(MADISON, Wis.) — When a tornado ravaged his hometown in Kentucky, University of Wisconsin basketball player Chris Vogt was preparing for one of his team’s biggest games of the season.
But instead of focusing on setting screens and rebounding, the 7-foot tall center said his mind was on Mayfield, the town of roughly 10,000 people suffering greatly in the aftermath of a swarm of twisters that destroyed homes of friends and killed 89 people across Kentucky and four other states.
“It was a huge game for us. I knew it was one I couldn’t miss, I didn’t want to miss. But it was definitely weighing on me as I’m kind of getting ready for the game, trying to clear my mind,” the 22-year-old told ABC News of the Saturday night game between his Badgers and Ohio State University in Columbus.
“My teammates and coaches did a great job of trying to talk to me before the game, trying to help clear my mind. As the game went on, I was able to do that a little bit more, just kind of focus on playing basketball,” he said. “But as soon as the game was over, where my heart and soul went was back to Mayfield, just thinking about what I could do to help.”
On the flight back to Madison, Wisconsin, Vogt, with the help of instructions he found by Googling, set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for Mayfield residents who lost homes in the storm.
“While I was so far away I was thinking, ‘I can’t be there tomorrow, I can’t be there for a few days, what can I do to help?'” he said. “By the time our plane got to Madison, I had it ready to go and launched it, and it’s taken off ever since.”
As of Thursday evening, Vogt’s GoFundMe page had raised more than $150,000, with donations pouring in from more than 2,200 people from across the country.
Vogt traveled to Mayfield on Thursday to see the devastation for himself. Walking around his decimated city, he said it was heartbreaking to see buildings he had walked by countless times as a child, including his favorite restaurant, all reduced to rubble.
“I was born and raised here, lived here for 18 years. Some of my fondest memories are here. I still keep in contact with a lot of my friends who are from here … my parents still live here. So, I have a lot of ties back here,” Vogt said. “Just looking around, looking at my hometown, especially the courthouse, kind of one of the more iconic buildings in Mayfield, it just looks like something out of a movie scene. It feels like kind of just a bad dream.”
Vogt said he plans to distribute the money he is raising to the Red Cross as well as to emergency resource offices in Graves County and Mayfield High School, which are helping people who are displaced by putting them in hotel rooms and providing everyday necessities. He also plans to donate part of the donations to a tornado relief fund that is being established.
“I’ve been able to see a lot of people I haven’t seen in a long time, and it kind of makes the whole situation a lot more real,” Vogt said. “To be able to be here and just shake someone’s hand and check in on them and ask them how they’re doing, how’s things going, you can kind of feel the impact being here a lot more than just being in Wisconsin.”
He said he’s been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from friends as well as strangers.
“They’re the real heroes in this whole situation. Anyone that tries to thank me, I just redirect it to the donors. They’re the ones who deserve it. They’re the heroes who made this whole thing possible,” Vogt said. “It’s humbling to see that many people reach out and support. I never would have thought it would have gotten this much support, and seeing it take off to this level is kind of inspiring to say the least.”
He added, “Something this devastating to hit such a small area has been tough, but we have felt the support of the whole country and feel like we can build it back just how it was or even better.”
Rattlesnakes, extreme heat, thieves, disease, Indian attacks and random saloon shoot-outs. Just another day in 1883 — the epic Yellowstone prequel debuting Sunday on Paramount+.
Sam Elliott plays Shea Brennan, a man who’s suffering unfathomable loss and bands together with James Dutton — the grandfather of Yellowstone’s John Dutton, played by country star Tim McGraw — on trek across the Great Plains in search of a better life during a time of westward expansion.
Elliot is no stranger to westerns, and at a roundtable event with McGraw and his co-star, Faith Hill, promoting the series, he said Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan‘s perspective on 1883 is a “fairly honest one.”
“He knows about horses, he knows about that way of life. He knows about cattle, he knows about ranching,” notes Elliott. “I think there’s just this fascination with that whole world that gives it legs.”
Despite the challenges of the frontier, McGraw thinks there’s an undercurrent of optimism that James Dutton experiences.
“Several times throughout the show, you know, James is called a ‘dreamer,’ but I also think he was running from ghosts,” the country star explains. “I think James really suffered from PTSD,” Tim said. “Three years in prison during the Civil War. I think he was looking for an untainted part of America where he could raise his kids.”
