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Martha stewart convicted Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Stewart Conviction Hung on Phone Log Message, Juror Says
March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Testimony about a phone message from Martha Stewart's broker before she sold 3,928 shares of ImClone Systems Inc. stock convinced juror Chappell Hartridge that the homemaking entrepreneur was guilty.
Hartridge, 47, said he voted to convict because of testimony by Stewart's assistant Ann Armstrong about a message from her former broker, Peter Bacanovic, on Dec. 27, 2001. Armstrong, who broke into tears on the witness stand, testified that Stewart told her to alter the message on a computer log before ordering the original restored.
``Without that message from Peter, there would have been no case, in my opinion,'' Hartridge told reporters after the verdict in federal court in New York.
The panel of eight women and four men convicted Stewart, 62, and Bacanovic, 41, of conspiracy, obstructing justice and making false statements. Bacanovic, a former broker at Merrill Lynch & Co., also was convicted of perjury. They face up to five years in prison on each count when they are sentenced June 17.
Stewart's fame as a television celebrity and former chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. didn't affect the jury's analysis of the evidence, Hartridge said.
``I don't care if it's Martha Stewart or John Doe,'' said Hartridge, a computer technician.
Another juror, Amos Mellinger, of the Bronx, New York, said the government pulled together many strands of evidence to make a convincing case. ``There was no one piece of evidence,'' he said. ``If there was any doubt whatsoever, I'd still be there.''
The Message
Hartridge said he was persuaded by Armstrong's testimony about the Bacanovic message, which said: ``Peter Bacanovic thinks ImClone is going to start trading downward.'' Armstrong said Stewart ordered her on Jan. 31, 2002, to change it to read: ``Peter Bacanovic re imclone.'' Armstrong said her boss then told her to restore the original message.
Stewart broke the law ``once she felt the heat of the investigation'' by U.S. prosecutors and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Hartridge said. She should have known better because she was once a stockbroker herself, he said.
Mellinger said he found the government's key witnesses, including Bacanovic's assistant, Douglas Faneuil, ``credible.''
Faneuil, 28, testified that Bacanovic made him tell Stewart that ImClone founder Samuel Waksal was trying to sell his shares of his company. Faneuil said Stewart told him to sell after he passed on the tip. Waksal knew at the time that U.S. regulators were preparing to reject his company's cancer drug application.
Waksal is serving seven years in prison after pleading guilty to insider trading.
Hartridge said that the evidence in the case supported Faneuil's testimony.
`Ad Hominem Arguments'
``I kept saying, `Hey, he has a deal with the government, keep an open mind and see what he has to say,''' Hartridge said. ``But some of the witnesses and the documents backed up what he said.''
Faneuil pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and cooperated in a bid for leniency at sentencing. Mellinger said he wasn't swayed by the defense's ``ad hominem arguments'' about Faneuil's drug use and alleged fixation on Stewart.
Mellinger and Hartridge praised Robert Morvillo, Stewart's defense attorney. Morvillo ``did the best he could with what he had to work with,'' Hartridge said.
Stewart presented only one witness in her defense, a strategy that bothered Hartridge. He said it was as if Stewart was saying: ``I don't think I had anything to worry about. I kind of fooled the jury.''
Celebrities
Hartridge said Stewart should have testified, although U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum told jurors to draw no adverse inferences from her silence.
``I kind of would have liked to hear from her, but I didn't expect it,'' Hartridge said.
Jurors were offended that celebrities appeared in the gallery to support Stewart during the six-week trial, including Bill Cosby and Rosie O'Donnell, Hartridge said.
``If anything, we took it as a little bit of an insult,'' he said. ``Was that supposed to sway our decision?''
Hartridge said ``the most damaging statement'' in the trial came from Stewart's longtime friend Mariana Pasternak, who recounted a conversation they had while vacationing in Mexico days after the stock sale.
`Little Guy'
``Isn't it nice to have brokers who tell you those things?'' Pasternak said Stewart told her. Pasternak testified the next day that she might have imagined the conversation and it was her ``best belief'' that Stewart said it.
Hartridge said the verdict should send a message to investors about corporate malfeasance.
``Maybe it might give the little guy a confident feeling that I can invest my money in the market, that it will be on the up and up,'' Hartridge said.
Mellinger said the 12 hours of deliberations over three days were calm and reasoned. ``We got along wonderfully,'' he said. There was ``an exchange of ideas, no arguments. Nobody got upset.''
The case is U.S. v. Stewart, 03CR717, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.
To contact the reporter in Manhattan federal court on this
story: David Voreacos, at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor for this story: Patrick Oster, or poster@bloomberg.net.
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