Sunny Balwani · Trap Queens · Black Bird
Plus: a longread on art behind bars
the true crime that's worth your time
Call me a lightweight, but The Dropout stoked my interest in the drama inside the lab at Theranos. I have to confess that before I watched the series, my interest was more on Elizabeth Holmes and her whole…thing.
But the show’s look at the lab, including Stephen Fry’s sensitive portrayal of Silicon Valley notable Ian Gibbon, engaged in that narrative too — making me far more interested in the lab play-by-play in Sunny Balwani’s ongoing trial than I was during Holmes’s.
Yes, Sunny’s on trial now. The so-called-by-Naveen-Andrews “Lady Macbeth” of the Theranos scandal faces 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy for his alleged role in the company, and so far, much of the testimony for the prosecution has been from folks in the lab who say he knew that the Edison blood testing machines didn’t work, but pushed forward on a deal with Walgreens regardless.
KRON4 has a good, non-paywalled report from the courtroom last week, with the damning quote that with a “51 percent failure rate,” the Theranos blood testing machines were like “flipping a coin.” We also have some insight into how Balwani’s defense is going to tackle things:
In opening statements, Balwani’s defense team blamed Holmes for what went wrong.
Defense Attorney Stephen Cazares told the jury, “Sunny did not start Theranos, he did not control Theranos, he did not have final decision making authorities.”
“Sunny never made a dime from Theranos. Sunny committed no crime, no fraud, and never intended to deceive or cheat anybody. Not investors, and not patients,” Cazares said.
Per Law 360 (which is free to read if you can give them an email address they approve of), things got weird on Friday. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, the same judge who presided over the Holmes trial, really tore into Cazares after questioning Mark Pandori. Snip:
Under direct examination on Thursday, Pandori said Balwani became "upset, angry" at his suggestion that the startup should stop using its Edison blood-testing machines on patients until certain quality control concerns were addressed.
Pandori, who worked for Theranos from December 2013 to May 2014, said one of the reasons he left the startup was the resistance he received from Balwani and other higher-ups after he ran proficiency testing on the company's Edison blood analyzers that yielded some poor results.
On Friday, Cazares reviewed a February 2014 email Balwani wrote to Pandori and others, that copied Holmes, in which the chief operating officer said he was "extremely irritated" by people within the company with no legal background taking legal positions and interpreting the data from the proficiency tests. Balwani said they should "never have been run" because the company had alternative assessment procedures for the Edison device because it was different from other blood-testing machines.
At issue is an email Pandori allegedly wrote on his last day of work, one he says he doesn’t remember writing. (I quit a job a year ago and don’t remember emails I wrote that day, so…) Apparently Cazares said the trial might need to be paused so the defense team can authenticate the email, which prompted Davila to snap, “Don’t threaten me, you’re better than that.”
A few minutes later, the lawyer asked the judge if the lawyers could speak with him in a sidebar, away from the jury.
The judge excused the jury for the day and expressed frustration to the parties after they left.
"Why are we wasting time?" asked the judge. "We had 17 minutes [left] and surely, surely you could have touched on another subject and come back to this … I had to send the jury home early and it's unfortunate."
Best Evidence readers in the Battle Born State might be especially interested in this part of the trial, as these days, Pandori is the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory Director, helping lead the region through the pandemic and updating residents as new variants appear.
Obviously, his credibility is extremely important to maintain, given the politicization of the COVID-19 crisis. Expect every word he says to be closely scrutinized, even though he was only at the lab for a blink of an eye nearly eight years ago. — EB
American Gangster: Trap Queens is back for a third season. This show is one of my favorite low-lift, turn-on-something-fun-while-I-deal-with-my-messy-house true crime options, because the last thing I need when finding a surprise dog poop that’s been next to the couch since ? is a show where women are primarily presented as the victims.
Not so with Trap Queens, where narrator Lil’ Kim (selling point #2) presents, per a press release from BET, “epic, tragic and significant cautionary tales of women seduced by the allure of the underworld to become ultimate crime bosses.”
The network ran down the list of subjects, and I looked up their stories and alleged crimes to see what we’re in for:
Gina Cabell: this one eluded me; maybe credit card fraud?