Hill, Tim’s real-life wife and fellow country star, plays Dutton’s wife Margaret, who’s is not your typical damsel-in-distress of the time. Hill says Sheridan put together a difficult shoot that reflected the growing role of women facing the challenges of frontier life.
“There were certain things…they didn’t do…maybe the rules started to change. Whether it was proper or not to be honest, I really did not care!” Hill shared.
Authorities in New Mexico have issued a search warrant for actor Alec Baldwin‘s cellphone as they probe the October fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust.
The cellphone is believed to be in the actor’s possession, according to the warrant, and authorities want to look at text messages Baldwin sent from the presumed iPhone. Investigators are also seeking to seize photos and videos, emails, internet browser histories, GPS data and more, according to the warrant.
Santa Fe County is investigating the shooting. No charges have been filed, though none have been ruled out, officials say.
Judge David A. Segura approved the search warrant on Thursday afternoon. In her affidavit, Detective Alexandra Hancock said she asked Baldwin and his attorney for the phone and was “instructed to acquire a warrant.”
A search of Hutchins’ phone found conversations about the production dating back to July 14, according to the affidavit. Hancock said she believes there may be information on Baldwin’s phone that is “material and relevant to this investigation,” and that gathering information prior to the film’s production “is essential for a full investigation,” the affidavit stated.
Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza on October 21, when the actor and producer fired a pistol he claims he was told was “cold,” meaning safe.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 803,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 61% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 17, 8:13 am
Illinois reports highest case number of the year
In Illinois, 11,858 new cases were reported on Thursday — the highest daily case number of all of 2021, ABC Chicago station WLS reported, citing state health officials.
Illinois confirmed its second omicron case Wednesday, detected in a suburban Chicago resident. That person is asymptomatic and vaccinated, WLS reported.
Dec 16, 8:52 pm
CDC recommends opting for Pfizer or Moderna over J&J when there’s a choice
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has signed off on its advisory committee’s recommendation that people who have a choice should get an mRNA vaccine, either Pfizer or Moderna, over the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The updated recommendation comes after a review of new CDC data on rare blood clots linked to the J&J vaccine.
“Today’s updated recommendation emphasizes CDC’s commitment to provide real-time scientific information to the American public,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “I continue to encourage all Americans to get vaccinated and boosted.”
Dec 16, 7:54 pm
Omicron now makes up nearly 100% of strains found in Orlando wastewater samples
The new omicron variant makes up nearly 100% of the strains found in wastewater samples in Orlando, Florida, officials said Thursday.
“It escalated rapidly,” Orange County Utilities spokeswoman Sarah Lux told ABC News.
In its first test for the variant last Thursday, the department found no evidence of omicron in the community’s wastewater, she said. On Saturday, it represented about 30% of the strains found in the samples, and by Tuesday, nearly 100%.
“So, we’re talking about zero to nearly 100 in a matter of a week,” Lux said.
All parts of the county are seeing an increasing presence of the omicron variant, she said. The southern area, home to the theme parks, has seen the highest amount of virus remnants, followed by the eastern area, which is home to the University of Central Florida.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 16, 3:53 pm
CDC committee recommends opting for Pfizer or Moderna over J&J if given choice
The CDC’s advisory committee recommended Thursday that people who have a choice should get an mRNA vaccine, either Pfizer or Moderna, over the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine after a review of new CDC data on rare blood clots linked to J&J.
The vote was unanimous.
The rare blood clots are not a new safety concern and the vaccine has already become far less common in the U.S. after it was given an FDA warning label about the clotting condition. But more data that confirmed a slightly higher rate of clotting cases and deaths than was previously reported caused the CDC and FDA to take another look at the data this week.
The CDC has confirmed nine deaths and 54 cases from the severe clotting event, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia.
There could also be more cases and deaths because TSS is under-diagnosed and could be underreported, the CDC said.
The clotting is more common among women in their 30s and 40s but has been seen in adult men and women of all ages.
The experts said J&J should not be taken off the shelves and is still far more beneficial than not getting any vaccine at all.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Dec 16, 3:22 pm
Several Northeast states nearing peak levels
Maine and New Hampshire are now averaging more new cases than at any other point in the pandemic, while daily cases in Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are nearing peak levels, according to federal data.
Five of those states — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont — have the highest full vaccination rates in the country.
In Florida, which has been largely spared from the latest COVID-19 wave, daily cases have increased by 92% over the last two weeks, according to federal data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 16, 2:47 pm
NYC cases have tripled in the last month
COVID-19 cases in New York City have tripled in the last month, officials warned Thursday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a six-point plan to fight the surge, including increasing testing capacity, doubling down on business inspections and distributing 1 million KN95 masks and 500,000 rapid home tests.
