has granted some, but not all of those requests.
The Cadden trial will be followed by the trial of NECC's supervising pharmacist Glenn Chin, who also faces second degree murder charges.
Pretrial filings indicate that Cadden intends to charge that it was "Chin and Chin alone" who was responsible for the deaths.

The death toll in a 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak jumped by 12 to a total of 76, according to a massive filing in the criminal case against those blamed for the outbreak

.
The new death toll numbers were included in an affidavit filed by federal agents to justify the seizure of additional assets from the owners of the New England Compounding Center, the now defunct firm blamed for the outbreak.
According to the filing, the number of victims of the outbreak continued to climb even after officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped updating the case count.
According to the affidavit the number of patients sickened also continued upward reaching 778, 27 higher than the last CDC count of 751.
"The CDC stopped updating its official count as of Oct. 31, 2013," Joseph Ridgley, a special agent for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, wrote in one court filed affidavit.
"This investigation, however, revealed that the total number of infected patients increased and is approximately 778, of which 76 have died," he continued.
The new numbers were included in filings made by federal officials to justify the seizure of $18.3 million in assets held by NECC founder and stockholder Barry Cadden and co-owners Lisa and Douglas Conigliaro.
All three were named in a 131-count indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Boston last month.
The three and 11 others - all owners or employees of NECC- were indicted on charges ranging from second degree murder to mail fraud. They all have entered not guilty pleas. No trial date has been set.
The affidavits totaling 128-pages, which were unsealed this week, detail how Cadden and the Conigliaros paid themselves millions of dollars which had been paid to NECC to provide a fungus tainted spinal steroid injected into the spines and joints of unsuspecting victims.
The 25 counts of second degree murder were lodged against Cadden, who was the chief pharmacist for NECC, and Glenn Chin, a supervisory pharmacist for the Framingham, Mass drug compounding firm.
Under the seizure order assets totaling $1.5 million were seized from Cadden while $16.8 million was seized from Douglas and Lisa Conigliaro.
The Conigliaros were charged in the indictment with violating a bankruptcy court order that had placed a freeze on the $16.8 million.
The owners of NECC already had agreed to contribute nearly $50 million to a $136 million fund to compensate victims of the outbreak. It was not immediately clear how much if any of the additional $18.3 million would be allotted to the victims' fund.
The victims' fund was created as part of the proposed settlement of NECC's bankruptcy case and is subject to approval by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Henry Boroff.
wfrochejr999@gmail.com

No comments:

Post a Comment

Judge Blocks Subpoena For Victims' Records

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

An attempt by the man charged in the deaths of 25 patients to use some of those patients records from a civil case as part of his defense has been blocked at the last minute by a federal judge.
In a decision issued late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns granted a motion to quash the subpoena that had been filed in behalf of Barry Cadden, whose trial on racketeering and second degree murder charges gets underway todayBoston, Mass..
Cadden had sought victims' records compiled in a civil suit filed in behalf of victims of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak, but Stearns concluded that the materials Cadden sought were not subject to subpoena.
"The testimonial statements and expert disclosures are specifically excluded from subpoena," Stearns wrote.
The motion to quash was filed by the Plaintiffs Steering Committee (PSC), a panel of lawyers representing victims of the 2012 outbreak.
In their motion the PSC charged that Cadden was trying to skirt the rules that govern evidence and discovery in criminal cases.
Noting that Cadden "is before this court on serious criminal charges for his actions resulting in deaths and serious injuries," the PSC added, "now he asks his own victims to help him get away with murder."
Under the subpoena the records, including deposition testimony and expert witness reports, were to be turned over by tomorrow.
The PSC charged that the subpoena failed to comply with the detailed requirements set in previous court cases and was designed to allow Cadden "to go on a fishing expedition for evidence that might help his criminal case."
The 2012 outbreak was caused by fungus contaminated methylprednisolone acetate shipped from NECC's Framingham, Mass. facility to health care providers across the country. Seventy seven patients died and hundreds of others were sickened.
Cadden's case is the first to go to trial following a two-year federal probe of the outbreak. The jury selection process began today with prospective jurors filling out a questionnaire. A panel of 16 jurors is expected to be selected by Friday.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

