A federal judge in Boston is weighing whether two men at the center of a 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people should be freed until their criminal trials.
Barry Cadden, a co-founder of the now-shuttered New England Compounding Center, and Glenn Chin, the Framingham, Massachusetts-based company's supervisory pharmacist, were in federal court Thursday. They are among 14 people charged in what authorities say is the largest U.S. criminal case ever brought over contaminated medicine.
Their lawyers argued that the men have deep ties to their communities and have long been aware of the investigation.
But prosecutors said they pose serious flight risks, given they now face possible life sentences.
Magistrate Judge Jennifer Boal took the arguments under advisement after a hearing lasting more than two hours.
Cadden's attorney, Bruce Singal, and Chin's attorney, Bruce Weymouth, both stressed during an often-contentious two and a half hour detention hearing that the two men have stayed close to the Boston area for the last two years, even as they knew major indictments were likely, and have made no efforts to prepare to flee. Singal said Cadden and his wife have repeatedly offered to turn in their passports and Cadden woke up at 4 a.m. each of the past three Wednesdays in expectation FBI agents and police would be coming to arrest him after a Tuesday grand jury indictment.
Federal prosecutors, however, said they believe Cadden and Chin now face a far different situation because they have each been indicted on 25 second-degree murder racketeering charges that could send them to prison for the rest of their lives, and the prospect of life in jail may give them incentive to flee.
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Prosecutors also introduced evidence that Cadden was paid $66 million from 2010 to 2012, suggesting he has ample wealth to support living on the lam. And to demonstrate the severity of the charges and persuade the judge to order them held without bail, the prosecutors introduced an August 2011 e-mail obtained by the FBI in which Cadden ordered Chin to "cover our ass" by assigning the laboratory lot number for a batch of medication that had been tested to vials that had not been tested and had been illegally shipped out. Prosecutors also introduced evidence of mold and contamination inside so-called clean rooms at the Framingham NECC plant and non-licensed technicians being allowed to work inside.
"You had a very one-sided presentation by the government. They're allegations only. He is not guilty, and that will be demonstrated when we go to trial," Singal said.
Boal, the magistrate judge, said she was taking the question of whether to grant bail or order them locked up until trial "under advisement" and gave no indication of when she might rule.
