NECC Defendant Gets U.S. Paid Attorney

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A federal magistrate judge has approved a request by a defendant in the criminal case stemming from a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak to have the federal government pick up the tab for the lawyer she hired to defend her.
In a four-page order issued today U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer Boal agreed that the government should pick up the tab for Sharon Carter's continued defense with her current attorney.
Carter is charged with racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She was one of 14 indicted in late 2014 following a two-year probe of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.
Carter was director of operations for the New England Compounding Center, the company that shipped highly contaminated steroid drugs to dozens of health care facilities. The 2012 outbreak sickened 778 patients, killing 76 of them.
Under the decision Carter's current lawyer, Michael J. Pineault, can continue as her counsel even though he is not a member of a panel of lawyers selected to represent indigent defendants.
"The court finds that she (Carter) is financially unable to obtain counsel at this time," Boal wrote, adding that the defendant "has exhausted the personal assets available to fund her defense."
Though she noted that appointing a counsel not on the panel is only allowed in exceptional cases under the Criminal Justice Act, Pineault has been representing her for five years in a complex case.
"The court finds that exceptional circumstances are present in this case," the ruling states.
She added that Pineault's request that a colleague also be appointed to assist him should be resubmitted separately.
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