Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker, who is overseeing pre-trial hearings for Luigi Mangione, is married to a former Pfizer executive and holds hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock, including in healthcare companies and pharmaceutical companies, according to her 2023 financial disclosures.
The judge’s ties to the healthcare business are a stark reminder of how pervasive the for-profit industry is in American life — a point made by Mangione himself.
Parker’s husband, Bret Parker, left Pfizer in 2010, where he served as Vice President and assistant general counsel after holding the same titles at Wyeth, a pharmaceutical manufacturer purchased by Pfizer. According to Parker’s disclosures, her husband Bret still collects a pension from his time at Pfizer in the form of a Senior Executive Retirement Plan, or SERP.
How is this not a conflict of interest? Do I just not know what a conflict of interest is?
Let me help you out. A conflict of interest is when a poor person has a vested interest in an outcome and holds sway in the outcome. Key word is poor.
The loophole is probably the judge’s husband no longer works in the industy despite said husband owning several hundred thousand dollars worth of shares in healthcare and health insurance