U.S. Attorney Reviewing NECC Ruling

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Federal prosecutors say they are reviewing the 51-page decision acquitting two people charged with conspiracy in the wake of a 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.
“We are reviewing the decision and, if appropriate, will seek to appeal Judge Stearns’ decision,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling in Boston, Mass. following the Friday decision by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns.
Stearns overrruled jurors who had voted unanimously late last year to convict Gregory Conigliaro and Sharon Carter of conspiring to defraud the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Conigliaro was vice president and part owner of the New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak which ultimately took the lives of more than 100 patients.
Carter, a pharmacy techncian, was a manager at NECC.
In his decision Stearns adopted the arguments put forth by lawyers for Conigliaro and Carter, who said it was impossible for the two to defraud the FDA because the FDA itself did not know whether it had authority over a state licensed firm like NECC.
During the trial of another NECC defendant Stearns had stated that it was hard to see how the FDA was defrauded.
If an appeal is filed it will be the second time his dismissal actions in the NECC case are challenged.
Prosecutors successfully appealed Stearns decision to dismiss charges against two NECC pharmacists. An appeals court later reinstated the charges and the two were ultimately convicted by a jury of multiple violations of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act with intent to defraud. They are appealing the verdicts.