Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


A lab chief will be sentenced in Livingston County today, 12 years after a fatal nationwide meningitis outbreak.

Barry Cadden and Glenn Chin were charged with second-degree murder in 2019 by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office for their roles in running the New England Compounding Center. Cadden was part owner and Chin was supervising pharmacist at the facility, in which authorities say lax conditions were allowed to infect steroids produced there that led to the 2012 outbreak that killed more than 100 people nationwide and sickened nearly a thousand others.

Investigators connected the compounding pharmacy to Michigan clinics, including Michigan Pain Specialists in Genoa Township, which had dispensed the NECC contaminated steroids that resulted in the deaths of 11 Livingston County residents.

Michigan is the only state that charged Cadden and Chin in any deaths. Both remain held in the Livingston County Jail.

Cadden already is serving a 14 1/2-year sentence for federal crimes related to the extraordinary outbreak of fungal infections, which was traced to dirty conditions inside the lab and caused meningitis and other debilitating illnesses.

The 57-year-old Cadden recently pleaded no contest to 11 counts of involuntary manslaughter in a deal that took second-degree murder charges off the table. Prosecutors also agreed to a minimum prison term of 10 years, which will run at the same time as the federal sentence.

Livingston County Circuit Court records show sentencing is scheduled at 8:30am before Judge Matthew McGivney.

Cadden is unlikely to face additional time in custody - an outcome that disappoints Michael Kruzich. He told the Associated Press "My mother is gone, and Cadden and Chin are responsible. My family would like to see Cadden go to trial. It feels like they’ve run out the clock and they just want it to be done” - referring to state prosecutors.

Attorney General Dana Nessel said most of the 11 families supported the plea agreement and “We've ensured that this plea fits their desire for closure and justice”.

In federal court in Boston in 2017, Cadden said he was sorry for the “whole range of suffering” that occurred.

Chin has not reached a similar plea deal, court filings show, and his trial on 11 second-degree murder charges is pending in Livingston County. Separately, he is serving a 10 1/2-year federal sentence.