| Theranos
Trial Drops Juror For Playing Sudoku
Leaving Only 2 Alternates SDNY Podcast
Echo
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Oct 22 – The Elizabeth
Holmes / Theranos trial has
much to recommend it. Mad Dog
Mattis spinning, and many
podcasts covering it weekly.
And now, a juror admitting
playing Sudoku during the
endless examination - and
dismissed, leaving only two
alternates.
It is
reminiscent of trials in the
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York,
such as the current US v. Neil
Cole trial, where jurors
struggle to stay away as email
after spread sheet are posted
on their screens. In
NDCA, Judge Edward
Davila dismissed Juror 5,
after asking: "I need to know
whether or not you were
focused on the trial at hand,
distracted, missed some
testimony."
Juror 5: “I
definitely haven’t missed any
testimony at all. It doesn’t
interfere with me listening.
I’m very fidgety, so I need to
do something with my hands.”
"Have you been
able to follow and retain
everything that is going on in
the courtroom?” Judge Davila
asked.
"Oh, yeah,
definitely,” Juror 5 replied.
But Kevin Downey,
an attorney for Holmes, asked
the court to dismiss her: "I
think it’s difficult for her
to evaluate whether she has
missed testimony or evidence.
Juror 5 is the third to be
dismissed since the trial
began, leaving only two
alternates...
On
September 30 journalist John
Carreyrou of the WSJ filed a
motion trying to get off
Holmes' witness list, or for
an exemption so he can
nevertheless enter the
courtroom. Alongside those
legal issues, there's this
from the motion returnable
October 18:
"The Supreme
Court has long recognized that
the press and public enjoy a
First Amendment “right
of access to criminal trials.”
Globe Newspaper Co., 457 U.S.
at 604-05 (emphasis
removed). Steeped in
Anglo-American jurisprudence
is the principle that
“throughout its evolution, the
trial has been open to
all who cared to observe,” as
criminal trials are
“presumptively open.”
Richmond Newspapers,
Inc. v. Virginia, 448 U.S.
555, 564, 575 (1980). Indeed,
a trial courtroom is “a
public place where the
people generally – and
representatives of the media –
have a right to be
present.” Id. at 578. 8
Carreyrou does not suggest
that the Court has entirely
shut down or closed the trial
in this action. Far from
it; the Court has made efforts
to ensure general access. But,
unless he is exempted,
Carreyrou will be the only
member of the news media
especially barred from
attending the trial and
reporting firsthand on its
proceedings."
For Inner City
Press, the only media banned
from the United Nations and
for 1302 days now, it also
stands in contrast to the
recent R.Kelly trial in EDNY
in Brooklyn, where ALL media
and public were banned from
the courtroom, with (as Judge
Davila has for some reason
done in US v. Holmes) no
listen-only call in
line.
Now
coverage of the Holmes trial,
for example by The Dropout,
details Juror 4 pulling out
for religious conviction by
Alternate 2 staying on, as
well as analogies to the Ozy
Media flame out, and Facebook
whistleblower.
The trial
coverage can also be compared,
at SDNY, with the lower
profile fraud trial of Neil
Cole of Iconix for inflating
earnings and selling $28
million of stock (Inner City
Press song here),
and now Lev Parnas (song here,
and sidearm
threat podcast, and
Substack on racist
video-gate).
Carreyrou came
back, on Theranos' use of
Siemens machines. We'll have
more on these issues.
***
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