HOWELL, MI — A Michigan judge on Friday sentenced the former director of a specialty pharmacy to at least 10 years in prison for the deaths of 11 people injected with contaminated pain medication, part of a meningitis outbreak that struck hundreds of people in the U.S. in 2012.
Barry Cadden’s sentence for involuntary manslaughter will be served at the same time as his current 14 1/2-year federal sentence for crimes related to the outbreak. As a result, he is not expected to spend any more time behind bars – a deep disappointment for the victims’ relatives.
“This is hard because we’re only two days away from Mother’s Day,” said Gene Keyes, whose 79-year-old mother, Sally Roe, died 30 days after receiving a contaminated shot.
“Barry Cadden is responsible for the breakdown of our family. Our family is torn apart,” Keyes told Livingston County Judge Matthew McGivney.
McGivney followed a sentencing agreement negotiated by Cadden’s attorney and the Michigan Attorney General’s office. Cadden had been charged with second-degree murder but pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in March.
“You have changed the lives of these families and deprived them of time with their loved ones,” the judge said.
More than 700 people in 20 states fell ill with meningitis or other debilitating illnesses and at least 64 died as a result of contaminated steroids shipped to pain clinics from the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 2012, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. and Prevention.
But Michigan is the only state to have prosecuted Cadden and a senior pharmacist, Glenn Chin, for any deaths.
Compounding pharmacies make versions of medications that are often not available from larger drug manufacturers. But Cadden’s lab was a mess, researchers said, leading to the growth of mold in the manufacturing process.
“There can be no doubt that you were aware of the risks to which you exposed innocent patients and that you chose, even after investigations and sanctions were imposed, to put your interests above innocent lives” , McGivney said.
Cadden, 57, did not speak in court. The judge noted that a attendance officer who interviewed him in preparation for the hearing had written that Cadden showed no remorse.
In 2017, Cadden said in federal court in Boston that he regretted the “whole range of suffering” that occurred.
“I feel like there is no justice,” said Keyes, who wanted Cadden to serve more time in prison.
Assistant Attorney General Shawn Ryan declined to comment outside court when asked about the plea deal.
Penny Laperriere said she had to sell her home after her husband, Lyn Laperriere, 61, died.
“Barry Cadden killed my husband. … Mr. Cadden has no idea what I went through when he forced me to become a widow. Who does that to someone on purpose? All because of his greed,” Laperriere, 67, told the judge.
Chin’s second-degree murder case is still pending. He has not reached an agreement with prosecutors and will appear in court on May 17. In the meantime, he is serving a 10 1/2-year federal sentence.
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