Judge Limits Outbreak Testimony in Cadden Trial

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Federal prosecutors will not be allowed to present evidence of specific fungal meningitis outbreak deaths unless that evidence relates to one of the 25 victims for which a former drug company executive is facing racketeering and second degree murder charges.
The exclusion was one of several approved today by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns in a decision issued on the eve of jury selection in the case set to begin in Boston, Mass.
Stearns concluded that while prosecutors can refer to "multiple deaths" in the 2012 outbreak, use of the specific case counts compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be barred.
Stearns also ruled on more than a dozen other requests by lawyers for Barry Cadden, the defendant, to limit or bar testimony by government witnesses.
Cadden is facing 25 counts of second degree murder and could be sentenced for life if convicted on those and other charges. Cadden was chief pharmacist and part owner of the New England Compounding Center, the Framingham, Mass. firm blamed for the deadly outbreak of fungal meningitis.
Stearns wrote that prosecutors could in their opening statement "refer to the larger picture of the bacterial(sic) meningitis outbreak," but not the "precise unverified raw number estimates provided by the CDC."
The CDC has reported that the outbreak sickened 753 patients across the country, killing 64 of them. In fact filings in a related case show that federal investigators uncovered additional illnesses and deaths pushing the illness total to 778 and the deaths to 77.
Stearns also ruled that experts from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will be allowed to give testimony on whether NECC violated industry sanitation standards but not on whether any violations amounted to a criminal act.
Testimony from other FDA officials not designated as expert witnesses also will be limited to "their percipient observations".
As to the existence of a mattress recycling operation in close proximity to NECC, Stearns ruled that the recycling operation could be mentioned along with its impact on NECC's operations, "but not alleged violations of federal or state environmental laws and regulations concerning the plant itself."
Stearns did grant a motion by prosecutors to bar evidence of a civil settlement in a suit brought against NECC, insurance companies, Cadden and other owners and related parties.
Stearns previously ruled that prosecutors could not present evidence of a New York law suit charging that an NECC drug caused a patient's death. The case was settled out of court. He also limited the testimony on Cadden's wealth, but not his ownership interest in NECC.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

Trial to Begin in 25 Outbreak Deaths

 

Guest Book

12 entries

• "I too had the honor of knowing Karin. We had graduated with..."
  - Sandi Winton-Horner

The Guest Book is expired.

Restore the Guest Book

BAXTER, KARINA

Age 56, of Burton (formerly of Grand Blanc), died Sunday, September 23, 2012. Memorial services will be held at 3:00 P.M. Saturday, September 29, 2012 at Bristol Road Church of Christ, 1315 W. Bristol Rd, Flint, with dinner to follow. Minister Dr. Brian Stogner will officiate. Those desiring may make contributions to P.A.W.S. Rescue of Swartz Creek (www.pawsanimalrescue.org). Karina was born November 10, 1955 in Flint. She graduated from Grand Blanc High School in 1973 and was recruited to work for Chevrolet Motors shortly thereafter. She left Chevrolet to begin a family in 1981 and later earned a B.A. in Mathematics and with teaching certifications in Mathematics and Science from the University of Michigan-Flint in 2001. She loved teaching, tutoring, cars and helping those in need, whether they were human, furred or feathered. She is survived by her three children, Anita, Andrew and Brian Baxter; their father, Kenneth Baxter; her mother, Margaret Newberry; brother, Gary Michael; close friends, Cathy Hyrman and Mike Joslin; and her many beloved pets. She was preceded in death by her father, Clare Mintline and her brother, David Mintline.

- See more at: http://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/flint/obituary.aspx?pid=160127069#sthash.0N06Pg65.dpuf

By Walter F. Roche Jr.


