Johnathan Walker:Massachusetts pharmacist gets up to 15 years in prison for meningitis outbreak deaths

HOWELL,Johnathan Walker Mich. (AP) — A Massachusetts pharmacist was sentenced Friday in Michigan to 7 1/2 to 15 years prison for his role in a 2012 national meningitis outbreak that killed dozens of people.

Neither Glenn Chin nor relatives of the Michigan victims made statements at his sentencing in Livingston County Circuit Court in Howell, northwest of Detroit.

“I know that Mr. Chin hopes that this sentencing will bring at least some closure to their friends and family,” defense attorney Bill Livingston said in court. “He’s always been open with his attorneys about his deep and genuine grief that he feels for the people affected by this.”

Chin, 56, pleaded no contest in August to involuntary manslaughter in the 11 Michigan deaths.

He already is serving a 10 1/2-year federal sentence for racketeering, fraud and other crimes connected to the outbreak, following a 2017 trial in Boston. The Michigan sentence also will be served in federal prison. He will get more than 6 1/2 years of credit for time already served.

Chin supervised production at New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, which shipped steroids for pain relief to clinics across the country. Investigators said the lab was rife with mold and insects.

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More than 700 people in 20 states were sickened with fungal meningitis or other debilitating illnesses, and dozens died, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Michigan has been the only state to prosecute Chin and his boss, Barry Cadden, for deaths related to the scandal. Chin supervised production for Cadden, whom he referred to as the “big boss,” prosecutors said in court filings.

Cadden “commanded Chin to send out untested medications to fulfill the large increase of orders without consideration of the safety of the patients they pledged to protect as pharmacists,” prosecutors said.

Judge Matthew J. McGivney told Chin Friday that evidence showed he caused or encouraged employees to fail to properly test drugs for sterility, failed to properly sterilize drugs and failed to properly clean and disinfect clean rooms. Evidence also showed that Chin directed or encouraged technicians to complete clean logs even though the rooms had not been cleaned, McGivney said.

“There could be no doubt that you knew the risks that you were exposing these innocent patients to,” the judge added. “You promoted production and sales, you prioritized money, sacrificing cleaning and testing protocols that kept the medication safe for patients. Your focus on increased sales, increased margins cost people their lives.”

Cadden, 57, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in Michigan earlier this year and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. His state sentence is running at the same time as his 14 1/2-year federal sentence, and he’s getting credit for time in custody since 2018.