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

A Massachusetts pharmacist charged with murder in the deaths of 11 Michigan residents from a 2012 U.S. meningitis outbreak is expected to plead no contest Thursday to involuntary manslaughter

Meningitis Deaths Michigan (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

A Massachusetts pharmacist charged with murder in the deaths of 11 Michigan residents from a 2012 U.S. meningitis outbreak is expected to plead no contest Thursday to involuntary manslaughter.

Glenn Chin, 56, was to appear Thursday in a Livingston County, Michigan, courtroom. His trial had been scheduled for November, but has been scratched.

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

Chin's plea deal calls for a 7 1/2-year prison sentence, with credit for his current longer sentence for federal crimes, Johanna Delp of the state attorney general’s office said in an email sent last week to families 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, for deaths related to the outbreak.

More than 700 people in 20 states were sickened with fungal meningitis or other debilitating illnesses, and dozens died as a result of tainted steroids shipped to pain clinics, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The laboratory’s “clean room,” where steroids were prepared, was rife with mold, insects and cracks, investigators said. Chin supervised production.

He is currently serving a 10 1/2-year federal sentence for racketeering, fraud and other crimes connected to the outbreak, following a 2017 trial in Boston. Because of the credit for his federal sentence, Chin is unlikely to serve additional time in Michigan’s custody.

Cadden, 57, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in Michigan earlier this year and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Second-degree murder charges were dropped.

Cadden’s state sentence is running at the same time as his 14 1/2-year federal sentence, and he has been getting credit for time in custody since 2018.