2nd NECC Defendant Seeks Acquittal

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Charging that her client was convicted for not doing something that wasn't part of her job, the attorney for a former pharmacist employed by a drug compounding firm is asking a judge to reverse the decision of 11 jurors who found her guilty on all counts
In a 25-page motion filed today in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass. the lawyer for Kathy Chin, the pharmacist, said prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence to support the jury's guilty verdict.
Chin was convicted of four violations of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act when she approved for shipment drugs prescribed for patients with obviously fictitious names. The jurors also found that she acted with the intent to defraud or mislead.
The government, attorney Joan Griffin wrote, "failed to prove Kathy Chin dispensed drugs without a valid prescription.It was not part of the defendants job to check prescriptions or patient names."
Chin and co-defendant Michelle Thomas were convicted earlier this month, following a four day trial. They were among 14 indicted in late 2014 following a two-year probe of the company that employed them, the New England Compounding Center.
The probe was triggered by a deadly outbreak of fungal meningitis caused by fungus laden steroids shipped from NECC to more than 20 states. The charges against Chin and Thomas are not related to the steroids that caused the outbreak, but for other drugs. A similar appeal was filed last week on Thomas'behalf.
In the Chin motion, Griffin said that it wasn't her client's job to check patient names and that task was performed by other NECC employees including NECC's president and part owner Barry Cadden. Cadden already is serving a nine year prison term following his conviction on racketeering and mail fraud charges.
"The evidence is unequivocal that checking prescriptions was not part of the defendant's job," Chin's motion states, adding that she was wrongfully charged with wrongdoing by other NECC higher ups, including Cadden.
Instead, the motion states, Chin, whose husband was also convicted of racketeering and mail fraud, simply checked to see that the right drugs were being sent to the right address. "The prescriptions were complete and valid except the apparently fake patient names," the motion states.
"The fact that she happens to be a pharmacist does not make Ms. Chin responsible for the actions or in-actions of the corporation," Griffin wrote.
Prosecutors had argued that as a licensed pharmacist, Chin was required to check the validity of patient names.
Stating that Kathy Chin simply signed a shipping verification sheet, the motion states that the government "has not produced any evidence to suggest that Kathy Chin did not do her job in complete good faith."
Finally Griffin said the prosecution presented an overwhelming amount of evidence of wrongdoing that his client was not even charged with. That, she said, prejudiced the jury.
As Thomas' lawyer did last week, Griffin asked that if the the acquittal is denied, the judge should order a new trial.
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