A federal trade secrets trial that continues Wednesday in Santa Ana, California, will include unusual testimony about the defendant company executive’s past cocaine use after the topic was pushed into relevancy through an inadvertent discovery dump.

An attorney for the bioscience company ChromaDex said Tuesday jurors will see video of a deposition in which Eric Marcotulli, CEO of Elysium Health Inc., lies about his drug usage and his workplace meetings with his dealer, which occurred amid “critical phone calls” about a business deal that blew up into a five-year multimillion-dollar court battle.

Michael Attanasio, chair of Cooley’s global litigation department. Courtesy photo