After weeks of legal proceedings in the case against Elizabeth Holmes, disgraced founder and CEO of blood-testing company Theranos, prosecutors will, at last, get their opportunity to interrogate her about how much she knew about the company’s defunct equipment.
Cross-examination will begin Tuesday morning. "What will be the challenge for the prosecution is they have so much evidence to work with," said legal analyst Stephen Clark in an interview with KCBS Radio.
Holmes first took the stand the Friday before Thanksgiving and has since testified for four days, with a break for the holiday. So far, under questioning from her defense team, Holmes has placed the majority of the blame on her former boyfriend and business partner, Sunny Balwani, for abusing her and manipulating her throughout their relationship.
Along with the abuse claims, Holmes also disclosed that she left Stanford at 19 after she had been raped.
Of Balwani, Holmes painted a picture of a man many decades her senior pushing into distressing situations.
In her testimony, Holmes said Balwani compared her to “monkey flying a space ship" in describing her ineptitude and pushed her to become more disciplined, according to reporting by The Associated Press. She alleged he also tried to cut her off from her family and controlled her diet, among other things.
"He wasn't who I thought he was," Holmes said, the outlet reported. She added that Balwani "impacted everything about who I was and I don't fully understand that."
It’s likely that the prosecution will avoid the abuse claims entirely and instead focus on how Holmes was a knowing participant in defrauding investors in the company and making false claims about the company’s blood-testing equipment, said Clark.
"They don’t want to appear to be picking on Ms. Holmes, they want to get their point across that the representations she made were not true, that she was appraised of all problems at Theranos when she was at the same time discussing Theranos with investors," said Clark.
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