Theranos founder’s delayed trial set for March

Elizabeth Holmes faces dozens of felony fraud counts

After being delayed twice by the coronavirus pandemic, the criminal trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has been scheduled to start in March.

Holmes, a Stanford University dropout who founded her now-defunct Palo Alto blood-testing startup in 2003, is charged with a dozen felony counts of fraud, and has denied federal government allegations that she and her co-accused, former company president Sunny Balwani, misled doctors and patients and bilked investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

During a videoconference hearing Tuesday,

Judge Edward Davila in U.S. District Court in San Jose scheduled Holmes’ trial to begin with jury selection March 9 and opening statements March 16. Opening statements could come earlier if a jury is selected quickly, Davila suggested, and that possibility would be addressed during a pre-trial conference.

Davila in June 2019 first set a start date of this summer for the high-profile trial. After the pandemic shuttered courtrooms, he pushed the date to this coming fall. But last month, citing risks from the outbreak, Davila nixed the fall start.

Holmes was indicted in 2018. Prosecutors allege she and Balwani falsely claimed their company’s machines could conduct a full range of tests using a few drops of blood from a finger-stick, when they knew the technology was inaccurate and unreliable. Holmes and Balwani have denied the allegations, with lawyers for Holmes arguing in a December court filing that the government’s case was “unconstitutionally vague” and lacked specific claims of misrepresentation.

Whether Holmes’ trial will take place face-to-face remains in question. Davila has raised the possibility of conducting the trial fully or partly via video, although a lawyer for Holmes has said her legal team discussed that option with prosecutors and “did not see a workable solution on a case of this size.”

In pre-trial proceedings conducted via videoconference, Holmes’ lawyers and federal prosecutors are battling over her access to grand jury records.

Holmes faces maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a $2.75 million fine, plus possible restitution, the Department of Justice has said.