It's here! The Stuck Up and Save Sale is on this Week at Lens. It's a great time to fill your pantry with deals by the dozen, including savings on your favorite food club items and more. Buy and bulk for big savings throughout the store, with special deals on cases of the items you use the most. Shop our weekly ad online at lensgrowsery.com to see all the incredibly low prices, lens where delicious begins. Vermont has a really proud history of leading in
the field of corrections. A career in corrections is not just a job, it's a lifestyle. And so as a department, we need to support the whole life of every member of our department. How we invest in staff, their wellness, their career development. Those are all things that will help us to better serve the state of Vermont, but also allow us to show the rest of the country how this can be a really rewarding career with an impactful mission that also values the people in our system.
We are on the record at the beginning of media. Number one, volume one, please begin. This is the testimony of Elizabeth Holmes going on the record in San Francisco, California at 9 o'clock a.m. on July 11th, 2015. This Holmes piece raised your right hand. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do. Thank you. That's the voice of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of healthcare company Theronos and once the world's youngest female self-made billionaire.
Are you appearing here today for this? She's giving testimony under oath. When you say tens of tests, you mean something less than a hundred? Yes. In the summer of 2017, did it concern you that a number of tests weren't working on Theronos's devices? I know that we made so many mistakes on this front. If you followed the dropout in the story of Theronos, this image of Elizabeth is seared in sheer memory. Her blonde hair pulled back in a messy bun, her eyes wide and unblinking.
Instead of a black turtleneck, once her signature look, she appears to shoveled an a blue button down in black blazer. It's the deposition of a once rising star in Silicon Valley, but her star came crashing down. Heart. Her fall from grace was spectacular. The Department of Justice charged Elizabeth Holmes with a 12-count multi-million dollar fraud. She's always maintained her innocence. That was three long years ago, since then the government has been meticulously building its case.
In my mind, it's a slam dunk based on the evidence. I think she should be a convicted felon. But so has Elizabeth's high-powered defense team. I see both sides, but I think given the right defense, they might be able to pull one out. She could sell this story to 12 jurors. Given the volume of details, tens of millions of documents, over 200 possible witnesses, and thousands of exhibits, experts and interested parties are torn. At this point,
it could go either way. You know, all we can do is hope that the jury sees it clearly and does the right thing. And what would that be? Oh, she's done her to prison for 20 years. That's the maximum sentence. And throughout it all, Elizabeth's been seemingly living life to its fullest. It's just amazing. Most people would be devastated, but not her. She went to Burning Man. A lot of people think it was heartless that you were partying at Burning Man when your company
was closing its doors. She started a new relationship with a hotel heir, nearly a decade her junior. I remember thinking, wow, you know, she just bounces right into the next opportunity. Good luck to that guy. And perhaps most surprisingly, at least to some, Elizabeth recently gave birth to her first child. A boy named William Holmes Evans,
named after his father and paternal grandfather. He was born July 10th in Redwood City, California, a month and a half before a criminal trial where Elizabeth faces decades in prison if convicted. Oh, life certainly was just waiting for that. Great way to garner jury sympathy. But today, August 31st is the day. The trial is finally here. Jury selection begins at 9am Pacific time on the 5th floor of the San Jose Courthouse in Northern
California before Judge Edward J. Davila. All eyes on Elizabeth. Everyone wants to know. How will this story end? I'm Rebecca Jarvis. I've been covering business for more than a decade. From the housing collapse and the Great Recession to the Bernie Madoff scandal and the economic turmoil brought by the pandemic. But no story comes close to the saga of Elizabeth Holmes. The woman who famously told the world she could do anything is about to face down her toughest
battle yet. For the duration of this trial, my team, Taylor Dunn, Victoria Thompson and I, will be taking you inside the courtroom, breaking down the evidence, keeping score for both sides, until 12 jurors to side the fate of Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes. What a court fight that's going to happen. You'll hear new interviews from colleagues, attorneys, friends, and patients, defense strategies, and analyses, emails, and text messages.
