A federal court judge approved a list of requests for records of how a grand jury recently selected by Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, accused of fraud, was selected. She said in filing in court that she plans to challenge the grand jury selection process, whose 14-count charge was filed on July 14.
Judge Edward DeVilla noted in his judgment Wednesday that Holmes’ primary concern was that many potential jurors would have stopped serving because of the coronavirus epidemic, so his grand jury could not reflect the necessary cross-section of the community. Holmes’ request is quoted as saying that “the Covid-19 crisis that has fallen on a certain population has a disproportionate medical and economic impact.”
The Covid-19 Judicial Task Force of the federal court system issued a report in June advising courts to expect more potential judges to apologize for serving during an epidemic due to health concerns.
Stanford University dropout homes and former Theranos president Sunny Balwani have all been charged with dozens of frauds since Palo Alto’s blood tests began. DeVila is scheduled to begin a jury hearing in March.
DeVilla passed Holmes ’21 requests access requests in her order, rubber-stamping nine because the plaintiffs did not oppose them, then agreed with the rest of Holmes’ arguments and largely dismissed the plaintiff’s objection as inadequate. By allowing appro access to some jury-selection forms, including a questionnaire for the screening of physical judges, Davila assumed that they were empty, not filled.
The information released to the judge by Holmes and Balwani included documents against the judge, changes made to the grand jury selection process caused by the epidemic, as well as guidelines for selecting jurors from the pool, and the number of people selected as potential grand jurors. Served.
The Covid-19 task force of the court system advised the courts that “to create a quorum of 16, consider bringing in less grand juries than the usual 23.”
DeVila also noted that Holmes withdrew his 21st request, citing records of attendance of grand jurors and any absence. He gave up his ability to renew the request, which he said in the filing he would do after receiving other records. The record provided to Holmes and Balwani must not be copied, and must be returned to court or destroyed before jury selection begins, DeVilla ordered.
Holmes and Balwani are accused of fining investors from millions of dollars, and doctors and patients are defamed, with false claims that the company’s machines can perform thorough tests using a few drops of blood. Both have denied the allegations, with Holmes’ lawyers arguing in court in December that the government’s case is “unconstitutionally vague” and lacks specific claims of misrepresentation.
They each face up to 20 years in prison and a 2.75 million fine and possible compensation, the Justice Department said.
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