Chin Moves to Toss Murder Charges

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The former pharmacist charged with 11 counts of second-degree murder says those charges must be thrown out because prosecutors have failed to prove that any act of the defendant led to the deaths.
In a three-page motion and a seven-page brief, James Buttrey, the lawyer for Glenn Chin, said prosecutors still don't know how the drugs that killed 11 Michigan residents became contaminated with deadly fungus.
"The prosecution has identified no act of Glenn Chin that caused these deaths," the motion states.
Glenn Chin and co-defendant Barry Cadden were charged with the deaths of 11 patients who died after being injected in 2012 with fungus laden methylprednisolone acetate (MPA) at the Michigan Pain Specialists.
The MPA was produced at a Massachusetts drug compounding firm where Chin was a supervising pharmacist and Cadden was president and part owner.
Though Chin did compound the bulk MPA, the motion states that tests showed the drugs were sterile when they left Chin's hands.
"The stock of the MPA that Mr. Chin prepared always tested sterile going back years and years," the motion states.
Chin is asking Livingston County Circuit Judge Michael Hatty to effectively throw out the charges and reverse the decision of District Court Judge Shauna Murphy, who found there was probable cause to conclude Chin and Cadden were guilty as charged.
The case is being prosecuted by the Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office.
The Chin motion states that there were multiple possible sources of the contamination after the bulk drugs left his hands. Noting that the MPA was later placed in individual vials by other NECC employees, the motion states that prosecutors produced "zero evidence...tending to show that Glenn Chin caused these deaths."
"The evidence proved that the MPA must have become contaminated after it left Glenn Chin's hands," according to the filing.
Contending that there is no precedent for murder charges to be brought in what is in effect a wrongful death/product liability case, the Chin motion concludes that dismissal of the charges is "mandated."
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