Medical Testimony in Chin, Cadden Case

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

NOTE: This report is based on accounts provided by local news sources and victims, including Donna Borton who attended a hearing today in Livingston County District Court.

An infectious disease expert testified today about how fungus contaminated steroids attacked the brains of victims of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.
Speaking at a pre-trial hearing in the second degree murder cases of Barry J. Cadden and Glenn A. Chin, Dr Carol Kauffman said that when fungus laden steroids are injected into the spinal cavity the result can be meningitis, strokes and even localized infections.
Kauffman, who became directly involved in the early investigation of the 2012 outbreak, said the infected steroids came in several lots shipped by the New England Compounding Center, the defunct company where Cadden and Chin worked.
She said an NECC lot of methylprednisolone acetate dated June 29 was especially virulent. NECC drugs eventually sickened some 800 patients including dozens who died.
Cadden was president and a major stockholder in NECC while Chin was a supervising pharmacist in the clean room where the steroids were made.
Kauffman noted in her testimony that NECC was located adjacent to a recycling business. It was owned by Gregory Conigliaro, who was also a part owner of NECC. Defense attorneys tried unsuccessfully to block testimony about the recycling center.
Also testifying at the probable cause hearing was Dr. Edward Washabaugh who was one of the Michigan physicians who unwittingly injected patients of Michigan Pain Specialists with NECC drugs. Seventeen Michigan Pain Specialists patients ultimately died.
Washabaugh was also a witness in Cadden's federal trial in U.S. District Court in Boston.
Cadden is now serving a nine year federal prison sentence following his conviction on racketeering, conspiracy and mail fraud charges.
Chin was also convicted on parallel federal charges and is serving an eight year federal jail sentence. However, two separate federal juries declined to convict Cadden or Chin on second degree murder charges including some of the 11 they are now charged with in Michigan. Three of the eleven victims in the Michigan case, were not named as victims in the federal case.
Chin and Cadden, both wearing orange jump suits, sat in the courtroom yesterday during the day long session. Both were brought to Howell late last week from separate federal prisons in Pennsylvania.
A third witness to appear Thursday was Dr. Bader Cassin, who performed autopsies on some of the victims and described the fatal damage caused by the tainted drugs.
An employee of Michigan Pain Specialists testified about how the clinic came to order drugs from NECC and the apparent lack of notification by NECC when problems with their drugs first surfaced.
Lawyers for Cadden moved to have their client released from handcuffs, but the motion was denied.

Cadden, Chin Hearing

The preliminary examination for defendants’ Cadden and Chin is scheduled for Thursday, November 14th at 8:00 am at the 53rd District Court 204 S. Highlander Way, Howell.



If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.



John Buck

Supervisory Special Agent

Michigan Attorney General

Criminal Division/Detroit

517-719-3430

Cadden, Chin Arrive in Michigan

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Two former pharmacists facing multiple second degree murder charges are in custody in Livingston County Michigan where they will be present for two days of pre-trial hearings next week in Livingston District Court.
Kelly Rossman-McKinney, spokeswoman for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, said Barry J. Cadden and Glenn Chin arrived in Michigan Wednesday night. They were transported from separate federal prisons in Pennsylvania. It marks their second appearance on the Michigan murder charges.
Cadden is serving a nine year federal sentence following his conviction on racketeering, conspiracy and mail fraud charges. Chin is serving an eight year sentence for his conviction of the same crimes.
Cadden was a part owner and president of the New England Compounding Center, the drug firm blamed for a deadly 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.
Chin was a supervising pharmacist overseeing the clean room where fungus laden drugs were prepared. That drug, methylprednisolone acetate, was injected into the spines and joints of unsuspecting patients seeking relief from chronic pain.
The two also were charged with second degree murder in the federal case but jurors declined to convict them on those charges.
The hearings on Thursday and Friday of next week (Nov. 14 & 15) will be a "preliminary examination" in which prosecutors will present witnesses to substantiate the charges. Michigan witnesses are scheduled to appear next week while out-of-state witnesses will appear at a subsequent hearing in December.
The two were charged in the deaths of Donna Kruzich; Paula Brent; Lyn Laperriere; Sally Roe; Mary Plettl; Gayle Gibson; Patricia Malafouris; Emma Todd; Jennie Barth; Ruth Madouse and Karine Baxter.
Earlier this week a federal appeals court in Boston, Mass. heard arguments on appeals and cross appeals on the federal charges on which Cadden and Chin were convicted. The three judge panel took the matter under advisement following a more than two hour hearing.
Federal prosecutors sought to increase the penalties imposed by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns while defense attorneys challenged the validity of some of the charges. Neither defendant was in attendance.
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Court Hears Cadden, Chin Appeals

