Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, defending herself in opposition to prosecutors’ declare that she tried to flee the U.S. after her 2022 fraud conviction, failed to clarify her one-way ticket to Mexico, the prosecution mentioned in a court docket submitting Wednesday.
Prosecutors alleged in a court docket submitting final week that Holmes, convicted in early January 2022 and going through years in jail, had a Mexico flight booked for later within the month in an “try to flee” the nation.
Holmes’ authorized group responded Monday, claiming in a court docket submitting that the prosecution had used “incomplete and provably inaccurate statements” in “recklessly and incorrectly” alleging Holmes schemed to flee justice. Her companion Billy Evans had booked tickets for the 2 of them to Mexico in Holmes’ identify earlier than her conviction, as a result of the couple hoped she could be acquitted and so they may attend their buddies’ marriage ceremony, Holmes’ attorneys claimed. However she canceled her journey.
Holmes’ attorneys additionally questioned why prosecutors waited till final week to make their declare regardless of realizing in regards to the Mexico reserving for a yr, and didn’t point out it when Decide Edward Davila was making choices about whether or not she may stay free.
However though her authorized group claimed within the submitting that Holmes “by no means tried to flee” the nation, there was a obvious gap of their rationalization, the prosecution argued of their response filed Wednesday.
“Noticeably absent from (Holmes’) submitting is a declaration from the particular person whose psychological state issues — (Holmes) herself — asserting that she didn’t intend to nor try to flee in January 2022,” the submitting mentioned. “She bought a one-way ticket to Mexico and canceled it solely after the federal government alerted her counsel to it.”
Holmes, 38, was convicted of defrauding buyers in her now-defunct Palo Alto blood-testing startup out of greater than $144 million. In November, Davila sentenced her to greater than 11 years in jail however allowed a pregnant Holmes to defer incarceration till April 27 in a choice authorized consultants mentioned was more likely to permit her to provide beginning to her second baby. In December, Holmes appealed her conviction and sentence. She has been free on bail throughout her court docket case. The prosecution’s accusation that she sought to flee the U.S. got here of their opposition to her movement to stay at liberty till her enchantment is completed, which authorized consultants say may take a yr or extra.
Holmes, prosecutors argued of their Wednesday submitting, “has the means and motive to flee” and “can not meet her burden of demonstrating she isn’t a flight threat by clear and convincing proof.”
Her authorized group in Monday’s submitting requested Davila to take away from the court docket file the allegedly inaccurate statements by prosecutors. The prosecution of their submitting Wednesday requested Davila to disclaim that request.
