Chin Appeals, Wants Charges Dropped

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Charging that the law requires evidence and not speculation, attorneys for a former pharmacist charged with second degree murder should not have to face a jury on the charges.
In a 19-page filing with the Michigan Supreme Court, Glenn Chin's lawyer, Kevin Gentry, argued that prosecutors still have failed to identify any act of Chin's that caused 11 Michigan patients to die from a contaminated drug.
Noting repeatedly that the drug, methyl prednisolone acetate, tested sterile when it left Chin's hands, the appeal states,"Something really had happened somewhere along this chain," but prosecutors didn't even try to show any act of Chin's caused it.
Chin was a supervising pharmacist at the now defunct New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak, which took the lives of more than 100 victims across the country.
Conceding that Chin's clean room was "not all that clean,"the motion concedes that Chin demonstrated a willful disregard of sanitary standards.
Chin's co-defendant, Barry Cadden, president and part owner of NECC already has filed a similar appeal. The case is being prosecuted by the Michigan Attorney General's office.
The two were already convicted in federal court of racketeering and conspiracy charges. Two separate juries, however acquitted them of similar murder charges.
Noting that the appeals court denied the motion just six days after the complete case arrived before the court, the motion states," Well that was quick. It is thus fair to say the Court of Appeals wants nothing to do with this case."
The motion notes that after Chin compounded the drugs and they were found sterile, they were handled by other NECC employees who placed the drugs in separate vials and shipped them to Michigan Pain Specialists where the drugs were injected into the 11 victims.
Contending that prosecutors made "a great assumption" when they charged Chin, the appeal states that the prosecutors still failed to establish causation,a requirement under Michigan law in a murder case.
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