HOWELL, MI — A judge set a fall trial Friday for a pharmacist charged with second-degree murder in the deaths of 11 Michigan residents who died in a 2012 meningitis outbreak linked to contaminated steroids from a Massachusetts lab.
Efforts by Glenn Chin and prosecutors to reach a plea deal “have not been successful,” said Livingston County Judge Matthew McGivney, who set jury selection for Nov. 4.
Michigan is the only state to have sued Chin and Barry Cadden, a director of the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, for deaths related to the outbreak.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 700 people in 20 states fell ill with fungal meningitis or other debilitating illnesses, and dozens died as a result of contaminated steroids sent to pain clinics.
The lab’s “clean room,” where steroids were prepared and staff typically wore coveralls and hairnets, was full of mold, bugs and cracks, investigators said. Chin oversaw production.
Chin, 56, is currently serving a 10 1/2-year federal sentence for racketeering, fraud and other crimes related to the outbreak following a 2017 trial in Boston.
“I am truly sorry that this ever happened,” he said during his federal sentencing.
Chin’s attorney, James Buttrey, declined to comment outside court Friday.
In April, while awaiting a hearing on the status of the case, Buttrey told a prosecutor that Chin was concerned that a plea deal in Michigan could still keep him in custody after his federal sentence.
Chin’s attorneys have repeatedly argued that second-degree murder charges are inappropriate, even though they have lost every time.
“There has never been a second-degree murder charge in this country arising out of what is really a product liability case. This is certainly a new idea in Michigan,” attorney Kevin Gentry told the state Supreme Court in 2022.
Cadden, 57, was recently sentenced to at least 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter. The second-degree murder charge was dropped.
Cadden’s sentence in Michigan will run concurrently with his 14 1/2-year federal sentence, and he will also receive credit for time served in custody since 2018. Overall, this means he may not have to serve additional time behind bars. that confuses the families of the victims.
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