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Stewart to report to prison by Oct. 8

NEW YORK - Martha Stewart must report to prison in less than three weeks, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in granting the celebrity homemaker's request to begin serving her sentence for lying about a stock sale. Her namesake company's stock surged 12 percent.

The judge also suggested that Stewart, 63, be assigned to prison camps in Danbury, Conn., or Coleman - the two Stewart had requested.

Stewart was allowed to stay out of prison while she appeals her conviction. But she said last week she would surrender anyway in order to "reclaim my good life" and put the ordeal behind her.

The October surrender date means Stewart will likely be out of prison by early March - in time, as she told reporters last week, for spring gardening. She must serve five months of house arrest after prison.

Stewart was pleased with the judge's decision, a spokeswoman said.

"She remains hopeful that she will be designated to Danbury, which is the facility closest to her home," spokeswoman Brooke Morganstein said.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons must now decide where Stewart will serve her time. Her first choice, the minimum-security facility in Connecticut, is close to Stewart's home in Westport.

Stewart has also said she wants Danbury, a minimum-security women's prison sometimes called Club Fed, because it would be easiest for her 90-year-old mother to visit her. Stewart's lawyer has said that the Florida location would also work because it is easier for his client's mother to get to than some other prisons.

Dan Dunne, a spokesman for the bureau, said both the Connecticut and Florida facilities are above their "rated capacity." But he said that does not rule out either facility.

"The bureau will make the appropriate designation based on the offender's particular situation," Dunne said. He did not have a timetable for when the decision would be made.

Dunne said most prisoners surrender on the deadline date itself, but he said some report in the days leading up to the deadline.

Shares in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Stewart's media empire, closed up $1.64 at $14.81 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The stock was trading at about $11 last week, but has steadily risen since Stewart announced she would do her time. She said she believed she would be vindicated on appeal but could not bear the "prolonged suffering" any longer.

The higher stock price also reflected a report Monday that reality TV show producer Mark Burnett was in talks with Stewart to refashion her lifestyles television show when she gets out of prison.

"I'm very interested in reinventing her show," Burnett, who produces such shows as The Apprentice and Survivor, told the Daily News. A spokeswoman for the company did not return a call for comment on the report.

Stewart still plans to ask a federal appeals court to overturn her conviction. She and former stockbroker Peter Bacanovic were convicted in March of lying about why Stewart sold her ImClone Systems Inc. stock in 2001.

Bacanovic was also allowed to stay out of prison while he appeals. Stewart and Bacanovic's cases are not expected to be argued before the appeals court until 2005.

The decision by Cedarbaum came one day before Larry Stewart, an ink expert who testified for the government at the trial, is set to go on trial himself on charges that he lied repeatedly during his testimony.

Lawyers for Martha Stewart have said they will argue on appeal that Larry Stewart's alleged perjury, in addition to alleged lies told by a juror to get on the panel, kept her from getting a fair trial.

A look at the two facilities a judge suggested Tuesday as possible prisons for Martha Stewart.

Source: AP archives, Federal Bureau of Prisons