“We need to stop this variant,” the mayor said. “This variant moves fast. We need to move a lot faster.”
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Dec 16, 8:04 am
Omicron will be dominant variant in US ‘very soon,’ Fauci says
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, warned Thursday that omicron will become the dominant variant of the novel coronavirus in the United States “very soon.”
“It has an extraordinary ability to transmit efficiently and spread,” Fauci, the chief medical advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview on Good Morning America.
“It has what we call a doubling time of about three days and if you do the math on that, if you have just a couple of percentage of the isolates being omicron, very soon it’s going to be the dominant variant,” he explained. “We’ve seen that in South Africa, we’re seeing it in the U.K. and I’m absolutely certain that’s what we’re going to be seeing here relatively soon.”
Fauci, who is also the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged Americans to “absolutely” get vaccinated against COVID-19, if they haven’t already, and to also receive a booster shot when they become eligible.
“At this point, we don’t believe you need an omicron-specific boost,” he added. “We just need to get the boost with what you got originally for the primary vaccination.”
Dec 16, 6:14 am
France to ban non-essential travel with UK over omicron surge
France announced Thursday that it will ban non-essential travel to and from the United Kingdom due to the country’s surge in cases of the omicron variant.
Starting Saturday, France will require people to have “a compelling reason” to travel between the two countries. Travel for tourism or work will not be allowed. French citizens, however, can return to France, according to a statement from the French prime minister’s office.
All travelers from the U.K. will be required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken less than 24 hours before departure. Upon arrival in France, they must self-isolate for a week, but that period can be ended after 48 hours if they test negative for COVID-19 again.
The new rules apply to people regardless of their vaccination status.
“Faced with the extremely rapid spread of the Omicron variant in the United Kingdom, the Government has chosen to reinstate the need for an essential reason for travel from and to the United Kingdom, and to strengthen the requirement for tests on departure and arrival,” the French prime minister’s office said in the statement Thursday. “The Government is also calling on travelers who had planned to visit the United Kingdom to postpone their trip.”
Dec 16, 4:24 am
Indonesia confirms 1st case of omicron variant
Indonesia announced Thursday its first confirmed case of the omicron variant.
The case was detected in a janitor who works at the COVID-19 Emergency Hospital of Kemayoran Athletes Village in Jakarta, according to a statement from Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.
The hospital’s cleaning staff are routinely tested and the results for three people were positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 10. Those samples were then sent to a genome sequencing lab, which identified the omicron variant in one of the samples on Wednesday, according to the statement.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Health has also identified probable cases of omicron among five travelers who were in quarantine — two Indonesian citizens who had just returned from the United Kingdom and the United States, and three foreigners from China. Their test samples are being sequenced and the results will be known in a few days, according to the statement.
The health minister urged Indonesians “not to panic and to remain calm,” and to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they haven’t already.
“The arrival of new variants from abroad, which we identified in quarantine, shows that our defense system against the arrival of new variants is quite good, we need to strengthen it,” Sadikin said. “So it’s normal to stay 10 days in quarantine. The goal is not to make it difficult for people who came, but to protect the people of Indonesia.”
Dec 15, 4:46 pm
Forecast: US could see up to 845,000 deaths by early January
Forecast models used by the CDC suggest weekly death totals and hospital admissions will rise over the next four weeks.
The U.S. could reach a total of 845,000 deaths by Jan. 8, according to the forecasts from the COVID-19 Forecast Hub at UMass Amherst.
The COVID-19 Forecast Hub team monitors and combines forecasting models from the nation’s top researchers. They then create an ensemble, usually with a wide cone of uncertainty. Nicholas Reich, a biostatistician who runs the forecasting model, told ABC News Wednesday that he doesn’t think the forecasts included omicron in their predictions because the majority of data isn’t publicly available yet in a format that can be easily incorporated into a model.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 15, 4:20 pm
US cases up 45% in the last month
The U.S. is now reporting nearly 118,000 new cases each day — up by 45% in the last month, according to federal data.
Daily COVID-19-related hospital admissions have leapt by 46% in the last month.
Maine and New Hampshire are now averaging more new cases than at any other point in the pandemic, according to federal data.
New Hampshire currently holds the nation’s highest case rate, followed by Rhode Island, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
A cause of death for the 10 victims that died as a result of the Astroworld Festival tragedy has been determined.
