By Walter F. Roche Jr.
A hearing is scheduled for this week in the murder cases against two pharmacists, but apparently the chief prosecutor will not be there.
According to a spokeswoman for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Assistant Attorney General Gregory Townsend has been suspended from his docket, pending an investigation into allegations that he failed to disclose plea deals cut with three jailhouse snitches in the trial of a man charged with felony murder in the deaths of five children.
Asked if Townsend will be at the status conference scheduled for Friday in the cases against Barry J. Cadden and Glen Chin, Attorney General spokeswoman Kelly Rossman-McKinney said that another assistant attorney general, Denise Hart, remains assigned to the case. She said she did not know if any other attorneys have been assigned to the case.
Another spokeswoman for Nessel, Lynsey Mukomel, said the agency will conduct a comprehensive audit of Townsend's work.
The allegations against Townsend stem from a case more than two decades ago when an Oakland County man was charged with arson and felony murder in the death of five children.
Townsend was the lead prosecutor for the Oakland County District Attorney on the case and apparently did not disclose that jailhouse snitches, who were primary witnesses against the defendant, had been given deals promising reduced charges, no charges or reduced sentences. Juwan Deering, the defendant, has been in jail for 14 years following his conviction on those charges.
The hearing Friday is a status conference before Circuit Court Judge Michael Hatty. The 11 murder charges against Chin and Cadden stem from their roles in the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak caused by drugs shipped to Michigan by the New England Compounding Center.
Cadeen was president and part owner of NECC, while Chin was a supervising pharmacist at the now defunct Massachusetts company.
The case landed back in Hatty's court after the Michigan Court of Appeals turned down appeals filed by lawyers for Cadden and Chin. They had challenged the decision to bind the case over for trial.
A further appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court is expected and that could trigger at least a temporary halt to proceedings before Hatty.
In prior hearings in the Cadden and Chin case several former NECC employees testified for the prosecution. No charges were brought against those employees and there was no disclosure of any plea deals with those individuals from the state Attorney General's office.
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