Even what one attorney says are Elizabeth's private notes to herself. Some of the notes I would say are pretty damning. So pack the bags, leave the country, something like that. All this, as the defiant founder, continues to this day to deny any wrong doing. This is what happens when you work to change things. And first they think you're crazy, then they fight you, and then all of a sudden you change the world. From ABC Audio, this is the dropout, Elizabeth Holmes on trial.
Episode 1. Where have you been, Elizabeth Holmes? When we last left off, it was March of 2019. Elizabeth was already awaiting trial. It was a stunning fall from grace for the young woman who once appeared poised to change healthcare forever, with her supposedly revolutionary blood testing technology. At just 19 years old, Elizabeth had dropped out of Stanford to create a company called Theranos. And soon boasted about the technology at exclusive conferences.
So our work is making it possible to do any lab test from a tiny drop of blood from a finger, instead of having big needles stuck in your arm and tubes and tubes of blood taken out. If she had made this work, she would have been the next need jobs. The only problem, she didn't. To your knowledge, did Ms. Holmes know at the time she made those statements that Theranos could not do all those tests? Yeah, she knew. This is not fake at you, Megan. This was a product that didn't work.
If you haven't heard the first season of the dropout, I recommend you stop here, go back and listen. It's a story that defies belief. Involving brave whistleblowers, a board made of government heavyweights, a tragic suicide, brushes with fame and U.S. Presidents. Don't worry about the future. We're in good hands. There's a secret romance and a fawning press. I am so incredibly humbled until one very public downfall. An awful Elizabeth Holmes. Listen, this company is a fraud.
Elizabeth was 34 when her company was dissolved. Since then, her public persona hasn't been of a woman cowering in fear over a potential prison sentence, or even regretting she allegedly put patience in harm's way. Instead, Elizabeth's been acting like someone without a care in the world. Something former Theranos patients and investors don't take too kindly to. It just really, it just really angers me. It hurts. It just really hurts.
It's almost beyond comprehension to people who have empathy and are normal. Now, 37 years old, Elizabeth has been spending a lot of her time in San Francisco. Often spotted in the mission or marina district, she's frequently seen walking her husky dog Balto, going to workout classes or the local coffee shop. Until April 2019, Elizabeth was living in a luxury condo in the Russian Hill neighborhood.
She's now relocated to Woodside, a suburb of San Francisco, and one of the wealthiest communities in the country. Some of you have even sent us pictures of Elizabeth casually dining among friends. At the Homestead pub in San Francisco, at the Brentwood Country Mart, an L.A. where celebrities are frequently photographed, and mingling at weddings and cocktail parties. Her signature black turtleneck is gone. These days, you're more likely to catch Elizabeth
wearing athleisure, a baseball cap. And she's almost always at the side of her new constant companion, Billy Evans. William Billy Evans is the 29-year-old heir to the Evans Hotel Fortune, a collection of properties in San Diego's Mission Bay and LaHoya, including the Lodge at Torrey Pines. It was founded by his paternal grandparents in the 1950s. The families lived in the area for generations. Billy is tall, six-foot-four with wavy brown hair and light blue eyes.
Like Elizabeth, he went to a prestigious high school, studied in China. Billy spent time at Foodon University, Elizabeth studied Mandarin and Shanghai. And he went on to a top-tier college. He always was put together. He always looked ready to go out honestly. That's Tim Lee, now Dr. Timothy Lee. Tim and Billy were buddies back in college and MIT where they played volleyball together. He was a good teammate. He got along well with everyone.
He was always very happy and smiley. He liked to tell stories. Billy studied economics and also happened to be quite the athlete. Really, my first memory playing with him competitively was when we were playing Harvard, who is our division rivals. I just remember he got thrown into the mix of a very competitive game as one of his first experiences playing. And he fit right in. He was- Billy started on the team his freshman year when Tim was captain and three years older.
