By Walter F. Roche Jr.
With their convictions on conspiracy charges restored, two former officials of a rogue drug compounding company have been ordered to appear at a bail hearing next week.
In an order issued today U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns set an Oct. 6 date for Gregory Conigliaro and Sharon Carter to appear before Magistrate Judge Jennifer C. Boal to determine what bail should be set prior to their formal sentencing.
In a ruling issued yesterday a three judge panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals overruled Stearns and reinstated the unanimous jury findings of guilty. The two were charged with conspiring to defraud the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Conigliaro was vice president and part owner of the now defunct New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for a 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak that ultimately killed more than 100 patients. Carter was NECC's director of operations.
Stearns had ruled the two couldn't have defrauded the FDA because agency officials did not believe they had clear authority over state licensed drug compounders.
The appeals court, however, said that regardless of the confusion at the FDA, federal law did give them authority over pharmacies like NECC. The decision, written By Judge David J. Barron, cited "documentary evidence" of actions taken by by both Carter and Conigliaro involving them in the conspiracy to deceive regulators.
The charges against Carter and Conigliaro were not related to the deadly fungal meningitis outbreak caused by fungus laden steroids shipped by NECC to dozens of health providers across the country.
The appeals court decision overruling Stearns comes after prior rulings by the same court overturning Stearns decisions in the same case.
The panel ruled that Stearns had overlooked enhancements in setting the sentences for Barry Cadden and Glenn Chin, two codefendants who were among 14 persons affiliated with NECC who were indicted in late 2014. Stearns acknowledged in a re-sentencing hearing that the appeals court had concluded he was "too lenient" in setting the original sentences.
The appeals court in a separate ruling concluded that Stearns erred in acquitting two other NECC defendants, Kathy Chin and Michelle Thomas, of related charges. Both were eventually convicted.
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