Bombshell In Desperate Housewives Trial: Did Execs Conspire To Delete Important Emails?

Teri Hatcher and Nicollette Sheridan in Desperate Housewives.
(Image credit: ABC)

Nicollette Sheridan’s lawyers dropped a bombshell in court today that could change the outcome of the big trial. Was there a conspiracy to destroy electronic records of emails regarding the killing off of Sheridan’s character on Desperate Housewives passed between network execs? Apparently a little mistake may have revealed to a low-level employee on the show the plan to delete the records.

If you haven’t been following the trial, here’s the story in a nutshell: Back in 2008, Housewives showrunner Marc Cherry apparently gave Nicolette Sheridan what he calls a “light tap” on the head during a heated discussion on the set. Sheridan reported him for hitting her, and believes that’s why her character Edie Britt was killed off on the show. Cherry denies that the incident, and her reporting of it, had anything to do with her exit. Sheridan is suing for wrongful termination to the tune of $4.2 million as well as for battery.

Both Sheridan and Cherry have already taken the stand in the trial, but the big bombshell came this morning, when according to Deadline Sheridan’s lawyers presented evidence that an employee at the show was mistakenly included in emails discussing the deletion of all email records regarding the decision to kill off Edie Britt. The email went out right after Sheridan filed her case against Marc Cherry and ABC in April of 2010. A voicemail from the employee in question was played in court, but he has so far dodged a subpoena to appear in court. Execs on the show claimed in court that the emails don’t exist because they were keeping things confidential.

What is ABC hiding by trying to delete those emails? It might not matter, just the act of trying to hide them may be enough to convince the jury that something fishy is going on over there. The lesson here is, always check who you’re CC’ing on your emails. It could cost you. In this case, it could cost ABC millions.

The trial is expected to wrap up by the end of the week, and then it will be up to the jury to decide on Sheridan’s claims and the case of the disappearing emails.