The Harris County Medical Examiner’s office ruled all victims died of “compression asphyxia.” Of the 10 victims, only one, Danish Baig, 27, had a “contributory cause” due to the “combined toxic effects of cocaine, methamphetamine and ethanol,” the report states, according to ABC affiliate KTRK.
In addition to Baig, the remaining identified victims were Rodolfo “Rudy” Peña, 23, Madison Dubiski, 23, Franco Patiño, 21, Jacob Jurinek, 20, John Hilgert, 14, Axel Acosta, 21, Brianna Rodriguez, 16, Bharti Shahan, 22, and Ezra Blount, nine.
A cause of death for the 10 victims that died as a result of the Astroworld Festival tragedy has been determined.
The Harris County Medical Examiner’s office ruled all victims died of “compression asphyxia.” Of the 10 victims only one, Danish Baig, had a “contributory cause” due to the “combined toxic effects of cocaine, methamphetamine and ethanol,” the report states, according to ABC affiliate KTRK.
In addition to Baig, 27, the remaining identified victims were Rodolfo “Rudy” Peña, 23, Madison Dubiski, 23, Franco Patiño, 21, Jacob Jurinek, 20, John Hilgert, 14, Axel Acosta, 21, Brianna Rodriguez, 16, Bharti Shahan, 22, and Ezra Blount, nine.
(NEW YORK) — The holiday travel rush is well underway and experts are predicting U.S. airports and roadways will be nearly as busy as they were pre-pandemic.
About 109 million travelers are expected to take to the roads and skies for Christmas and New Year’s, according to AAA, which represents more than 90% of the 2019 pre-pandemic travel record of 119 million.
The bulk of travelers, 100 million, are projected to drive to their destinations.
But the airports are bracing for crowds as well. Friday is already estimated to be the third busiest day to fly to your winter getaway, according to travel booking app Hopper, with 2.4 million available seats.
Here’s what you need to know if you’re traveling this holiday season:
Prices at the pump
With 100 million drivers expected on the roads from Dec. 23 to Jan. 2, according to AAA, all eyes are on gas prices.
While prices are still relatively high — up by 45% compared to last year — they are dipping slightly.
The national average price of gasoline is down 10 cents per gallon since Thanksgiving, according to GasBuddy, and the national average on Christmas is projected to decline from today’s $3.32 to $3.25 per gallon.
GasBuddy predicts prices at the pump will continue to fall into the new year.
Delays on the road
The roadways will be busy with major metro areas across the country estimated to see more than double the delays than on a normal day, according to transportation analytics company INRIX.
INRIX says drivers in New York City, for example, are “likely” to experience more than three times the delays.
Roads are expected to be the most congested the afternoon and evening of Thursday, Dec. 23, the morning and evening of Monday, Dec. 27, and the afternoon and evening of Sunday, Jan. 2
“Early morning travel in general has seen a decrease, likely due to more people working from home,” AAA spokesperson Ellen Edmonds told ABC News, “and therefore, leaving early in the morning is the best bet.”
Crowds at the airport
The Transportation Security Administration is prepared to screen near pre-pandemic travel volumes over the winter holidays with Dec. 23 and Jan. 3 projected to be the busiest days.
U.S. airlines are gearing up, with AAA saying they will see a 184% increase in passengers from last year.
United Airlines expects around 8 million people to fly on their airline from Dec. 16 to Jan 3, more than double the number of fliers compared to last year, and even more people than they saw over Thanksgiving.
They’ve added more than 200 daily domestic flights to meet the demand.
Delta Air Lines is prepared to fly the most people over the holidays since before the pandemic began with at least 7.8 million fliers from Dec. 17 to Jan. 3.
“Christmas is going to be one of the busiest times to travel this year,” Hopper economist Adit Damodaran told ABC News. “I would expect it to be very busy. Certainly if you’re at the airports it’s going to feel like pre-pandemic levels of traffic. We’re expecting about 2.2 million travelers a day on average going through TSA checkpoints.”
Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson is projected to be the busiest airport over the Christmas holiday, according to Hopper, with peak congestion on the morning of Thursday, Dec. 23. Atlanta is followed by Los Angeles and Denver as the three busiest airports for the holiday week.
(NEW YORK) — Dr. Deborah Levine has been a pediatric emergency medicine physician in the New York City area for over two decades. In recent years, she has observed an increase in the number of mental health emergencies in adolescents — which only got worse during the pandemic.
