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Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes took one last shot at ex-boyfriend Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani yesterday, attempting to reinforce her defense’s strategy of blaming the former COO.
Once Holmes was finished, the defense rested. It was a surprise move. The other defense witnesses—a former Theranos board member who joined the company in 2016 and a paralegal who provided a summary of the defense’s view of the case—were relatively small players. Many people had expected that Mindy Mechanic, an expert on intimate partner violence, would help the defense contextualize Holmes’ testimony about Balwani’s allegedly abusive and controlling behavior.
But the defense never called Mechanic, and at the end of the session, assistant US attorney Robert Leach told Judge Edward Davila that the government would be filing a motion asking the court to strike Holmes’ testimony relating to Balwani’s alleged abusive behavior. Why? The defense didn’t call an expert to explain the psychological effects the alleged abuse had on Holmes, making certain events irrelevant to the case.
Defense attorney Kevin Downey doesn’t appear concerned. “I’m surprised to hear that motion after the close of evidence,” Downey said, especially since prosecutors questioned Holmes about the matter. Regardless, he told Davila that he was open to discussing the matter.
More Balwani blame
If the government’s gambit succeeds, it would eliminate a key pillar of Holmes’ defense. Yesterday, before the prosecution made its plans clear, Holmes spent much of her time on the stand attempting to bolster her argument.
Holmes told jurors that she would repeat things back to Balwani on text message threads so he would know she was paying attention. When Balwani got mad about something at Theranos, she said she would let him “personally take over whatever he was upset about and that he would own it and he would fix it.” She also said she was unsure whether Balwani was forthcoming about all of the lab’s problems.
Holmes also testified that breaking up with Balwani was “a process” and that after she told him things were over, he would show up at her church or wait for her at the Dish on Stanford’s campus, where she would go running. Holmes also claimed that she didn’t receive any proceeds from the sale of the home they shared through an LLC.
Downey, Holmes’ attorney, wrapped with a series of questions meant to paint a sympathetic portrait for the jury.
Did she try to mislead investors? “Never.”
Does she recognize that investors lost money? “I do.”
Was it because she attempted to mislead them? “Of course not.”
After Holmes left the stand, Davila set the calendar for the remainder of the trial. Closing arguments won’t begin until December 16 and will run for two days. (He said that jury instructions will take a couple of days to sort out, and then the court isn’t available for the first half of next week.) After closing arguments are over, jury deliberations will begin on December 20.