Sudafed Case May Be Reopened

The man convicted in a Sudafed tampering case in which two people died and his wife barely survived has asked that his case be reconsidered because another convict has confessed.

Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a lawyer for Joseph E. Meling, said he received a confession letter last spring from Monte Bridges, 59, a convicted bank robber with less than two years remaining in his prison term. Both are inmates at the federal prison in Sheridan, Ore.

A motion to reopen Meling’s case was filed last week in U.S. District Court, Vance said. Government lawyers would not comment, KOMO Television reported Friday evening.

“Joe Meling was convicted for something I did. I never planned that anyone would die,” said the letter, part of which was shown in the TV report. “I’ve suffered anxiety depression and have been suicidal. The main reason I’m coming forward now is that I simply can’t live with it any longer.”

Meling, 34, of Tumwater, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1993 for six counts of product-tampering, two of perjury and three of insurance fraud. The case stemmed from the death of Stanley McWhorter, 44, of Lacey, and Kathleen Ann Daneker, 40, of Tacoma, and the near-fatal poisoning of Jennifer Meling, 30 at the time, in early 1991.

Three tampered packages of Sudafed 12-hour decongestant were found in the Tacoma and Olympia areas in a $17 million nationwide recall.

Some information in Bridges’ letter was verified by investigators who found a note he said he had buried inside a plastic bowl in 1993 at Wallace Falls State Park near Goldbar, 35 miles northeast of Seattle, Vance said.

It remained unclear whether the note, written to Bridges’ son, had been buried that long, Vance said.

Bridges also would not answer key questions in a lie detector test that Vance arranged at the prison, although he answered the same questions in an earlier tape-recorded interview, the lawyer said.

In the note and letter, Bridges said he put cyanide-filled capsules into Sudafed packages in 1991, then slipped the resealed packets onto store shelves in hopes of claiming illness and receiving money from the manufacturer, Burroughs-Wellcome Co. of Research Triangle Park, N.C.

He said he thought the cyanide capsules were so obviously phony that no one would taken them.

Evidence in Meling’s trial showed the cyanide capsules resembled Sudafed capsules in coloring but were a bit larger and the powder inside appeared slightly different.

Jurors ruled that Meling tried to kill his wife to collect $700,000 in recently purchased life insurance and had put tampered packages of Sudafed 12-hour decongestant onto shore shelves to divert authorities.

Jennifer Meling stood by her husband during the trial but filed for divorce about the time his conviction was upheld in early 1995 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The divorce is still pending, apparently because Meling has balked at signing the required documents, KOMO reported.