- Elizabeth Holmes' sentencing has been pushed back again and could happen as late as next year.
- On Monday, a judge ordered a hearing into whether prosecutors engaged in misconduct surrounding a star witness who visited Holmes' house last month and expressed regret over his testimony.
Elizabeth Holmes has just won more time before her sentencing date, and she's come a step closer to possibly getting a new trial altogether.
On Monday, the judge in the Theranos founder's case granted her request for an evidentiary hearing into whether prosecutors engaged in misconduct involving a star witness whose testimony was crucial to getting her convicted on four fraud-related charges in January. He set aside October 17, the date previously reserved for Holmes' sentencing, for the hearing but said he doesn't expect it to take a full day.
Holmes had filed a motion last month requesting a new trial after Dr. Adam Rosendorff, Theranos' former lab director, allegedly went to her home in August and said he was losing sleep over his testimony.
Holmes' partner, Billy Evans, recalled their interaction in an email to three of Holmes' attorneys, filed with the motion.
"He said when he was called as a witness he tried to answer the questions honestly but that the prosecutors tried to make everybody look bad (in the company)," Evans wrote of Rosendorff. "He said that the government made things sound worse than they were when he was up on the stand during his testimony."
Prosecutors' subsequent response to Holmes' motion, however, included a sworn declaration from Rosendorff saying he stood by his testimony but feels "compassion" for Holmes and Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, her ex-boyfriend and Theranos' former president and COO who was convicted on similar charges in July.
"What the court wants to know is, 'Dr. Rosendorff, do you feel that the government manipulated you in their preparation or in any way in regards to their testimony, notwithstanding the outcome of the case?'" said Judge Edward Davila, who is presiding over the case, in the hearing on the matter on Monday. "Really what I want to know is, did you tell the truth?"
In Holmes' trial, Rosendorff testified he'd tried to postpone the launch of Theranos' machines for patient use because they gave inaccurate results, but Holmes went ahead with it anyway. He also said he was instructed to come up with "reasons other than test performance" to explain unusual results and that Theranos didn't have a formal proficiency testing protocol.
The circumstances surrounding Holmes' motion for a new trial are unusual, as Davila noted in the Monday hearing.
"I will say I haven't seen a case where this has happened before," Judge Davila said. "The allegation is the possibility that the government may have engaged in misconduct...The court takes that seriously."
Davila noted the evidentiary hearing will be "limited."
"This is not going to be a fishing expedition," he said.
As for Holmes' sentencing if her verdict is upheld, Davila proposed several dates as options, which the prosecution and defense will discuss, spanning from November through January. Experts previously told Insider it's unlikely Holmes will get a new trial.