When American Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the failed blood-testing start-up Theranos, was convicted of fraud in January, the verdict represented the end of a drawn-out saga, but now, while awaiting her sentence, she has asked for a new trial after a surprise visit from a key witness.
In the ensuing months since her verdict, the drama around her case has escalated, reports The New York Times.
First, her co-conspirator, the former chief operating officer of Theranos, was convicted of fraud in July. Then Holmes asked the judge to overturn her conviction, citing a lack of evidence, and submitted a flurry of requests for a new trial based on new evidence. At recent hearings over the case, she has appeared visibly pregnant with her second child. And in August, a key witness showed up at her house.
That incident became the basis of Holmes’ latest attempt to reverse her fortunes.
On Monday, the 38-year-old, her parents and partner and lawyers, gathered in a courtroom in San Jose, California, for a hearing that could open the door to her getting a new trial. The visit by the key witness, her lawyers argued, raised questions about his credibility and the fairness of the trial.
The move is a long shot, experts said.
“It is a near-certainty the judge will deny her a new trial on the basis of the witness’ visit to her house,” said Amanda Kramer, a former federal prosecutor and a partner at law firm Covington & Burling. The judge probably allowed the hearing to prevent Holmes from using the incident in her inevitable appeal, Kramer added.
But little about the case, which came to symbolise the pitfalls of Silicon Valley’s hype-driven start-up culture, has been typical. Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, have declined to comment on the case.
At issue is an 8 August visit from Dr Adam Rosendorff, who played a key role in Theranos’ rise as its lab director. He later became a whistle-blower who helped expose the company’s fraud. Theranos had told patients and investors that its revolutionary technology could accurately perform thousands of blood tests with a single drop of blood – when it could not.
During Holmes’ trial last year, in which she faced nearly a dozen counts of misleading patients and investors, Rosendorff endured six bruising days of testimony. Afterward, jurors said they had found his testimony among the most credible in the trial.
Then in August, Rosendorff visited Theranos’ former office as well as the first Walgreens store for which the company had worked. Both, he found, were gone.
As a result, he “suddenly felt a conversation with the defendant was the missing piece” to moving on with his life, his lawyers said. Rosendorff drove to Holmes’ residence where Evans told him to leave.
From there, the accounts differ. Holmes’ camp said that Rosendorff had expressed guilt over his role in the situation, and that he had said government prosecutors “made things sound worse than they were”. Holmes argued that the incident called Rosendorff’s testimony and the government’s entire case into question, meaning she deserved a new trial.
On Monday, Rosendorff returned to the stand. Judge Edward Davila, who oversaw Holmes’s trial, asked whether Rosendorff’s testimony at the trial was truthful and whether the government had faithfully represented the facts. He testified affirmatively.
Then Lance Wade, Holmes’ lawyer, grilled him. Why did Rosendorff want to visit Holmes? Had he had a mental breakdown that impacted his testimony? Was the government trying to make everyone look bad?
Rosendorff responded by accusing the lawyers of calling him a liar. He said he felt sympathy for Theranos employees affected by the scandal – but not for Holmes and her co-conspirator, Ramesh Balwani. He added that he felt bad that Holmes’ children would grow up without a mother if she went to prison.
Holmes was convicted on four counts of fraud, each carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Rosendorff testified that his contact with her was motivated by a desire for healing.
“I don’t want to help her,” he said. “She’s not somebody who can be helped. At this point she needs to help herself… pay her debt to society.”
Davila said he will decide whether Holmes deserves a new trial in the coming weeks.
Holmes is scheduled to be sentenced on 18 November and is expected to appeal.
Balwani, convicted of a dozen counts of fraud for Theranos, will be sentenced on 15 November. He tried to piggyback on the visit from Rosendorff to Holmes as a reason for his own new trial. The motion was denied.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Former Theranos collaborator Ramesh Balwani convicted of fraud
Theranos: A cautionary tale on how not to commercialise medical advances
Founder of blood-test startup convicted of fraud