Judge Recommends Mass. Jail For Chin

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A federal judge has for the second time recommended that a key defendant in the fungal meningitis outbreak criminal case serve a multi-year prison sentence at a prison in his home state of Massachusetts.
In documents filed today in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass. U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns recommended that Glenn Chin serve his sentence at the federal prison in Devens, Mass.
Stearns had made the same recommendation when the former pharmacist was originally sentenced to an eight year prison term. Chin's lawyer at that time had asked the judge to make that recommendation.
The federal Bureau of Prisons vetoed the request because the Devens facility did not have substance abuse treatment services which were deemed necessary for Chin. Stearns new order also recommends that Chin get substance abuse treatment while in federal custody.
Chin's sentence was boosted to 10.5 years a week ago as a result of an appeals court decision.
The Devens prison, located on the site of a former military base, is about a half hour drive from Chin's Canton, Mass. home.
Just where Chin and co-defendant Barry Cadden will spend the next several years will hinge on the outcome of second degree murder charges pending against the two in Michigan. If convicted on 11 counts of second degree murder, the two would likely be in prison for life.
Under the re-sentencing orders on the federal charges Cadden, 54, would likely be released in 2030, while Chin, 53, could be out in 2027.
Other details in Stearns order show that while victims of the outbreak will get a little over $80 million in restitution, Elkhart General Hospital will get $565,074 and the South Bend Clinic will get $218,834. Both had filed claims.
Despite the order, Stearns acknowledged in the recent session that the full restitution amount is unlikely to ever be realized.
In separate trials Chin and Cadden, both linked to the defunct New England Compounding Center, were convicted of racketeering, conspiracy and mail fraud. They were indicted in 2014 following a probe of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak, caused By contaminated spinal steroids.
Before being brought to Michigan to face the murder charges, Chin and Cadden were serving their federal sentences at separate federal prisons in Pennsylvania.
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