But in
his ruling Monday, Davila said her appeal is unlikely to be successful and thus unlikely to sway the appeals court to grant bail. Davila's reasoning was essentially that none of the arguments that Holmes raised in her appeal would refute the basis of her conviction. For instance, Holmes took issue with some of the evidence the court heard regarding whether Theranos' blood-testing technology was "accurate and reliable." But whether the doomed company's technology was as accurate and reliable as promised was not necessarily at the heart of her conviction for defrauding investors, Davila reasoned.
There were "several misrepresentations that do not turn on whether the technology worked or not, such as those regarding the company’s financial status, reliance on third-party and commercially available devices,
partnership with Walgreens, and validation by pharmaceutical companies," Davila wrote in his ruling. Even if the appeals court agrees with Holmes that the court erred on the matter of the technology's accuracy and reliability, it would not likely call into question the jury's verdict.
"
n light of the breadth of misrepresentations at issue, the Court cannot conclude that there is any one category of misrepresentations 'so integral to the merits' that any potential error at all would be likely to result in reversal or new trial of all of Ms. Holmes’s convictions," Davila concluded.
Holmes similarly argued the court erred in her trial by excluding testimony by former Theranos President Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, limiting cross-examination of one of Theranos' former lab directors and admitting certain evidence of misrepresentation by Theranos to the Department of Defense. But, again, Davila found no reason that the errors, if true errors, would warrant a new trial or change the outcome of a jury's verdict. Holmes also argued that the court should not have denied her previous requests for a new trial, but Davila responded by saying that Holmes had failed to address all the points the court raised in its justification of those denials.