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

BOSTON-A federal appeals court judge said today he doesn't understand how patients sickened in a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak are not considered victims, even vulnerable victims.
U.S. Appeals Court Judge Kermit Lipez made that statement during a more than two hour hearing on appeals stemming from the conviction of two key defendants, Barry J. Cadden and Glenn Chin, in the federal probe of the 2012 outbreak.
"There's something counter-intuitive in that argument,"Lipez said following s statement by Cadden's attorney that the patients sickened in the 2012 outbreak do not meet the definition of victims.
How are they not vulnerable victims? Lipez added.
Lipez was one of three judges hearing the appeals and counter-appeals filed following Chin and Cadden's conviction on racketeering conspiracy and mail fraud charges. Both are now serving sentences at separate federal prisons in Pennsylvania. Cadden was sentenced to a nine year term while Chin was given an eight year sentence.
While prosecutors are seeking to impose additional penalties against the two former officials of the New England Compounding Center, attorneys for Cadden and Chin are seeking to have some of the charges and penalties reduced or eliminated. Cadden was president and part owner of NECC and Chin was a supervising pharmacist.
One point at issue is the U.S. Justice Department's claim that some $80 million in restitution should be ordered for patients sickened in the outbreak. A district court judge rejected that claim.
While some of the comments by the three judges appeared to support the position of prosecutors, others did not.
Lipez, for instance, cited the argument by Bruce Singal, Cadden's lawyer, that most of the products produced by NECC did not cause any harm and were, in fact, effective.
"All these years and nothing went wrong," Lipez responded. "How can you say all these drugs were valueless?" he asked in response to government arguments that all NECC sales between 2010 and 2012 should be used to determine the penalties imposed.
Joined by Appeals Court Judges David J. Barron and Norman Stahl, Lipez questioned whether NECC's promise of compliance with industry standards was in fact made to all of its customers.
And, he noted that the strict standards required for so-called sterile drugs, like methylprednisolone acetate did not apply to creams and ointments that accounted for many of the drugs the now defunct Framingham Mass. company produced and sold.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Lieberman argued that Cadden knew or should have known that sending out sterile drugs that were not properly prepared could create a serious and highly likely risk of death or serious injury.
Singal, however, argued that the trial testimony by victims and their survivors was highly prejudicial. He noted that defense attorneys had from the outset conceded that NECC steroids were responsible for the outbreak which ultimately sickened some 800 victims, killing more than 100 of them.
He also stressed that second degree murder charges brought by prosecutors were rejected by the jurors.
Chin's lawyer, Jamie Sultan, argued that the penalties imposed by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns were fair and reasonable and increased penalties sought by government attorneys should be rejected.
The eight year sentence imposed by Stearns was "totally appropriate," he said.
Barron said he was a little puzzled about what the prosecutors wanted for an increased sentence.
"How can they now argue for more?" he asked.

