In a somber turn of events, Barry Cadden, ex-boss of the now-defunct New England Compounding Center, entered a no-contest plea for his crucial involvement in the notorious 2012 fatal fungal meningitis outbreak. The Michigan Attorney General's office reports he's on the hook for 11 counts of involuntary manslaughter, stemming from the deaths of 11 Michigan folk, according to the Michigan Department of Attorney General.
Cadden, whose actions as the head honcho of the pharmaceutical firm NECC unleashed a nationwide health catastrophe resulting in 64 lost lives, is to serve a 10 to 15-year stretch, which will run concurrently with an earlier federal sentence, an agreement reached and detailed in court yesterday, AG Dana Nessel pointed out the man's blatant and dangerous neglect of safety and sterility procedures in the production of medications, a situation that led to the deaths after tainted steroid injections were administered at Michigan Pain Specialists Clinic, where patients were unwittingly subjected to the deadly compound.
The victims, whose names can never be just mere footnotes—Donna Kruzich, Paula Brent, Lyn Laperriere, Mary Plettl, Gayle Gipson, Patricia Malafouris, Emma Todd, Jennie Barth, Ruth Madouse, Salley Roe, and Karina Baxter, are recalled in the grim reckoning of this tragedy. AG Nessel, in a statement, remarked on the transparency of Cadden’s greed, stating "Cadden ran his pharmaceutical lab with a shocking and abhorrent disregard for basic safety rules and practices, and in doing so he tragically killed eleven Michigan patients," the statement obtained by WWJ Newsradio 950 echoed.
The jarring web of deceit spun at NECC culminated in what officials have described as a system where cleaning records and scientific testing results were a farce, regularly forged and fabricated; the tenuous wait for justice was prolonged as Cadden contested the charges up to the Michigan Supreme Court until the case was remanded back to Livingston County's 44th Circuit Court, with the previous ruling to hold trial upheld, for many families the promised plea deal represents a chapter's close—bringing a modicum of peace, drawing to a solemn end their long wait for justice.
Much earlier in 2015, a $200 million settlement had been divvied up among the victims and the aggrieved families nationwide, with a slice amounting to $10.5 million earmarked for the Michigan claimants. Now, the final word on Cadden's fate will be etched on April 18, when sentencing is slated to take place at the 44th Circuit Court—a date, perhaps, of some finality in a saga of loss and lamentation.
