By Jon King / jking@whmi.com


A new trial venue is being south by two men charged with the deaths of 11 Livingston County residents.

Barry Cadden and Glenn Chin are facing trial in Livingston County Circuit Court on second degree murder charges filed last year by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office for their roles in running the New England Compounding Center. A hearing set Thursday in front of Judge Michael Hatty will hear a motion filed by their attorneys to move the trial out of Livingston County, arguing that it will be impossible to find a panel of jurors not personally impacted by the outbreak.

Other motions reportedly include a challenge to the decision by 53rd District Court Judge Shauna Murphy in August when she determined there was enough evidence to send the case to trial, saying the men had “placed profits and greed above discretion.”

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. Previous testimony from two former NECC pharmacy technicians indicated routine violations in the pharmacy’s clean room, including falsifying cleaning logs, rusty equipment and drugs that had not been tested being shipped out anyway.

Cadden and Chin remain in custody at the Livingston County Jail, after being transferred late last year from federal facilities in Pennsylvania where they were serving time from a previous conviction in the case.