By Walter F. Roche Jr.
A federal judge has set an April 6, 2021 date for the sentencing of a key prosecution witness in the trials of some 13 defendants who were indicted in the wake of a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak.
U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns set the date just a day after the lawyer for Robert Ronzio joined with federal prosecutors in requesting an indefinite delay in the sentencing.
Stearns order setting the 2021 date came only after an earlier erroneous order was withdrawn.
Earlier Wednesday an order was docketed setting an April 2020 date for sentencing.
Ronzio was head of sales for the New England Compounding Center, the company that shipped thousands of contaminated vials of methylprednisolone acetate to health providers across the country.
He was one of 14 indicted following a two year criminal probe of the deadly outbreak.
Federal prosecutors say more than 100 patients died after being injected with fungus infested NECC drugs. Over 700 other patients were sickened.
In a plea deal with federal prosecutors Ronzio entered a guilty plea to a single count of conspiring to defraud the federal government.
Ronzio's lawyer and federal prosecutors sought the sentencing delay because two closely related cases are on appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeals and are not scheduled for oral arguments till the coming Fall. They asked for the sentencing to be delayed until after the appeals court rules.
In the case before the appeals panel, federal prosecutors are appealing a decision by Stearns to acquit co-defendants Gregory Conigliaro and Sharon Carter of the same charge that Ronzio admitted to.
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