Elizabeth Holmes avoids reporting to prison this week after last-minute reprieve

Convicted Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes got an eleventh-hour reprieve from having to report to prison on Thursday after her legal team contested the federal judge’s order to start serving her sentence.

Holmes’ attorneys filed a motion late Tuesday with the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco against US District Judge Edward Davila’s decision earlier this month to reject the disgraced tech founder’s bid to remain free while appealing her conviction.

The mother of two had been ordered to begin serving her 11-year stint on April 27.

However, on Wednesday, Holmes’ prison report date was “automatically stayed” pending a ruling from the appeals court.

She will remain free on bail. Federal prosecutors have 10 days to respond to the filing.

In the filing to the appeals court, Holmes’ team argued Davila’s ruling “reflects numerous, inexplicable errors.”

“The court referred to Holmes’ ‘patient fraud convictions,’ despite the fact that the jury acquitted Holmes on those counts,” the filing said.

Holmes’ lawyers also alleged that Davila used “the wrong legal standard to assess whether key issues presented were likely to result in reversal” of her conviction.

Holmes was found her guilty on four charges relating to defrauding investors last year. She was acquitted on charges of defrauding patients who took Theranos blood tests.

Holmes, once Silicon Valley’s rising stars, experienced the stunning downfall after reports revealed that Theranos’ blood tests could not perform many of the functions she claimed.

Her reps had urged Davila to allow Holmes to remain free because the appeal would raise “substantial issues” about her conviction that would warrant a new trial.

Prosecutors urged the judge to put Holmes behind bars as scheduled.

The feds’ argument included a bombshell assertion that Holmes was a flight risk because she and her partner, William Evans, had booked a one-way trip to Mexico before the jury reached a verdict on her fraud case. Government attorneys described the planned trip as an “attempt to flee the country.”

Holmes’ team said the allegation was “baseless” and that she had merely hoped to attend a friend’s wedding. Lawyers also cited the recent birth of Holmes’ second child as proof that she was not a flight risk.

In his decision earlier this month, Davila ruled that Holmes was unable to receive a complete reversal of her conviction or a new trial – even if she won her appeal challenging the admission of evidence regarding the accuracy of Theranos’ blood-testing machines.

“Contrary to her suggestion that accuracy and reliability were central issues to her convictions, Ms. Holmes’ misrepresentations to Theranos investors involved more than just whether Theranos technology ‘work[ed] as promised.’” Davila wrote.

Davila also weighed in the claim that Holmes was a flight risk – describing the planned trip abroad as “ill-advised” but not evidence of a plan to free.

“Ms. Holmes has presented evidence that she made no attempt to flee, the court retains custody of her expired passport, her appearance is secured by a $500,000 bond on her parents’ home, and she has strong ties to the community, including two very young children,” Davila said.