NECC Defendants Face Michigan Arraignment

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A Michigan Judge today set a tentative date for the arraignment of two former officials of the drug compounding company blamed for the deadly 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak that took an especially heavy toll in Livingston County Michigan.
According to Kelly Rossman-McKinney, spokeswoman for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Livingston County District Judge Shauna Murphy signed separate writs for the appearance of Barry J. Cadden and Glenn Chin to answer to charges of 11 counts of second degree murder.
The judge set a tentative March 1. arraignment date for the two.
Rossman-McKinney said the office of the attorney general is in the process of making all the necessary arrangements for the appearance of the defendants.
Cadden was president and part owner of the New England Compounding Center, which shipped thousands of vials of fungus tainted steroids to health facilities across the country. Cadden is serving a nine year sentence at the federal prison in Lorreto, PA. He was convicted on racketeering and mail fraud charges.
Chin, who was a supervising pharmacist at NECC, is serving an eight year sentence at a federal prison in Allenwood, PA. following his conviction on similar charges.
The outbreak killed more than 100 patients across the country and sickened 798.
Though Cadden and Chin were charged with 25 counts of racketeering second degree murder by federal prosecutors, two separate juries cleared them of those charges.
The Michigan charges filed late last year include eight of the Michigan deaths plus three others. At least 19 Michigan patients died in the outbreak. Those figures however, have not been updated since Oct. 30, 2015.
The new charges against Cadden and Chin were filed by former state Attorney General Bill Schuette, just before his term expired. He was barred from seeking another term.
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