“The problem has always been there. The pandemic, we felt it even more so,” said Levine, who practices at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital and is an associate professor of clinical pediatrics and emergency medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Last week’s surgeon general’s advisory on the youth mental health crisis during the pandemic didn’t come as a surprise to hospitalists like Levine, who continues to see the impact as demand still outpaces access 21 months later.
“We’re seeing it on the ground,” Levine said. “We’re looking for ways to help ameliorate the crisis and in the meantime, we’re actively treating these children who need help.”
Hospitals are often a “safety net” for people experiencing mental health emergencies, she said, and that’s only become more pronounced as outpatient clinics and offices continue to be overwhelmed.
“I think this crisis is so significant that we just can’t meet the demand,” she said.
Some hospitals are trying to meet the immediate demand by increasing bed capacity. Though greater access to psychiatric care is needed to help prevent mental health issues from escalating to emergencies in the first place, experts said. At the same time, an existing shortage of behavioral health professionals is compounding the problem, they said. Telemedicine, which proliferated during the pandemic, can also continue to increase access, particularly vulnerable youth in more rural areas, where specialists are in shorter supply.
The surgeon general’s advisory came on the heels of a coalition of pediatric groups declaring children’s mental health challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic a “national emergency” earlier this fall. The medical associations pointed to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that found an uptick in mental health-related emergency department visits for children early in the pandemic when compared to 2019, as well as a 50.6% increase in suspected suicide attempt emergency department visits among girls ages 12 to 17.
Depression and suicide attempts in adolescents were already on the rise before the pandemic, the surgeon general’s advisory noted.
“I am worried about our children,” Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, said during a recent White House briefing. “[Our] kids have been struggling for a long time, even for this pandemic.”
Continued increase in demand
When the pandemic disrupted access to schools, health care and social services, Texas Children’s Hospital saw adolescents who had received prior treatment for issues such as anxiety and depression come back, along with “tremendous increases of new-onset problems,” Chief of Psychology Karin Price told ABC News.
Even as schools and services have gone back online, the volume “hasn’t let up at all,” she said.
“Our numbers of referrals on the outpatient side continue to increase — general referrals for common mental health conditions in children and adolescents,” she said. “Unfortunately, we’ve also seen increases in the demand for crisis services — children and adolescents having to come to the emergency center for crisis evaluations and crisis intervention.”
During the previous fiscal year, behavioral health had the third-highest number of referrals throughout the Texas Children’s Hospital system — behind ENT surgery and orthopedic surgery — much higher than it typically is, Price said.
“That has been very striking within our system and really demonstrating the need,” she said.
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has seen more than a 30% increase in emergency department volume for mental health emergencies compared to the year before, according to Psychiatrist-in-Chief Dr. Tami Benton.
“We’re starting to see more kids who were previously well, so they were youngsters who were not having any specific mental health conditions prior to the pandemic, who are now presenting with more depression, anxiety,” she said. “So things have definitely not been heading in the right direction.”
The hospital has also been seeing adolescents with autism who lost services during the pandemic seeking treatment for behavioral problems, as well as an increase in girls with suicidal ideation, she said.
As the need has gone up, the number of services hasn’t necessarily followed, she said.
“It’s the same services that were challenged before, there are just more young people in need of services,” she said.
Adapting to the need
Amid the demand for psychiatric beds, CHOP converted its extended care unit to treat children in the emergency department while they wait for hospitalization, Benton said. The hospital also shifted clinicians to provide emergency outpatient services.
“We’ve had to make a lot of changes in our care practices to try to accommodate the volume to try to see more young people,” Benton said.
CHOP was already planning pre-pandemic to expand its ambulatory practices, though the increased demand has only accelerated the project, Benton said. The hospital is also building a 46-bed in-patient child and adolescent psychiatry unit. Both are slated to open later next year, “but as you can imagine, that’s really not soon enough,” Benton said.
Some hospitals have been looking at ways to prevent children from needing crisis services in the first place. Texas Children’s Hospital has developed a behavioral health task force that, for one, is focused on supporting screening for mental health concerns at pediatric practices, Price said. Levine is part of a team researching the pandemic’s effect on pediatric mental health emergencies with one goal being to prevent repeat visits to the emergency department.
“We’re trying to see if we can target certain areas that are at high-risk,” Levine said.
As far as increasing access, telehealth services have been invaluable during the pandemic, especially for reaching more rural populations. Though access may still be limited due to a family’s means, Levine said. Demand also continues to be high amid a workforce shortage, Price said.
