MIXED VERDICT Former NECC president Barry Cadden was found guilty of racketeering, not guilty of second-degree murder.

BOSTON, Mass. — Barry J. Cadden, co-founder and former president of the compounding pharmacy responsible for the deadliest medication contamination case in U.S. history, was found not guilty of second-degree murder in federal court this morning.

Mr. Cadden was convicted of racketeering and mail fraud for selling fungus-riddled spinal steroids shipped from the filthy conditions inside New England Compounding Center's Framingham, Mass., facility, but acquitted on all 25 counts of second-degree murder that he faced stemming from the nationwide 2012 meningitis outbreak that sickened 778 patients, killing 76 of them.

Throughout the nearly 3-month trial, prosecutors sought to show that Mr. Cadden, 50, ignored multiple warning signs that things at NECC were "going off the rail" and that he showed a willful disregard for the patients being injected with NECC drugs.

"He deliberately broke the rules. He knew those drugs could kill," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Strachan. "He ignored the red flashing lights."

Ms. Strachan charged that under Mr. Cadden's leadership and direction, NECC compounded drugs beyond their use date, sending outdated and mislabeled products to health facilities in New York, Illinois and Nevada. Despite mold being found in clean rooms for compounding sterile drugs, Ms. Strachan said Mr. Cadden did nothing.

In delivering a mixed verdict after deliberating for 3 ? days, the 12-member jury apparently didn't buy the prosecution's story that Mr. Cadden was criminally responsible for the deaths of 25 people. Mr. Cadden's lawyer, Bruce Singal, told the jurors that while the outbreak was a horrible tragedy, federal investigators were never able to point to a single act Mr. Cadden performed to cause the meningitis outbreak.

"The basic core of a murder charge is that the defendant did something," said Mr. Singal, yet prosecutors were unable to identify a single act that Mr. Cadden committed that led to the outbreak.

"Barry Cadden did nothing to cause these people to die. Barry Cadden didn't murder any of those people. It is not a murder case," said Mr. Singal in closing arguments. "As horrible as each of these stories is, there is nothing that shows that Mr. Cadden did something that the government can link to the death of that person."

Mr. Singal argued that NECC had shipped out 859,125 vials of similar steroids between 2006 and 2012 without any problems and Mr. Cadden had no reason to expect otherwise.

As he has throughout the trial, Mr. Singal pointed the blame on codefendant Glenn Chin, a supervisory pharmacist who ran the so-called clean rooms where the deadly vials of methylprednisolone acetate were prepared. Mr. Chin, who has pleaded not guilty to identical second-degree murder charges, is expected to go on trial next.

After the verdict was read, the judge informed Mr. Cadden that he can remain free on bail while awaiting sentencing, which is scheduled for June 21. Mr. Cadden faced life imprisonment if convicted of the murder charges.

Outpatient Surgery Magazine editors