Elizabeth Holmes faces 'terrifying' separation from toddler, newborn in prison
With Elizabeth Holmes not getting her wish to escape a prison sentence Friday, attorneys for the pregnant Theranos fraudster said she faced the "terrifying prospect" of being an incarcerated mother, forced to say good-bye to a much-adored toddler son and a baby she might be separated from soon after giving birth.
After the visibly pregnant Holmes broke down in tears Friday to say, "I regret my failings with every cell of my body," U.S. District Judge Edward Davila sentenced her to 11.25 years in federal prison.
Holmes, 38, continued to cry as she was surrounded by partner, Billy Evans, and other family members after Davila let her know her fate — as well as the fate of her children, who include her 15-month-old son. The judge gave her a date of April 27 to surrender to federal prison. While Holmes and Evans have not revealed her due date, reporters at the San Jose courthouse said she appeared to be six or seven months along. That means, she should be able to give birth to her second child before she has to be separated from both children for the next decade, by the end of which they'll both be pre-teenagers.
Holmes' attorneys argued that the "loving and dedicated mother and partner" shouldn't have to serve time in federal prison or should, at most, only be sentenced to a maximum of 18 months. TheStanford dropout was convicted by a jury in January of bilking investors in her now-defunct Palo Alto blood-testing startup out of more than $144 million. Federal prosecutors, labeling her a remorseless liar and calling her fraud scheme among the worst white-collar crimes Silicon Valley has seen, asked for her to go to prison for 15 years. Probation officials had recommended a sentence of nine years.
With Davila opting for a sentence closer to what prosecutors wanted, Holmes, who is said to be a hands-on mother, now has to live with the agony of leaving her children behind.
For Holmes, being locked up means she won't be able to gently greet her 15-month-old when she gets him out of the crib in the morning, as her partner Evans recounted in the sentencing memo her attorneys submitted to the court this week. She and Evans also won't be able to hold their little boy in their arms while they dance in the kitchen and give him "doubles" — kisses on both sides of the cheek. Holmes also will miss rocking her son to sleep at night, singing "Amazing Grace."
Evans explained his fears of her being imprisoned: "My heart is broken with the thought of spending any days away from Liz, for a future in which my son grows up with a relationship with his mother on the other side of glass armed by guards."
Despite Evans' pleas for leniency, many watching the trial were not moved by Holmes' plight as a soon-to-be incarcerated mother. People on social media said poor women of color usually can't count on the public, courts or media to care about their pain when they're separated from their children.
Many also questioned the timing of both of Holmes' pregnancies, with some wondering, cynically, whether the she planned them to elicit sympathy for her trial and or her sentencing. Others asked why a woman who claims to be a loving mother would get pregnant after she's been convicted of crimes that could have potentially separated herself from her children for up to 20 years.
"Elizabeth Holmes doesn't care about anyone other than herself," one person tweeted. "If she did she would not have gotten pregnant not once but 2x while pending prison sentence was looming. That's not thinking of the best interest of her kids. She needs to go to jail. She's a Fraud.
Women who've been previously incarcerated told this news organization in January that they had to deal with limited opportunities for visits and physical contact with their children. Visits with their children took place in a crowded institutional setting — usually after they had to submit to strip searches. They also had to wait in long lines for a pay phone to call their children.
"You can't mother from a pay phone," Danielle Metz, who served time in the Dublin Federal Correctional Institution after being sentenced for cocaine distribution, told this news organization in January. For the entire 23 years she was incarcerated, Metz missed her child-rearing day-to-day moments: Taking her children to school, soothing them when they were sick or cheering them on in their many accomplishments.
With the April surrender date, Holmes won't need to finish out her pregnancy and give birth while in prison. Legal experts also said she's likely to appeal her case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which could further delay her date for reporting to prison.
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