Prosecutors recommend 35-year sentence for NECC Exec.

BOSTON — The former head of a pharmaceutical company in Framingham faces his sentencing Monday for his connection to the deadly meningitis outbreak in 2012.

Barry Cadden was convicted of fraud, conspiracy and racketeering after his company distributed contaminated vaccines nationwide which were linked to a meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people and sickened more than 750 others.

Even though Cadden was found guilty of those fraud charges, he was cleared of second-degree murder charges during his trial in March. So, a legal expert says his sentencing could be anywhere from several months, to decades in prison.

“Well this is arguably the greatest pharmaceutical disaster in American history, so all eyes are focused on this,” said Criminal Defense Attorney Peter Elikann. “This particular company just ignored the safety of the people that they were sending out this medication to.”

Evidence showed the labs in Framingham were dirty with standing water, mold and bacteria, while workers used expired ingredients for the medicine, which was commonly used for back pain injections.

“This, they felt, was willful neglect to have run a pharmaceutical lab in such horrible, putrid conditions,” said Elikann.

Elikann says the jury found Cadden guilty of covering up his company’s role in sending out those harmful drugs, but jurors did not find him directly responsible for the deaths of dozens of people.

“The fact that he was not convicted of murder as charged means that the judge has a little more flexibility in sentencing. He can sentence him to almost nothing, up until decades and decades of time in a federal penitentiary,” said Elikann.

Prosecutors are pushing for a sentence of 35 years in prison, while Cadden’s lawyers are hoping for something around 35 months.

“So the judge’s discretion here is basically all over the map as to what sentence can come down,” said Elikann.

This meningitis outbreak affected people in 20 different states and some people still suffer from chronic pain from that drug.

Cadden is expected at the federal courthouse for his sentencing at 2 p.m. Monday.