Thursday, April 13, 2017

Cadden Demands Jury Records Be Handed Over


By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The former drug company executive convicted on racketeering charges is asking a federal judge to order prosecutors to turn over copies of materials given to the jurors who found him guilty last month.
In an eight-page motion filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass. lawyers for Barry J. Cadden charged that a binder full of test results on drugs produced by Cadden's company was improperly provided to the jury while it was deliberating.
The motion charges that the assistant U.S. Attorneys who prosecuted the case refused a request to provide a copy of the binder and a PowerPoint presentation that was provided to jurors just before they began their deliberations.
The motion follows Cadden's request to U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns to have the jury's guilty verdicts reversed or that he be granted a new trial.
Cadden was convicted on 58 counts of racketeering, conspiracy and mail fraud. The 12-member jury acquitted him on 25 counts of second degree murder.
Cadden was one of 14 people indicted following a lengthy federal probe of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak caused by drugs shipped from the New England Compounding Center. Cadden was president and part owner of NECC.
In the motion to compel, preserve and/or complete the trial record,"Cadden's attorneys said they were certain the binder had been given to jurors because it was among the materials returned after the jury finally adjourned.
"The government submitted a non-admitted binder to the jury," the motion states, adding that "it was only after the verdict that Cadden learned, as the government well knew, that the jury had the binder when it deliberated."
"Even now the government refuses to provide Cadden with a copy of that binder," the filing continues.
As the motion notes during the trial Stearns repeatedly assured Cadden's lawyers that the binder did not go the jurors,  even stating that he went into the jury room to make sure it wasn't there.
"The government had a duty to correct the court's misunderstanding, but instead allowed the error to continue," the motion adds.
Cadden's lawyers charged that through the use of the binder, prosecutors made a "surreptitious and successful" effort to provide jurors with a copy of a mycology report from the New York State Health Department  that was "highly prejudicial."
According to the motion the PowerPoint presentation included a compilation of test results that had never been provided to defense lawyers.
"The PowerPoint must be provided to clarify the record," the motion states, adding that the binder is also needed for Cadden to pursue his effort to have the charges overturned.
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