Somebody’s learned a lesson here

On the last day of testimony in the Martha Stewart trial, when her defense put on just one witness, questioned him for 20 minutes and then called it a wrap, you could tell some wished they were elsewhere. In the overflow room, eyes were glazing, heads sagging, inordinate bathroom runs were being made and there was much doodling in the margins of notebooks.

And those hardy souls weren’t even members of the press, who had endured weeks of government witnesses, including the minutiae of the man they dubbed “Ink Boy” (more on him later), and were exhaling at the prospect of an early lunch. These mostly attention-challenged onlookers were students from Doreen Esposito’s fifth-grade class.

Watching a federal court case may not seem like the most entertaining of class outings; it probably ranks right up there with a trip to the dentist. But Esposito, 34, who instructs at P.S. 290, the Manhattan New School on the Upper East Side, was determined her charges would see how the courts functioned.

“I teach them everything,” said Esposito, who added that the excursion was the continuation of a class project on how the Constitution works. It seems the 35-strong class had recently set up and run a mock trial, “Speak Out v. U.S.” -- a case on free speech -- that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

Needless to say, the in-school exercise was a bit easier to follow. “I think it was difficult,” said Jordana Greenberg, 10, of the brief peek at the Stewart trial. “There were some big vocabulary words.” Her classmate Nicholas Sheers, 10, agreed, adding, “Answering questions is hard.”

Alison Wittner, 10, concurred, and in what must be a historical first, showed sympathy for lawyers. “I wouldn’t want to be a lawyer. The judge is tough. She would make me cry.”

To be fair, U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum is pretty easygoing. But imagine her frustration at having to admonish seasoned lawyers about legal tactics. At one point, after the prosecutor had elicited a surprising response from a government witness, she advised, “Never ask a question you don’t know the answer to.”

Although the surreal court experience was novel and the students aren’t exactly Stewart’s target consumer base, some had heard of her. “I know what she is,” Jordana said, referring to the domestic diva’s reputation. “I watched a ‘20/20’ show on Martha Stewart,” Alison said proudly. Nicholas, ruddy-cheeked and gap-toothed, when asked if he had ever heard of Stewart, simply said, “No.”

After watching the sole defense witness, lawyer Steven Pearl, give his testimony and then get cross-examined, the class was hustled two floors up to sit in on a criminal trial. That case also involved allegations of misdirection and malfeasance, but the defendant, a Nigerian national, is charged with advance-fee fraud and wiring of money. “The way it was set up, I like that case more and I could understand,” Alison said.

It helped that the judge there, Laura T. Swain, explained to the students while the jury was out exactly what was happening. In the no hype, no press, intimate setting, the youngsters got a better sense of how justice plods along. And they had front-row seats.

Downstairs at the Stewart trial, the prosecution had recalled ink expert Larry Stewart, who is no relation to Martha. He testified that the ink used on one particular entry was different than that in the surrounding notations, and he surmised it had been altered. But when a defense lawyer tried to trip him up on cross-examination, the answer got so intricate and confusing that no one knew what he was saying, except for, perhaps, the judge, who admonished the lawyer that despite the confusion, the expert’s testimony had not changed.

“I think you should all go to ink school,” Cedarbaum said jokingly to both sets of lawyers.

Inspired by what she saw on her visit Wednesday, Jordana was clear about her career path: “I want to be a lawyer. It’s interesting asking questions and proving your point,” she declared. When asked if he entertained the same notion, Nicholas shook his head, grinned and again simply said, “No.”