Cadden, Chin En Route to Michigan

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The two principal defendants in the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak are apparently on their way to Michigan for a preliminary hearing on the 11 counts of second degree murder leveled against them by the Michigan Attorney General.
According to the federal Bureau of Prisons, Barry J. Cadden and Glenn Chin were temporarily released from separate federal prisons in Pennsylvania. They have been ordered to appear Nov. 14 and Nov. 15 in District Court in Howell, Mich. for a preliminary examination on the second degree murder charges.
District Court Justice Shauna Murphy ruled in September that the two must be present for the two day session.
Cadden was president and part owner of the New England Compounding Center and Chin was a supervising pharmacist reporting to Cadden. The company shipped thousands of vials of a steroid contaminated with deadly fungi.
The charges stem from the deaths of 11 Michigan patients who had been injected with NECC drugs.
Lawyers for Cadden and Chin had argued that the two defendants did not need to be present, but Murphy sided with Assistant Attorney General Gregory Townsend who said he could not recall any case with such serious charges where defendants were not present.
nder Michigan law at a preliminary examination hearing the prosecution has to show that a crime has occurred and it is more likely than not that the defendants committed the crimes.
Cadden and Chin were convicted on racketeering, conspiracy and mail fraud charges in federal court, but two separate juries cleared them of second degree murder charges. Those included five of the cases now charged in the Michigan case.
The action in the Michigan case comes as a three judge federal panel is hearing appeals and cross appeals on the federal charges. A hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in Boston, Mass. Neither defendant will be present.
Cadden is serving a nine year sentence and Chin is serving an eight year sentence on their federal convictions.
The two were present in Michigan in February for their formal arraignment on the Michigan charges.
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Three Judge Panel to Hear Appeals

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The three judge panel that will hear appeals and cross appeals from the principal criminal cases stemming from a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak includes a judge who authored a controversial memo justifying a drone attack on a U.S. citizen on foreign soil.
U.S. Circuit Judge David J. Barron and two of his colleagues on the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals will hear pleas in the cases of Barry J. Cadden and Glenn Chin, both tied to the New England Compounding Center, the company blamed for the outbreak.
Chin and Cadden were both convicted of racketeering, conspiracy and mail fraud charges and are now serving sentences - eight years for Chin and nine for Cadden - in separate federal prisons in Pennsylvania.
Federal prosecutors are asking the appeals court to, in effect, increase the penalties imposed on Cadden and they want the panel to reverse a decision by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns that patients sickened in the outbreak do not qualify for some $80 million in restitution as victims under federal law.
Barron, a former acting assistant U.S. Attorney General, authored a secret 2010 memo concluding that President Obama had the legal authority to order a deadly drone attack on an American citizen, a suspected terrorist who was in Yemen.
Three years later Obama nominated Barron, then a Harvard Law School professor, to the post he now holds
The other two judges on the panel, Norman Stahl and Kermit Lipez, authored a decision finding that warrant-less searches of cellphones by police are categorically unlawful. Lipez, a senior judge, was an appointee of President Clinton. Stahl, also a senior judge, was appointed by George H.W. Bush.
Stearns already has seen a separate appeals court panel overturn his decision to dismiss some of the charges against three other NECC co-defendants, including Chin's wife, Kathy. A jury subsequently found her guilty and she awaits sentencing.
Barron also co-authored a decision overruling Stearns' decision to withhold, at least temporarily, the names of the jurors who ruled on Chin's case.
The appeals court panel is scheduled to hear arguments from Chin and Cadden's lawyers and federal prosecutors at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in federal court in Boston, Mass.
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Deal on Cadden House

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A buyer has apparently been found for the 9,000 square foot home of a jailed former drug company executive and the price is about half of the original asking price.
The listing for the Wrentham, Mass. home of Barry J. Cadden states that it is "under contract." The property is subject to a federal court forfeiture order and half of the proceeds will go to the federal government.
The five bedroom house was originally listed for just under $3 million but the price has been cut several times with $1.5 million the latest asking price. It has been on the market for 303 days.
Exact details of any sale won't be known until a deed is recorded at the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds.
Cadden headed the New England Compounding Center, the company that federal regulators say caused a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak. More than 100 patients injected with an NECC steroid have died and some 800 have been injured, some permanently.
Cadden was convicted of racketeering, conspiracy and mail fraud and was sentenced to nine years in prison. He is currently an inmate at a federal prison in Loretto, Pa. His scheduled release date is June 6, 2025.
Under a forfeiture order approved by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns, bank accounts, jewelry and real estate assets held by Cadden were ordered to be sold or turned over to the federal government.
Cadden was allowed to keep a second home along the Rhode Island coast under a compromise forfeiture order negotiated with federal prosecutors.
U.S. Justice Department lawyers have expressed hopes that some of the Cadden assets could go to victims, but Stearns has ruled that those sickened by NECC steroids don't qualify as victims under federal law.
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