Cadden Must Face Jury on Murder Charges

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A Michigan judge ruled today that the president and part owner of the company that caused a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak must face a jury on second degree murder charges for the deaths of 11 victims of that outbreak.
Circuit Court Judge Michael Hatty issued the ruling from his Howell, Michigan court room following a 45 minute hearing.
The decision means Barry J. Cadden will have to face a jury on 11 counts of second degree murder in the deaths of Livingston County patients who died following the injection of steroids contaminated with a deadly fungus.
Hatty said he concluded that the state Attorney General's office had "met its burden" of providing sufficient evidence to believe that Cadden was responsible for the deaths.
Cadden was president and part owner of the New England Compounding Center, the now defunct drug company that shipped out thousands of contaminated vials of methylprednisolone acetate.
The second degree murder charges were brought by the Michigan Attorney General. Hatty's ruling came following a hearing in which Cadden's attorney, Gerald Gleeson, argued that prosecutors had failed to prove Cadden knew what was going on in the clean room where the contaminated drugs were produced.
"He was never in the clean room," Gleeson said.
Gleeson said it was co-defendant Glenn Chin, who oversaw the clean room. Chin, who was also charged with second degree murder, will face Hatty on those charges in a week. Cadden, who observed the hearing from the Livingston County Jail, showed no reaction as Hatty delivered his decision.
Assistant Attorney General Denise Hart argued that Cadden was "100 per cent involved in what went on at NECC. She said it was Cadden who decided to send out drugs without testing.
"He knew what was going on," she said, citing emails produced during prior hearings.
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