He had grown up in San Diego playing at very high levels out there. And then when he came to our team, he was able to help us even in his freshman year, which is not that common. Tim says Billy also stood out for his confidence. He had a savviness to him, which I think is not common for my team. Did he seem like someone who would like the spotlight? Certainly. I can picture him smiling and telling stories about all the parties he hosted and
making everyone laugh. Like that is definitely my mind-quinn-descentred Billy. After college, Billy kept an MIT-signet ring on his pinky finger. He went to work for a Silicon Valley startup called Lumenar Technologies, which designs Lidar for self-driving vehicles. It's like the eyes for the car. It was a very good at networking, yes. If we were trying to get a customer or an investor, he knew somebody there or he knew them directly. He had contacts on contacts.
Lindsay Miller was fresh out of grad school and a few months into the job at Lumenar when she says she first met Billy in 2017. What type of adjectives come to mind when you think of Billy Emmett's? Confident, arrogant, entitled. It's one of those. If he wants something, he's going to get it. If not, then he'll, I don't want to say, throw a fit, but he'll make it happen eventually. Lindsay says Billy was known around the office for his networking skills, his flashy lifestyle,
and is someone who loved to tell a good story. Very flashy. So his family is really into cars. He's really into cars. So he would say, oh yeah, I drove this formula one car this past weekend. Or I rented this Lamborghini for the weekend, got to drive it around San Diego or wherever I was at. You know, and just him traveling, you know, to Europe, okay, well, I'm going to go to Europe for a week, just for fun. Billy worked in the California office. Lindsay was in Orlando and he'd come down for
visits with clients and investors. I was in charge of the demos that we would give out to investors and potential clients. Billy would take the clients out in a van with the lidar system to show them how it worked. But on one occasion, Lindsay says the system wasn't demo ready. So this one sticks out very vividly. The van was down because the system wasn't working. It was being repaired. And I told Billy, I said, hey, look, we can't give a demo today. We can't
walk around the van today because the system, that specific system is down. Billy wasn't having it. And he said, no, we have to do it. I said, okay, well, I'm sorry, but it's not working. He said, we'll get it to work. I said, well, I'm not an engineer. Therefore, I cannot. And he kept being very adamant about it. Billy and Lindsay went back and forth. He called in the manager who, according to Lindsay, said they should go with her plan. But she says Billy wasn't satisfied. Billy comes back
to me. He said, why is the system not on the vehicle? I said, Billy, it's being repaired. It's not, it doesn't work. One of the eyes is down. It's not going to work. And he just is very adamant about it and just was making everything sound like it was my fault whenever it wasn't. And what ended up happening? He did the presentation without without the demo. Nope. He got the system and he had it put back on the vehicle and they went out and it wasn't the best.
Hearing this story, Lindsay's description, you can't help but immediately see shades of Elizabeth. Neither would take no for an answer when it came to presenting to clients. But when people in the office found out Billy was dating the Elizabeth Holmes, they were stunned. We were just shocked. Everybody was like, what? No one could believe that Billy was dating this person, especially after everything that had come out about the company and the charges that were
brought against her. Dr. Timothy Lee, Billy's old MIT volleyball buddy, says even though it was initially hard to process, Billy ending up with Elizabeth kind of made sense. You know, I had to kind of digest it. It kind of made sense to me in a way. It seems like she was a gifted storyteller, kind of a salesperson. I think Billy is definitely of that of that cut. I think he's definitely would get along with someone who had high aspirations. Tim hasn't seen Billy since he graduated college
10 years ago, but Billy clearly left a positive impression. If he was a good guy, you know, obviously this is kind of tragic situation in circumstances. I'm going to which I'm talking about him, but you know, I wish them the best. And also that Billy is happy. Hey, this is Brad Milky. I host ABC's Daily News podcast Start Here. The dropout will be back in a minute. But first, after a break in or any sort of security issue around the house, the first
question is often, is there any security cam footage of the incident? When you're able to go back and see exactly who did it and when it can really give you that extra help in your moment of crisis. And because of that, it can really give you peace of mind. Well, for that peace of mind, enter simply safe. Simply safe is advanced home security that puts you first by offering affordable home monitoring and live guard protection that can respond within moments of an intrusion.
