January Trial Date for Stewart
Lifestyles entrepreneur Martha Stewart will get her day in court in January to face charges that she and her former stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, conspired to thwart a federal probe of her 2001 sale of stock in biotech firm ImClone Systems Inc.
U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum on Thursday set a Jan. 12 trial date for Stewart and Bacanovic, who were indicted June 4 by a Manhattan grand jury after a 17-month investigation by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Both have pleaded innocent to all charges, which could bring up to 30 years in prison and $2 million in fines for each defendant.
Defense and prosecution lawyers sparred briefly Thursday in a 25-minute hearing that one court official called the best-attended scheduling conference he had seen. More than 100 people, including reporters, lawyers, court employees and other onlookers, crowded the 14th-floor courtroom for the type of routine legal proceeding that ordinarily plays to an empty house.
Stewart, 61, had nothing to say other than, “I agree,” when Cedarbaum asked whether she agreed with the trial schedule proposed by her lead attorney, Robert Morvillo.
Bacanovic’s lawyer, Richard Strassberg, asked for the January trial date -- later than the government wanted -- to give his team time to sift through about 40 boxes of documents and an unknown number of computer files that the government may enter as evidence.
Morvillo said he was prepared to move faster but would bow to Strassberg’s wishes.
The charges stem from Stewart’s sale of 3,928 shares of ImClone in December 2001, which came a day ahead of an adverse Food and Drug Administration ruling on the company’s promising cancer drug, Erbitux, which caused the stock to plunge 18%.
The indictment alleges that Bacanovic tipped Stewart that her friend, ImClone founder Samuel D. Waksal, was trying to dump his and his family’s shares. Stewart and Bacanovic then concocted a story about her reasons for selling and lied to investigators, according to the indictment.
Waksal was sentenced last week to seven years and three months in prison, plus $4 million in fines and restitution, after pleading guilty to insider trading and other charges.
Outside the courthouse Thursday, in a drizzle typical of Manhattan this gray spring, two Stewart supporters carried hand-stenciled signs saying, “Stop Persecution of Martha Stewart” and “Martha Stewart is a Good Thing.”
On her way out, Stewart acknowledged the support with a wave and a fleeting smile.
Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., has been waging a public-relations campaign to salvage her reputation. She said she has received 10 million hits and 55,000 notes of encouragement on her new Internet site, www.marthatalks.com.
Martha Stewart Living shares rose 2 cents to $9.40 on the New York Stock Exchange. Stewart stepped down as the company’s chief after she was indicted.
