Stewart, Bacanovic won't take stand in own defense
By Associated Press
Published February 25, 2004
NEW YORK - Martha Stewart will not take the stand in her own defense, her lawyer said Tuesday, gambling that jurors will not need her testimony to acquit the homemaking icon of lying about a stock sale.
Lawyer Robert Morvillo said Stewart's defense team would call no more than two witnesses: a former lawyer who represented Stewart when she first met with government investigators and, if the judge allows it, a memory expert.
In either case, the Stewart defense is expected to start and end its case today. Closing arguments could begin as early as Thursday, although the judge said she might delay them until next week.
Morvillo made his announcement after jurors were excused at the end of the 16th day of testimony at the trial. Stewart and broker Peter Bacanovic are accused of lying about why Stewart sold ImClone Systems stock Dec. 27, 2001.
Stewart and Bacanovic say they had arranged to sell her shares when the price fell to $60. The government claims Stewart was tipped that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was frantically trying to sell his shares that day.
Rather than asking jurors to decide between the government's version of the story and Stewart's, Morvillo will simply argue prosecutors have failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Legal experts say putting Stewart on the stand would have raised a host of concerns for her defense team, including having her explain inconsistencies in her statements and exposing her to risky cross-examination by the government.
Stewart and Bacanovic have told investigators slightly different versions of what happened after the stock sale, although they both maintain the central element - that they had a plan to sell the stock at $60 per share.
Bacanovic's lawyers called five witnesses and expect to rest their case Wednesday morning. His lawyers decided he would not take the stand because "the government hasn't made its case," spokesman Lou Colasuonno said. "It's a circumstantial case, with a lot of inference."
In front of the jury Tuesday, a business manager for Stewart testified that Stewart billed her company for the luxurious vacation she took just after selling her ImClone Systems stock in 2001.
Heidi DeLuca, who handles finances for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and for Stewart personally, testified she was instructed to submit the $17,000 vacation at the lush Las Ventanas resort in Mexico for reimbursement as a business expense.
Stewart is not charged with any crime in connection with her expense practices. DeLuca did not say whether the company approved the reimbursement for Stewart's vacation.
Prosecutors aggressively attacked the credibility of DeLuca, who helped the defense Monday when she said Stewart's broker had mentioned a desire to unload Stewart's ImClone shares at $60 or $61.
The final witness for Bacanovic's lawyers was securities expert John Maine, who testified about the dramatic drop in ImClone's price on the day Stewart sold.
Maine said the price of the stock was "falling out of bed" while the Nasdaq Stock Market as a whole was up.
"To see a stock behaving this dramatically against the market in a vacation week is quite stunning," he said.