And unlike so many subscription plans, this does not lock you in a some long term commitment. You can cancel any time without penalty. Talk about confidence. By partnering with Simply Safe, so many people have gotten that peace of mind. So let's get you some to get an exclusive 20% off any new simply safe system when you sign up for fast protect monitoring. Just visit simplysafe.com slash dropout that's simply safe.com slash dropout. There's no safe like Simply Safe.
Tuesday's at Papa Murphy's you can get large signature or thin crust pizzas for just $12. We call it taking baked Tuesday. Talking $12, taking baked Tuesday. That's today's topic. It's terrific for tuning up a tiring Tuesday through a tasty $12 treat. Truthfully, taking baked Tuesday tops tossing back tacos. Tell that taco to hit the trail. It's taking baked Tuesday's time to triumph. Time out. This is turning into a tongue twister. Totally Tis.
So just try taking baked for $12 every Tuesday at Papa Murphy's. Change the way you pizza. This is Brad Milky from the ABC News podcast start here. As hard as it is to imagine, family doctors used to frequently make house calls. Like if you were sick, they would pack up their little black doctors bag and they would come to your home to examine you. Those days seem long
gone, but one company is giving new meaning to the term house call. Tell a doc health. You can choose a board certified doctor that's right for you and get primary care from the comfort of your own home. Connect via phone or online with a board certified doctor who will get to know you and provide whole person care. Advice, prescriptions, even mental health support and referrals. Tell a doc health is not only convenient, it's affordable to and it's covered by a surprising
number of insurance plans. Download the app to get started today or go online to register or schedule a visit at teladockhealth.com. That's teladock t-e-l-a-d-o-c-health.com. I want to invite you to start your day with us. Every morning on Start Here, we dive deep into the biggest news stories with some of the best journalists in the world. It's smart,
it's relevant and maybe most importantly for you. It's quick. Again, that's Start Here, the daily podcast from ABC News, available wherever you listen. It was in August 2018. Just days before Theranos was fully dissolved, that the media caught wind of Elizabeth and Billy's relationship. And it was quite a debut. The two were partying at Burning Man. The annual 9-day gathering in the Nevada desert were hippies, celebrities,
and tech CEOs come together. The whole thing culminates in the burning of a large wooden effigy, known as the man. Everyone who attends wears a wild and extravagant costume. Billy posted a photo to his Instagram. In it, Elizabeth's wearing magenta oversized sunglasses and a fur-trimmed metallic coat. Billy's MIT's Signet Ring dangles around her neck. Billy's wearing a hoodie, a backpack, some sort of captain's hat, and a shirt with the words sex, breakfast of champions
written across the front. People like Sherry Eckert, a Theranos patient who received incorrect results, thought their cavalier behavior showed a disgusting lack of self-awareness. She is obviously not a compassionate, you know, straight-up person. She doesn't care. She doesn't care about me or anybody else, just herself. I mean, I think she's made that perfectly clear. Shortly after Burning Man, an inside-edition reporter tracked down the couple in San Francisco.
They were walking their husky dog, Belto. And confronted Elizabeth directly. A lot of people think it was heartless that you were partying at Burning Man when your company was closing its doors. Elizabeth keeps walking. She stare straight ahead. Do you have any comment at all to the investors that say they lost millions of dollars because of you?
Billy stayed back, avoiding the camera crew. But months later on Elizabeth's 35th birthday, February 3rd, 2019, he was front and center, sharing an elaborate Instagram story. A picture of Elizabeth and a purple wig kissing Billy on the cheek. Below at the caption, happy be day to my best friend. The last year has been the best I've had. Your strength, compassion, and tenacity are inspiring. There's nothing you cannot do.
