Rebecca Jarvis ‘tensions ran hot’ in Elizabeth Holmes trial

Feelings Drama

Watch Rebecca Jarvis ‘tensions ran hot’ in Elizabeth Holmes trial - Feelings Drama on Dailymotion

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00:00Switching gears to the ongoing fraud trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in California.

00:05We can't bring cameras into the court, that's rule, but we can bring in our own resident expert,

00:10ABC's Rebecca Jarvis, creator, host of the award-winning podcast, The Dropout, Elizabeth Holmes, on trial.

00:16Rebecca, thanks for being with us.

00:18Thanks, Phil.

00:19All right, so we are now six weeks into this trial.

00:22You're following it closer than anyone we know.

00:25What are the most important points the prosecution has made so far?

00:28So the biggest challenge here is the complexity of this.

00:32This is blood testing.

00:34It is a very scientific process.

00:36And what the government has been doing over the course of these six weeks is really laying out what Elizabeth Holmes,

00:42the founder of Theranos, has told everyone from investors to Walgreens, their customer along the way,

00:49to patients and doctors, and really laying out for the jury to see the big distinctions

00:54between what the company and Elizabeth Holmes, the founder, was saying versus the reality along the way.

01:01We've heard from victims, people who got inaccurate blood tests along the way

01:06and who had very serious outcomes as a result of that, really traumatic experiences.

01:12We've heard from a lab director who saw everything firsthand.

01:15We've heard from employees and, of course, we've heard from General Mattis,

01:18who is one of the most famous members of the Theranos board,

01:21a board of many prestigious members from government.

01:25We know that the mechanics of a trial can play a role in any trial.

01:29There have been some jury changes this week.

01:31What happened there?

01:33Well, it's really interesting what we've seen with this trial.

01:36First of all, just finding jurors who hadn't heard of Elizabeth Holmes,

01:40who hadn't heard of Theranos, was a feat in and of itself.

01:43Now we have a jury.

01:45Very early on, a juror was dismissed because she said her employer wouldn't pay her.

01:49But just this week, a juror came forward, juror number four,

01:52and told the court that she was having real emotional trauma around this.

01:57She is a practicing Buddhist, she told the court.

01:59And she said she just can't envision herself punishing anyone, putting somebody in jail.

02:04Now, the reality here is jurors do not decide on punishments.

02:08That is not their job.

02:09They decide on the guilt of the individual.

02:12But ultimately for her, she said it weighed heavily on her heart.

02:15And the court ended up replacing her with another juror.

02:18That juror, Phil, also said it weighs heavily on her heart, putting somebody in jail,

02:24seeing somebody have to face the music if that's the case here.

02:27But it was decided in court that ultimately this juror replacement would stay for now.

02:33But this has been, as you say, there have been a lot of big changes

02:36and not necessarily the ones we were anticipating coming into this.

02:40Interesting.

02:41Tell us how the defense has been performing in its cross-examination.

02:45So we've seen a very aggressive and volatile defense over the last handful of days

02:51of the former lab director at Theranos, Dr. Adam Rosendorf,

02:55who was there at Theranos ahead of the big Walgreens launch.

02:58Remember, Theranos found its way into a number of Walgreens stores in Arizona and in California.

03:04So this is the lab director who was there, who said he warned Elizabeth ahead of the launch

03:08that the company wasn't ready to do this.

03:10The defense took a very, very aggressive tone in their cross-examination.

03:15And ultimately, one of the objectives, according to the legal experts I spoke to,

03:19was to really diminish the lab director's responsibility,

03:24to suggest to the courtroom and to the jury in particular that he wasn't a reliable witness.

03:30There were a lot of exchanges that got very heated.

03:34Tensions ran hot in the courtroom.

03:36Ultimately, the legal experts I speak to do not believe that his role as a reliable witness

03:43was ultimately challenged or harmed by the challenges.

03:46But it certainly is more like a scene from Judge Judy than a scene from the Theranos trial

03:52that we've seen played out over the last handful of weeks.

03:54Rebecca, several government witnesses so far.

03:57I'm curious, who do you think have been the most important?

04:01Well, the lab director certainly has great importance to this

04:05because he was a very senior member with a scientific background who was on the ground

04:10who says he warned Elizabeth.

04:12And there's paper trails of emails he sent to Elizabeth.

04:15So he's certainly important.

04:17But so are the people like the patients, the woman who believed because of inaccurate Theranos results

04:23that she was suffering from her fourth miscarriage in a row.

04:27This is the type of thing that really pulls on the heartstrings of the jury.

04:32And from the legal experts I speak to, a case like this that, again, can get so technical,

04:36it's so important to bring it back to the human cost.

04:39And when you hear from someone like this woman, Brittany Gould, who was on the stand

04:45and just had heartbreaking testimony around her inaccurate results, that is going to really land with the jury.

04:51A lot to sort through.

04:52We are glad you are there to do it for us.

04:54Rebecca Jarvis, thanks so much for the reporting.

04:57And for more, be sure to catch The Dropout, Elizabeth Holmes on trial, wherever you get your podcasts.

05:09And for more, be sure to watch the highlights and watch live event coverage, click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel.

05:14And don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts.

05:17Thanks for watching.

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