Chin Seeks Lawyer Switch

By Walter F. Roche Jr.
One of the primary defendants in the criminal probe of a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak has written to the federal judge who presided over his trial asking him to appoint a different lawyer to represent him in upcoming hearings.
Glenn Chin, who was a supervising pharmacist at the New England Compounding Center, wrote to U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns asking him to appoint James Sultan, a Massachusetts lawyer, to represent him during hearings to determine whether further penalties should be imposed.
In the one-page letter Chin noted that normally the same lawyer who represented him during the original trial would also serve as his attorney during a so-called remand. Chin's lawyer in the original trial was Stephen Weymouth.
But Chin wrote that Sultan, who has been handling his appeal, was more familiar with the remand issues and would be better suited to represent him. He added that he had consulted with Sultan and the lawyer had agreed to take on the remand matters.
The remand to determine if further penalties should be imposed on Chin and co-defendant Barry Cadden, was ordered by a three judge appeals court panel.
Chin was convicted on chaarges of racketeering, conspiracy and mail fraud. Stearns sentenced him to eight years in prison.
The appeals court found that Stearns erred when he failed to consider that the patients who were sickened by NECC's fungus laden drugs were vulnerable victims. They sent the case back to Stearns with instuctions to reconsider the penalties based on their findings.
As a result Chin could face a longer sentence and an additional forfeiture order. Chin wrote the letter from the Livingston County Prison in Howell, Mich. where he and Cadden are awaiting trial on second degree murder charges brought by the state Attorney General. The two are charged in the deaths of 11 patients who died after being treated with contaminated drugs produced by NECC. Cadden was president and part owner of NECC. Chin was the supervising pharmacist in the clean room where the contaminated drugs were produced.
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