Deadly Outbreak was No Accident: AG

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Calling the 2012 fungal menngitis outbreak a "pharmaceutical accident is ludicrous," an assistant Michigan Attorney General has charged in court papers.
The statement was contained in a recent filing in Livingston Circuit Court in which Assistant Michigan Attorney General Gregory Townsend was responding to motions filed in Barry J. Cadden's behalf seeking a change in venue for the upcoming trial. Cadden is also seeking to have second degree murder charges dismissed claiming they amount to double jeopardy.
Cadden and Glenn Chin have been charged with 11 counts of second degree murder for their roles in the deadly outbreak.
Cadden was president and part owner of the New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for the outbreak which ultimately took the lives of more than 100 patients. Chin supervised the NECC clean room where the contaminated drugs were produced.
Gerald Gleeson, Cadden's lawyer, has charged that it would be impossible for his client to get a fair trial in Livingston County because of the number of outbreak victims and their survivors who live there.
"A substantial portion of prospective jurors are likely to personally know a patient who actually received a contaminated Methylprednisolone injection," the motion states.
Gleeson's motion also cites multiple news stories in which victims from the area were quoted.
Calling the case "uniquely notorious," the motion states that there was "no precedent in Michigan for bringing murder charges for harms arising from a pharmaceutical accident."
Responding to the motion, Townsend argued that a request for a change in venue to another Michigan County was premature and should only be considered after a jury has been selected.
Gleeson's motion to have second degree murder charges dismissed cited the fact that a federal jury in Massachuetts had declined to find the second degree murder charges to be part of a racketeering operation.
The motion states that both the Michigan and U.S. Constitutions bar someone from being charged twice for the same offense.
Townsend, in reply, noted that Cadden wasn't specifically charged with second degree murder in the federal case. The patient deaths were so-called predicate acts under the racketeering charges.
Both Cadden and Chin were convicted of racketeering and conspiracy charges in the federal case. Cadden was given a nine-year sentence while Chin was given an eight year sentence.
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