Elizabeth Holmes Case Takes On More Drama Ahead of Sentencing
A federal judge in Connecticut has ordered the government to show cause why she shouldn’t be jailed for contempt for ignoring a court order, in a case involving the murder of the woman’s daughter.
The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin came about six months after defense lawyers asked the judge to hold Holmes and a co-defendant in contempt. Scheindlin issued a series of contempt notices to both defendants, prompting the government to ask the court to hold the pair in jail instead.
Holmes’ defense team argued in response that there was no evidence of criminal contempt, and argued in a motion that the motion was an abuse of the judicial process. The court’s ruling makes it clear that Holmes won’t have to go to jail.
Holmes’ court-appointed lawyers have said she tried to get the judge to order that she be allowed to use a telephone to speak to people.
The judge said “there is no evidence, any evidence at all” that Holmes broke any laws, and ordered that Holmes not be held in contempt.
“I never once made any recommendation for jail,” Scheindlin declared of Holmes’ attorneys last week on the case. “I never even suggested that she be incarcerated, or that she be removed from a courtroom, for violating a court order.”
Scheindlin also said she “never suggested” that the government should not seek arrest warrants against Holmes and the co-defendant, Michael R. Rosfeld, who has since pleaded guilty and is cooperating with investigations.
Holmes is scheduled to be sentenced March 9. Scheindlin previously ordered Rosfeld’s case to be transferred to New Haven for trial.
Prosecutors say Holmes and Rosfeld were members of a group that was involved in killing Diana Hensley and her three young children and were trying to cover up the killing.
The murder case was the most difficult to try so far for prosecutors in the state.
Holmes and her co-defendant, a man who has not yet been identified, were the only members of the group arrested and