Cadden, Chin Case Off Till Feb.

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

(NOTE: Today's court details provided by Peggy Nuerenberg)

A preliminary hearing in the case of two former pharmacists each charged with 11 counts of second degree murder will not resume until mid-February in Livingston County Michigan District Court.
The extended delay was disclosed during a hearing today in which an employee of a testing laboratory, Tiffsny Hyde, was questioned extensively about the operations of the company. The questioner was Michelle Peirce, one of the defense lawyers.
The testing company Analytic Research Laboratories (ARL) of Oklahoma, was hired to test drugs produced by the New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for a deadly 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.
The testimony came in the trial of Barry J. Cadden and Glenn A. Chin. Cadden was part owner and president of NECC, while Chin was a supervising pharmacist overseeing the clean room where fungus infested steroids were produced. Peirce was one of Cadden's defense lawyers in the federal criminal case.
The session was the second day of a hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial.
Cadden and Chin are serving federal prison terms following their conviction on racketeering, conspiracy and mail fraud charges.
The other witness to testify Friday was Anurag Malani, a physician who treated many of the Michigan victims of the deadly outbreak.
Dates set for the February hearings are Feb. 13, 14, 19, 20, and 21.