|
That was six days before Stewart altered a computer log of a message left by Bacanovic on the day she sold her ImClone shares, according to previous testimony by her assistant Ann Armstrong
Earlier in the day, Stewart attorney Robert Morvillo tried to show jurors Stewart simply was trying to discredit inaccurate reports and was making smart business decisions when she issued the statements saying her ImClone sale was proper District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum said she kept reporters out of the process â€â€? usually open â€â€? because she was worried jurors might be less forthcoming about possible bias if they knew reporters were watching
Stewart sold on Dec
But the 2nd U
"The mere fact of intense media coverage of a celebrity defendant, without further compelling justification, is simply not enough to justify closure," the appeals court ruled 25, 2002, that U
In the statements, on June 12 and June 18, Stewart insisted she had a pre-existing deal with her stockbroker Peter Bacanovic to sell ImClone when it fell to $60
27, 2001, just before the government rejected ImClone's application for review of a cancer drug, which sent the ImClone stock price down "
In another, Rep
The government introduced a stock chart that showed spikes in the price of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia immediately after Stewart issued statements denying wrongdoing in June 2002
Meanwhile Wednesday, a federal appeals court ruled that the judge overseeing the trial was wrong to bar the news media from jury selection S officials wanted to question Stewart about her sale of ImClone "
Gregory R
The government claims Bacanovic sent word to Stewart through an assistant the day of the sale that Waksal was trying to dump his shares
Prosecutors claim Stewart misled investors with the June 2002 statements and was trying to protect the hundreds of millions of dollars she owned in her own company's stock Blatt, the former top lawyer at Stewart's company, told Morvillo that company officials were "concerned" about the storm of publicity because of the negative effect it could have on advertisers Circuit Court of Appeals called the media "a vital means to open justice" and said she had not met the heavy burden required to close jury selection Lawyers Claim Stewart Misled Investors
Feb 18, 6:13 PM EST
Prosecutors tried to prove Wednesday that Martha Stewart propped up the stock price of her own company by lying to investors about why she sold ImClone Systems stock Prosecutors said they could rest as early as Thursday
Blatt, a witness called by the government, also said he was alerted on Jan
The government claims the real reason for the sale was that Stewart was tipped that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was trying to sell his shares
The news reports are from early June 2002, when word leaked that Congress was investigating whether Stewart sold ImClone on insider information S Four other counts accuse her, in various ways, of lying to investigators about why she sold ImClone stock
The government was nearing the end of its case against Stewart and Bacanovic, which has lasted almost four weeks
In one, a Minnesota Public Radio anchor refers to a purported romantic link between Stewart and Waksal and says: "It looks like Martha Stewart may have kissed and sold S , says Stewart's ImClone sale "raises the specter of insider trading If convicted, she likely would get a lighter penalty than the maximum under federal sentencing guidelines
He showed jurors a slew of 2-year-old news reports that speculated she sold the stock on insider information and was romantically linked to the now-imprisoned Waksal, which Stewart has denied It is the most serious of the five counts Stewart faces
U
Still, Morvillo's questioning did not address a key element of the securities fraud charge â€â€? that Stewart's lawyer told The Wall Street Journal that Stewart and Bacanovic had an agreement to sell ImClone at $60 Stewart immediately told Armstrong to change the message back to its original wording, Armstrong testified last week But Stewart was not charged with knowing about the insider information that led Waksal to sell James Greenwood, R-Pa
The charge of securities fraud carries a 10-year prison term |