They came from six different states and ranged in age from 47 to 89. There were 25 in all and they all died after being injected with a drug that was supposed to relieve their pain.
Beginning this week the trial will begin for one of two Massachusetts men charged with second degree murder in all 25 deaths.
Jury selection begins Wednesday in the trial of Barry Cadden, chief pharmacist and part owner of the New England Compounding Center, the Framingham, Mass. firm that shipped the fatal fungus tainted drugs to health providers in 20 states.
Cadden's lawyers already have conceded that NECC drugs killed the 25 patients, but he denies any responsibility. His co-defendant, Glen Chin, has disputed the assertion that the victims died from NECC drugs and will be tried separately.
The 25 named victims were not the only ones to die. Fifty-four  other victims died out of the total 778 who were sickened. Federal prosecutors however, narrowed the field to 25 when crafting the 131 count 73-page indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in late 2014.
Some of the 25 already had been identified as outbreak victims, but others had not. Here are just some.
                                                             The Victims
Pauline Burema, a Michigan resident, died on October 10 of 2012. She was 89 and left three sons and two daughters. 
For years she worked as a volunteer at a local hospital. According to her obituary, she died at her daughter's home.
"She loved her dog Lucky and would help anyone who needed help," her obituary states.
Nearly a month earlier, Douglas Wingate, a resident of Salem, Va. died at the age of 49. He was a longtime employee of Pepsi Cola and left his wife and two daughters.
Two days before Wingate died, Brenda Rozek, a Maryland resident, passed away. Her death on Sept. 16, 2012, was the earliest listed in the federal indictment.
Just a day after Rozek, Eddie Lovelace a Kentucky judge who had travelled to Nashville, Tenn.   to be injected with methylprednisolone acetate also passed away. It was only after Lovelace body was exhumed that his family learned that he too was a victim of the outbreak.
Godwin Mitchell, 88, a resident of Reddick, Fla. died on March 18, 2013. Born in the West Indies, Mitchell left his wife, five sons and four daughters.
He was active in the Shiloh SDA Church serving as an elder and Sunday School Teacher.
Donald F. McDavid, 67, died on Nov. 4, 2012. A veteran employee of the Florida Department of Corrections, McDavid turned to raising horses in Rockwood, Tenn. in his retirement. He left his wife and three children.
Karina Baxter, died on Sept. 23, 2012. She worked for General Motors for several years, before leaving to raise a family. She took time out from her household duties long enough to earn a B.A. degree in mathematics and then embarked on a teaching career.
Carol Wetton, a Guthrie Ky resident, was 71 when she died on April 16, 2013. Of the 25 victims named in the indictment, she was the last to die. Wetton, who was injected at Nashville's Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center, had sought the injection in hopes of putting off surgery for severe back problems.
But soon after her Sept. 17 injection she became ill. Like Loveless, she had traveled from Kentucky to Nashville in hopes for relief. Almost seven months to the day later, she died.
Cadden's trial will begin Wednesday with jury selection. Opening statements will come next week under the schedule set by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns, a former federal prosecutor.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com

Named Victims and Dates of Death

Michigan: Karina Baxter (9/23/12), Paula Brent (11/17/12), Gayle Gipson (10/26/12), Donna Kruzich (10/8/12), Lynn Lapierre  10/17/12), Mary Pletti (8/23/12), Sally Roe (10/18/12), Emma Todd

Tennessee: Marie Hester (11/1/12), Eddie Lovelace (9/17/12), Donald McDavid (11/4/12), Diana Reed (10/3/12) , Thomas Rybinski (9/29/12), Carol Wetton (4/16/13), Earline Williams (10/15/12)

Indiana: Pauline Burema (10/10/12), Kathy Dillon (11/5/12), Alice Machowiak (12/10/12)

Maryland: Bahman Kashi (1/28/13), Brenda Rozek (9/16/12), Edna Young (12/31/12)

Virginia: Kathy Sinclair (1/9/13), Douglas Wingate (9/18/12)

Florida: Godwin Mitchell (3/18/13)

North Carolina: Elwina Shaw (10/19/12)