But that wasn't all. Over 38 separate posts, Billy proceeds to profess his deep love for Elizabeth. There are pictures of Elizabeth and Billy at a NASCAR event. Pictures of her kissing his head, the two cuddling in the back of a car. Another in front of a retro train dressed up for a holiday party. In nearly every photo, Elizabeth's wearing that MIT ring on a chain around her neck. Billy continues the montage with Love Poems by Rumi, Plato, William Shakespeare, and more.
He includes an excerpt from The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. I will love you forever, whatever happens, till I die. He quotes Langston Hughes, Albert Einstein, Jim Morrison, Teddy Roosevelt, Confucius, and an a seemingly defiant nod to Elizabeth's critics. He includes the Bill Gates quote, don't let small minds convince you that your dreams are too big. Their limits are not yours. The montage concludes with a picture of their dog, Balto. With the caption, the end.
In March 2019, rumors began to surface Billy and Elizabeth were engaged. Vanity Fair contributor Nick Bilton had this to say on Inside the Hive podcast. I asked the question, is he really in love with her? What's going on? Someone told me that they think that he's totally in on the joke too a little
bit and loves the attention that he's getting. It's totally enamored with her, yes, but also partially believes that she did nothing wrong and that she was thrown into the bus, but also loves the fact that he's like on the Daily Mail website and the other. And former Theranos employees didn't know what to make of it. Facing criminal charges, Elizabeth had seemingly moved on with her life. Meantime, they were still working through the chaos she'd caused in theirs.
Former Theranos employee Michael Craig couldn't believe his eyes when he bumped into the couple at a bar in Saasalito. Like so many of his colleagues, the end of Theranos had been traumatic for him. He felt betrayed by Elizabeth, who he'd once held in such high esteem. I never really expected to ever see her again in person and then my wife leans over to me at certain point. She goes, for a minute there, I thought that was Elizabeth Holmes and I looked
over to my left and at a bar table staring right at me, looking at both of us. I realized it was Elizabeth Holmes and she was with this young man. And it was so surreal. Totally caught off guard, but she was clearly had been looking at us and then she got up and came over. But Elizabeth was nonchalant, even friendly. She didn't have any makeup on. She was in a like a
dark hoodie and jeans. She introduced her friend as her fiance and I was like, I wonder what story she has been telling him and herself really. But she had those big blue eyes filled with emotion and she said, you know, I'd really like to go out and get coffee with you sometime to both of us. I miss you and I'd like to have you back in my life.
And at that point I couldn't, I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what to say. I had so many different feelings coming up because I'd basically been devoted to this woman and her vision for five years. So we basically said nothing but said we have to get going and avoided the question. And then I got the bill paid it quickly and we got right out of there. And my wife said,
you know, you were shaking when you were talking with her and I wasn't aware of it. But as soon as she said that I realized it started to really dawn on me with the impact of this whole thing has been, like I'm just starting to look at it. And I'm doing some serious soul searching. Phyllis Gardner, the Stanford professor, you met in season one who doubted Elizabeth from the start had been hearing different rumors around campus. They went in a logue from what I heard.
She goes and gets married and she's still walking around San Francisco walking that dog she called a wolf. Nick built in heard the same. So here's where we're going to get into rumor built. So rumor is, they got married. Rumor is Billy Evans is parents and family do not like Elizabeth Holmes, shocker. I'm not sure if they were at the wedding. But following months of searching public records for a marriage license, we could find no actual evidence that Elizabeth Holmes and Billy Evans
had married. Even a family member of Elizabeth said he hadn't heard any confirmation of a wedding. After a break in or any sort of security issue around the house, the first question is often, is there any security cam footage of the incident? When you're able to go back and see exactly who did it and when, it can really give you that extra help in your moment of crisis. And because of that, it can really give you peace of mind. Well, for that peace of mind, enter simply safe.
