Lawyers for the disgraced founder of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, appear to be throwing another Hail Mary card before she is sentenced next month.
In court documents filed Tuesday, they allege that a crown witness for the prosecution in the trial, Adam Rosendorff regretted his testimony. They claim this “newly discovered evidence” warrants a new trial.
Related: 5 lessons entrepreneurs can learn from the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos study
A strange visit to Holmes’ house
Rosendorff is a former laboratory director at Theranos who testified against Holmes during her fraud trial. But this is where it gets weird.
According to the new filing, Rosendorff visited Holmes’ home unannounced on August 8 because he wanted to speak to her. He was talking to her boyfriend Billy Evans when she didn’t meet him.
Evans described Rosendorff as sloppy. “His shirt was loose, his hair was tousled,” he wrote to Holmes’ lawyers. Then Rosendorff told him that “when he was called as a witness, he tried to answer the questions honestly, but the prosecutors were trying to make everyone look bad.”
After speaking for a while, Rosendorff returned to his car and reportedly started driving in the wrong direction. When Evans pointed him in the right direction, Rosendorff rolled down his window and continued talking. “He said he’s in pain,” Evans said in a memo submitted to the motion. “He said he felt guilty. He said he felt like he had done something wrong. And that this weighed on him. He said he had trouble sleeping. He felt desperate to talk to Elizabeth.’
Holmes Legal Team reacts strongly
Holmes’ legal team wrote of Evans’ bizarre encounter with Rosendorff: “The statements warrant a retrial under Rule 33. But at the very least, and to the extent that the Court has any doubt as to whether a retrial is necessary, the Court should order a witness hearing and allow Mrs. Holmes to subpoena Dr. Rosendorff to testify about his concerns.”
On January 3, Holmes was convicted on four counts of investor defrauding in a high-profile case that made international headlines and spawned documentaries and TV miniseries.
It is not her first attempt to appeal the verdict. Last month, Holmes’ lawyers argued that the jury acted irrationally during the deliberations. The judge dismissed this claim.
Holmes will be sentenced on October 17. She faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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