“Behavioral health professionals have a lot of different opportunities now,” she said. “Any kind of behavioral health clinicians that didn’t already have full caseloads before certainly have them now.”
According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, every state has a high to severe shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists.
With those challenges in mind, engaging community partners will be key to addressing the mental health crisis, Benton said.
“The most important thing for us to do right now really is focused on expanding access, and I think the quickest way for us to do that is for us to partner with other communities where kids are every day,” she said. “Greater partnerships with schools and the primary care practices is a way to do that … and get the biggest bang for our buck.”
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — Federal prosecutors went toe-to-toe with defense attorneys for Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes as both sides delivered hours-long closing arguments in her criminal fraud trial.
Prosecutors concluded their roughly three-hour-long closing statements on Thursday, and defense attorneys were over two hours into their remarks when Judge Edward J. Davila adjourned court for the day.
Holmes’ lawyer, Kevin Downey, is expected to resume his closing argument Friday morning, followed by a rebuttal from prosecutors, meaning jury deliberations could begin as early as Friday.
U.S. Attorney Jeff Schenk told the court on Thursday that Holmes had a choice to make in 2009, 2010 and again in 2013 — years when he said the blood-testing startup that would later grow into a $9 billion business was running out of money.
Holmes “chose fraud over business failure,” Schenk said, adding that “she chose to be dishonest with her investors and with her patients.”
“That choice was not only callous, it was criminal,” he continued.
Schenk then asked the jury to consider what an honest pitch to investors would have sounded like back in 2013.
“Ms. Holmes knew that these honest statements would not have led to any revenue, and she chose a different path,” he said.
Downey later shot down Schenk’s claims, telling jurors that, “Elizabeth Holmes was building a business and not a criminal enterprise.”
“The government would have you believe that entity that she presided over as CEO was built by lies, by swindling, by half-truths, by misrepresentations that were carried out over years and years and years,” Downey said.
“I think you will see that the full picture reveals something very different from what the government has been presenting to you for three months and, indeed, for the last three hours,” he added.
Holmes, who completed her testimony last week after seven days on the stand, is charged with 11 counts of fraud for allegedly defrauding investors and patients.
The 37-year-old faces nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and could be sentenced to decades in prison if convicted. She has pleaded not guilty.
By dawn, over 60 members of the press and public were already lined up outside of the Robert F. Peckham Federal Courthouse, the crowd spilling out of the courtyard and onto South First Street. Hours later, at around 8 a.m., Holmes, her mother, her father and her partner, Billy Evans, arrived at the courthouse, all wearing blue and walking hand in hand as the rest of her entourage trailed behind.
At 9:05 a.m., the judge and the jury took their seats in the fifth-floor courtroom. Three minutes later, Schenk began.
One by one, the prosecution projected the picture of each witness their team had called to the stand as Schenk reminded jurors what the investors, patients and others had said to implicate Holmes.
Among those who testified were former lab director Dr. Adam Rosendorff, who said he voiced concerns to Holmes over lab procedures and test accuracy; lab associate turned whistleblower Erika Cheung, who said she was uncomfortable processing patient blood-samples; and former board member Gen. James Mattis, who said he was left to learn about the turmoil at Theranos from the press.
“[Theranos] is the story of a tragedy, but it is also the story of some people acting with really remarkable integrity,” Schenk said, pointing to the decisions made by both Rosendorff, Cheung and senior scientist Surekha Gangakhedkar, another government witness.
For Downey, the fate of his client — who was once was hailed as the next Steve Jobs — comes down to the question of intent.
“At the end of the day, the question you’re really asking yourself is, what was Ms. Holmes intent?” he asked. “Was she trying to defraud people?”
New episodes of “The Dropout” are available for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts. Click here to find the show on your favorite app.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Thursday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Indiana 122, Detroit 113
Brooklyn 114, Philadelphia 105
New York 116, Houston 103
Phoenix 118, Washington 98
Chicago at Toronto (Postponed)
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Tampa Bay 2, Ottawa 1
Carolina 5, Detroit 3
Los Angeles 4, Florida 1
Montreal 3, Philadelphia 2 (SO)
Vegas 5, New Jersey 3
NY Islanders 3, Boston 1
Nashville 5, Colorado 2
Buffalo 3, Minnesota 2 (SO)
Edmonton 5, Columbus 2
Vancouver 5, San Jose 2
Toronto at Calgary 9 (Postponed)
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Kansas City 34, LA Chargers 28 (OT)
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Duke 92, Appalachian St. 67