Simply safe is advanced home security that puts you first by offering affordable home monitoring and live guard protection that can respond within moments of an intrusion. And unlike so many subscription plans, this does not lock you in a some long term commitment. You can cancel any time without penalty. Talk about confidence. By partnering with Simply Safe, so many people have gotten that peace of mind. So let's get you some to get an exclusive 20% off any new Simply
Safe system when you sign up for fast protect monitoring. Just visit simplysafe.com slash dropout that's simply safe.com slash dropout. There's no safe like simply safe. Tuesdays at Pop-A-Murphies, you can get large signature or thin crust pizzas for just $12. We call it taken bake Tuesday. Talking $12, taken bake Tuesday? That's today's topic. It's terrific for tuning up a tiring Tuesday through a tasty $12 treat. Truthfully,
taken bake Tuesday taps tossing back tacos. Tell that taco to hit the trail, it's taken bake Tuesday's time to triumph. Time out this is turning into a tongue twister. Totally Tis. So just try taking bake for $12 every Tuesday at Pop-A-Murphies. Change the way you pizza. It's here! The stock up in Safe Sale is on this
weekend lens. Till you're pantry with deals by the dozen, including savings on your favorite food club items and more, shop our weekly ad online at lensgrocery.com to see all the incredibly low prices lends where delicious begins. Vermont has a really proud history of leading in the field of corrections. A career in corrections is not just a job, it's a lifestyle. And so as a department, we need to support the whole life of every member of our department. How we invest in staff,
their wellness, their career development. Those are all things that will help us to better service day in Vermont, but also allow us to show the rest of the country how this can be a really rewarding career with an impactful mission that also values the people in our system. Elizabeth, of course, isn't the only person in this saga. There were a lot of others wrapped up in her orbit, and she left an undeniable impact on their lives.
I was totally sold on the idea of changing the way blood testing is done, and I really wanted to work at Theranos. Remember Tyler Schultz from season one, he started working at Theranos, fresh out of college, and originally looked up to Elizabeth. I was in love with her vision.
I thought she was brilliant. Tyler ultimately became a brave whistleblower, defying his hugely powerful grandfather, former Secretary of State George Schultz, a member of the Theranos board, and Elizabeth's biggest cheerleader. And I felt like she just, she used her personal relationship with him to, I guess, a business advantage. And you know, she would just like feed him and, you know, was feeding me, basically feeding everybody things that were just completely, factually not true.
In depositions in season one, Tyler spoke at length about what happened inside of Theranos. But now we know what was going on inside of Tyler's head. Tyler, in his audiobook thicker than water, released last year, talks about the extreme psychological toll that coming forward took on his life. I would wake up in the mornings feeling like today is going to be the worst day of my life. And it would be so hard for me to pull myself out of bed.
In the middle of the night, I would hear what sounded like somebody walking outside my window. He says Elizabeth's attorneys were tracking his phone, following him, leaving him in a state of general terror. And I actually slept with a knife next to my pillow, like right next to my bed, just because it gave me a small sense of comfort, I guess. And I even considered buying a gun, but I thought that there were plenty of mornings when I woke up and that would have looked a little too
tempting. And I basically did the calculation where I thought that the chances of me using that on myself were higher than the chances of me using it in any kind of self defense. Tyler says it caused pain for his entire family. My dad literally got down on his knee and begged me not to go on the record. I wanted to tell them about how I had considered killing myself or at least thought about it.
