AP Photo/Nick UtThe real life Desperate Housewives drama continues, but Nicollette Sheridan and Marc Cherry have done all they can do. The counsels for both parties in the wrongful termination suit rested and closed their cases Wednesday afternoon, so now it's up to a jury to decide who will come out on top.
"There is no evidence there was any collaboration of conspiracy," Cherry and ABC's attorney, Adam Levine, said in his closing statement, adding, "If there was a conspiracy, then these are Keystone Cops of conspirators."
Ten witnesses all agreed that the decision to kill off Sheridan's Edie Britt was made in May 2008—four months before their alleged fight, Levine argued.
A lawyer representing ABC and the show's creator stated that a network attorney sent out four preservation memos to ABC staff when Sheridan filed her suit against Cherry. This was meant to ensure that none of the emails pertaining to Sheridan and her Edie Britt character would be deleted. (The actress claims she was killed off in the show's fifth season because of an on-set dispute with Cherry.)
Michael Reinhart, an eight-year construction coordinator for the show, testified Tuesday that he received an email in the fall of 2010 by accident, remembering that it contained the words "IT," "Nicollette Sheridan," "delete" and "hard drive."
When pressed by the judge, however, Reinhart admitted that he isn't sure that he didn't see a note telling employees to keep all of their electronic correspondence pertaining to the case instead of deleting it. Sheridan's attorney, Mark Baute, told E! News that forensic investigators are still looking at the computer.
"The only thing that happened in the May meeting was the approval of the five-year jump [of the plot into the future]," Baute said in his closing argumenet. "My kids say this around the house, 'It was May, May, May, I don't know anything else,'" mocking the testimony of the individuals called by Levine. "They stuck to a script and orchestrated 'May, May, May,'" he said.
Cherry is "vindictive" and his behavior was "out of control," Baute said.
So will a jury award Sheridan the $5.7 million she's asking for in her wrongful termination suit, even though the judge dismissed her claim of battery due to a lack of evidence?
Her attorney told Judge Elizabeth White that he had "a feeling they've already decided" on a verdict.
Judge White laughed and asked, "Do you know something I don't?"
UPDATE: Deliberations concluded for the day and will resume Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Baute told E! News outside the courtroom that he expects a verdict tomorrow, saying the jury's body language indicates they've "already made up their mind."