You had me at “illegal butt injections,” Trap Queens. The first and second seasons are also on BET+ if you want to catch up. The first five episodes of the ten-ep season drop there on Thursday, April 7; there are five more that “will be released at some point in the future.” — EB
Are we OK with this trend of true-crime adaptation “first look” announcements? I always wonder if I am playing into Big True Crime’s hands when I point you towards a press release that’s just stills from an upcoming dramatic take on a tale — but then again, I don’t mind seeing how big stars are “transformed” (with varying levels of success) into their real-life characters.
I ask this because of the minor flurry of coverage around stills of Taron Edgerton (Kingsmen) and problematic Twitter presence Paul Walter Hauser in character in Black Bird, the Apple+ take on In With The Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption — the 2011 memoir from convicted drug dealer Jimmy Keene (Edgerton), who was recruited by the feds to elicit a confession from suspected serial killer Larry DeWayne Hall (Hauser). They are not really transformed, in my opinion, unless I am missing something very subtle? Hauser’s beard is slightly different in this show than in his other bearded roles, I guess?
Hall, who in real life (see below) looks less like a hipster baker/distiller/record-player refurbisher than Hauser does in the show stills, is a suspect in as many as 54 slayings between 1987 and his arrest at age 31 in 1994. [Warning: this might be a spoiler] He’s since confessed to numerous homicides, but lack of evidence means charges are scarce in those cases.
Here’s a solid CNN report on the Hall case and Keene’s role:
The six-episode series also stars Greg Kinnear and Ray Liotta, not names one typically puts in the same sentence. Black Bird premieres on July 8 with a two episode drop, then will run every Friday for its duration. — EB
A recent Atavist longread is about incarcerated artists and much more. “The Caregivers,” thoughtfully penned by Kelly Loudenberg, is about how recognition of his art saved abuse victim and repeat offender Danny Valentine from — according to him — a jailhouse suicide, and how his relationship with two social justice activists/curators transformed his life.
It’s also about how, when one of those activists began to cognitively decline, Valentine took on the mammoth task of helping care for him until the end. Snip:
Janie updated Danny on Buzz’s condition during his visits to Ann Arbor. On one occasion, in the summer of 2016, Janie asked Danny if he wanted to make a few hundred bucks helping organize the garage. It was one of those things she just couldn’t get to on her own that needed to be done. Danny came over to the house, and within a few hours the garage was in order. It happened to be around the time of Danny’s birthday, and banana pudding had been prepared for the occasion. Buzz sat silently during the visit, except when it came time to sing “Happy Birthday.” It saddened Danny to see a man he knew to be full of thoughts and ideas appear so reserved, so distant.
Janie hired a home health aide at one point, but soon decided the person wasn’t a good fit. She wanted someone who loved Buzz to care for him. His children were grown, with kids and careers of their own—they couldn’t drop everything to look after their dad. Janie called on two of her most trusted former students, ones who knew Buzz, to keep an eye on him when she couldn’t. They helped cook and keep Buzz safe. But after several months, they needed to move on with their lives. Janie was at a loss. There was no one left to call.
Right before Christmas 2016, Buzz became confused, walked out of the house, and fell, injuring himself. As Janie sat next to Buzz’s bed in the emergency room, she suddenly found herself thinking about Danny. Danny, who’d credited Buzz with saving his life, who’d spent time with Buzz and understood his condition. Danny, whom Janie had felt bound to from the moment she met him. Danny, who was looking for purpose and direction. Danny, who’d done one hell of a job organizing the garage.
I didn’t really want to read this piece — I’m visiting my mom right now (she’s fine, don’t worry) and every time I do, the cloud of aging and all it entails is always there, hanging. I’ve also been reading a lot lately about incarceration and prison conditions, which, if you want to intentionally feel helpless and like there are no answers to anything, boy do I have a reading list for you. Did I need to read this story that combines both anxiety-producing topics, plus has side helpings of self-harm and sexual assault?
As it turned out, I did — though the story is painful and sad and triggering, it is also remarkably beautiful. It’s not as simple as a “redemption” story, it’s more a reminder that we all need to take care of each other. Every narrative that “humanizes” incarcerated folks is important, in my opinion, but this is something special. Ignore the troubling URL (SEO is a bitch, man), and read it here. — EB
Wednesday on Best Evidence: More on transformation!
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