But when I opened my mouth, I just started crying and I just could not get the words out even though I wanted to tell them. Tyler wrote a letter to his grandfather, George Schultz, expressing the great betrayal he felt. You have disappointed me at every possible opportunity. Nearly everything I've told you about Thernos has been proven to be true. I did my absolute best to correct Thernos' problems while I
was employed there and no one listened to me. Since then, Elizabeth has used you to entrap me in your home a place I once considered to be a home of my own to serve me with my first of many notices to appear in court. She has had private investigators follow me, my legal team, and my family. She has made it her mission to bankrupt your family. So I am pleading with you as your grandson. Please do the right thing because I have no desire to have a relationship with someone who
protects criminals over his own family. But not long ago, Tyler and his grandfather seemed to have a breakthrough. His grandfather apologized and commended Tyler for his bravery and ethics. Shortly after, George Schultz passed away in February 2021 at the age of 100. Tyler now runs a startup called Flux Bio Sciences and he's married to his former housemate,
Carolyn. They reconnected at a Forbes 3030 conference and fell in love. He credits her with bringing back the quote, fun loving, easygoing guy that had been squashed by the whole ordeal and says, thanks to her, his mental health and life has been improved immeasurably. There of course is also Erica Chung, another Thernos employee who worked at the company around the same time as Tyler and was instrumental in uncovering the truth of what happened there.
Erica joined Thernos just out of UC Berkeley and put her career at considerable risk by sharing with regulators the disturbing things she says she sought the company. People were very scared of upsetting Elizabeth Holmes and upsetting Sunny-Bowani. But Erica says she hasn't lost hope. She's founded a nonprofit called Ethics for Entrepreneurship focused on preventing major frauds
from happening in the future. Innovation is happening so quickly and I think more people have to sort of stand up and say, hey, this is, you know, this is not okay when it isn't and when they have the knowledge to sort of back that up. As for Channing Robertson, the Stanford chemical engineering professor who first championed Elizabeth at Stanford. I first met her when she came to my office when she was a freshman at Stanford.
He went on to be one of the highest paid Thernos employees, making $500,000 a year as a board member. He's got a silent, radio silent. Nobody can reach it and that's very unusual. But that silence might soon come to an end. Channing is listed as a possible witness in the trial and might be called to testify. Fellow Stanford professor Phyllis Gardner says she was once his dear friend. But when they took opposite stances on Elizabeth, things changed. Have you spoken to Channing Robertson at all?
Not since I ran into him walking my dog, didn't quite recognize him because the sunglasses and the hat. And then I went, oh my god, it's you Channing. What the hell? And my husband yelled at me and said, stop it. It pulled me away. And finally, Sunny Bellwani. First name is Ramesh. Last name is Bellwani. Most people call me Sunny. Elizabeth's former boyfriend and Thernos president and COO. And I knew this mission and bought a company that was trying to do lost paramount.
It was just pretty well known that Sunny was kind of the enforcer of what. I kind of like these intimidation tactics. Sunny faces the same criminal charges as Elizabeth. And he's also pleaded not guilty. But unlike Elizabeth, he's been living a very private existence since he left Thernos. When he was working there, he worked 24-7. He was there at dawn and he left there at dusk. And he was available all the time. And I think there was a burnout factor.
That's Jeff Cooper-Smith, an attorney for Sunny Bellwani, who spoke to us in season one. You know, he's a very energetic, really brilliant person who has plans and dreams like all of us. He wants to continue to develop software. He wants to be... The healthcare? I don't know whether it would be healthcare. He wants to continue the entrepreneurship that he's shown in the past. Sunny spent the last few years largely living under the radar. He and Elizabeth no longer speak.
Whenever there's legal proceedings and people are represented by council, the most traditional advice that any lawyer like me would give is not to have contact with a person who's, you know, basically a co-defendant of this point in legal proceedings. Last year, when Sunny's mother passed away, he was granted permission by the court to travel to India for the funeral. And soon, he too will face a criminal trial. But it won't be at Elizabeth's side.
There have been a lot of items filed under seal over the last few days. And whether she was somehow victimized by the Theranos Chief Operating Officer in her former boyfriend, Sunny Bellwani. Their trials are now severed. And Sunny's is set to start early next year, a major twist. Well, certainly they could turn the case against each other, Sunny and Elizabeth by pointing to each other.
But perhaps the biggest twist of all, as the story of Theranos approaches its final chapter, is Elizabeth's latest news. One thing to expect is that Elizabeth Holmes will look different than she looked when we last saw her in February of last year, because she is expecting her first child. On March 2nd, 2021, her defense team had a new announcement for the court. Elizabeth was pregnant due in July 2021, just as her trial was supposed to be get. I just was expecting it. So was everybody I knew.
