Lawless
All About Brad!
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Registered: Jun 2003
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Judge rules on key evidence as jurors deliberate for a third day in the Martha Stewart trial.
March 5, 2004: 1:09 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The judge in the Martha Stewart trial -- in a technical ruling that was a blow to Stewart's ex-broker Peter Bacanovic -- ruled Friday that jurors can consider a telephone log plus the testimony of a witness in deciding if Bacanovic committed perjury.
Under federal law, finding someone guilty of perjury requires the testimony of two witnesses. The jury had asked Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum if a phone log kept by Stewart's assistant, Ann Armstrong, is independent of her testimony at the trial.
The judge ruled before the start of deliberations that the answer was yes. Considering her log independently makes it in effect a second witness and would allow the jury to consider whether to convict Bacanovic on Count 6 of the indictment, which accuses him of perjury.
The jurors, whom the judge called"extremely intelligent and probative," also had requested the transcripts of testimony from an investigator for the Security and Exchange Commission concerning interviews with Bacanovic and e-mails between the former broker and Stewart and Stewart's business manager, Heidi DeLuca.
The panel of eight women and four men began weighing the evidence Wednesday afternoon as they sought to determine if Stewart and her ex-broker lied about her sale of ImClone Systems Inc. (IMCL: Research, Estimates) stock in late 2001.
Stewart and Bacanovic are charged with lying to investigators about the circumstances surrounding Stewart's stock sale on Dec. 27, 2001, the day before regulators rejected the company's application for ImClone's experimental cancer drug -- news that sent its stock tumbling.
The prosecution alleges Stewart sold her ImClone stock only after Bacanovic told his assistant, Douglas Faneuil, to tip her off that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was trying to sell.
Stewart and Bacanovic have told investigators they had an arrangement to sell once the stock fell to $60.
Bacanovic was broker to both Stewart and Waksal, who is serving a seven-year prison term after pleading guilty to securities fraud over his family's sale of ImClone shares.
Last week, Judge Cedarbaum dismissed a securities fraud charge against the 62-year-old Stewart. The four remaining charges she faces, and the five faced by Bacanovic, each carry a possible sentence of up to five years.
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03-05-2004 08:23 PM
