Pharmacist blamed for deaths in US meningitis outbreak expected to plead no contest in Michigan case

HOWELL, Michigan — A Massachusetts pharmacist charged with murder in connection with the deaths of 11 Michigan residents during a 2012 U.S. meningitis outbreak is expected to enter a plea to involuntary manslaughter on Thursday.

Glenn Chin, 56, was scheduled to appear in court Thursday in Livingston County, Michigan. His trial was scheduled for Novemberbut is scratched.

A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but is used as such in sentencing.

Chin’s plea agreement means he will receive 7.5 years in prison, minus his current longer sentence for federal crimes, said Johanna Delp of the state attorney general’s office. in an email sent to families last week and obtained by The Associated Press.

Michigan is the only state to charge Chin and Barry Cadden, an executive at the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, in deaths linked to the outbreak.

More than 700 people in 20 states fell ill with fungal meningitis or other debilitating diseases, and dozens died from contaminated steroids shipped to pain clinics, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The lab’s “clean room” where steroids were made was riddled with mold, bugs and cracks, investigators said. Chin oversaw the production.

He 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. Because of the credit on his federal sentence, it is unlikely Chin will spend any additional time in Michigan custody.

Cadden, 57, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter earlier this year in Michigan and was sentenced to 10 years in prisonThe second-degree murder charge was dropped.

Cadden’s state sentence will run concurrently with his 14.5-year federal sentence, and he has been receiving credit for time served in custody since 2018.