First of all, it's a great way to garner jury sympathy. Trust me, I was next for witness once, well pregnant, and I turned the whole case around. And I think, you know, they'll worry about sending a woman to a prison with a baby. Attorney Reid-Cathreine agrees. I wasn't surprised at that at all. I had conversations with other people involved in litigation and our clients were at one point we actually speculated that when a B.I.
Rodnack, if she decided to get pregnant, so that she could get the sympathy of the jury. So I wasn't surprised. You might remember Reid-Cathreine from season one. He's litigated hundreds of lawsuits, including one against Bernie Madoff. In 2016, he sued Theranos on behalf of investors who put money into the company and lost it all. But I think, you know, it could work. So the jury is going to clearly know that she's got a
newborn baby out there somewhere. And that will make them think twice before they send her to jail. When the prosecution learned of Elizabeth's news in March, five months into her pregnancy, assistant US attorney Robert Leach remarked at a hearing that it was frustrating and disappointing to learn about this now. The judge who'd already delayed the trial three times due to the COVID
pandemic had no choice but to delay it a fourth time. The new date, today, August 31, 2021, was scheduled to land approximately a month after Elizabeth's baby. And right on schedule, on July 10, Elizabeth gave birth to a boy named William Holmes Evans. She'll have a designated quiet room in the courthouse where she can take breaks to care for him. However this trial ends, the next few months are sure to be tense.
We'll hear from characters on all sides of this story. The possible list of witnesses include scientists, patients, investors, board members, advertising executives, doctors, family members, many names you'll recognize, and maybe even Elizabeth herself. Would you put her on the stand? I would definitely consider it. I would assume that Elizabeth will testify in her trial. I think she's big enough of a risk taker and believes so strongly in her ability to charm others that she will
want to testify. And if history is any indication, Elizabeth Holmes, the dropout, is not going down without a fight. You will get knocked down over and over and over and over again and you win by getting back up. And I would start this company over 10,000 times if I had to. Coming up, the 11th hour revolution that could change everything. This is a huge deal. It is an absolute bombshell. Elizabeth Holmes is essentially alleging a decade-long history of systematic abuse.
We speak to some of the top defense attorneys in the country. My name is Jose Baez. Yeah, I'm Dick the Garen. And former US attorney, Preet Bharara. Given the amount of money involved, given the brazeness of it, given how many victims there are, I would expect her to go to prison, yes. They break down some of the defense and prosecution strategies that you'll likely see in the trial. Plus, you'll hear from witnesses called to take
the stand. I have been subpoenaed, yes. What sort of precedent would it not guilty of her to accept? I think it would send a really, really bad message. Where is the line if this isn't it? If you're sitting across from Elizabeth Holmes in the courtroom, what's going to be going through your mind? How could you? How could you put so many people's lives at risk? How could you? Elizabeth Holmes, Sunny Boone, Channing Robertson, Billy Evans and the Evans family did not respond
or declined to comment for this podcast. The dropout Elizabeth Holmes on trial is written and reported by Victoria Thompson, Taylor Dunn and me. Victoria is the executive producer, Taylor and I are the producers. For ABC audio, Susie Lou is producer and Madeline Wood is associate producer. Our field producer is Dia Athan. For ABC's business unit, our associate producer is Victor Ardonia's and our production assistant is Lane Went. Mixing and scoring is by Rob Golan and Evan Biola.
Evan also composed the music for the dropout. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips and Y and Cedric Khan's Dad. For ABC audio, Liz Lessie is executive producer. Special thanks to Josh Cohan, a Liz with Russo, Ian Rosenberg, Eric Avram and Stacia D'Sheeshkil. Be sure to subscribe to the dropout podcast and if you like what you heard, leave us a review. It really does help. Listen to new episodes every Tuesday.