Martha Stewart Refused April Deal To Avoid Prison

PR Newswire ^ | 3/7/04

[11th Earl of Mar]

Prosecutors Offered Martha Stewart a Deal Last April: Cop To One Count of Making a False Statement and Receive Probation and Continue to Work at Omnimedia, Sources Say

She Refused to Plead Guilty to a Felony

NEW YORK, March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Newsweek has learned that the Feds gave Martha Stewart an opportunity to avoid prison. Federal prosecutors offered Stewart a deal last April to cop to one count of making a false statement, say several sources familiar with the offer. She would have received probation and could continue working at her company, they say. But she refused to plead guilty to a felony, and a defense source says the Feds couldn't guarantee she would stay out of jail.

And federal investigators say she could have avoided the entire mess if she had confessed in the beginning. Had she admitted wrong doing in early 2002, she could have gotten off with a $200,000 fine and no jail time, report Detroit Bureau Chief Keith Naughton and Special Correspondent Barney Gimbel in the March 15 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, March 8).

After a seven week trial, the jury deliberated for three days before convicting Stewart on all four counts.

One juror sobbed as the judge ticked off all the guilty counts. Martha's daughter, Alexis, doubled over in tears in the front row of the gallery. Alexis's husband John Cuti, also one of Martha's lawyers, buried his face in his hands at the defense table. Stewart stared straight ahead, showing no emotion.

Martha Stewart's case may set the new standard for judging fat cats who don't play by the rules, write Naughton and Gimbel. "We're now going to see the 'Martha test' as a fair punishment for white-collar crimes," says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, associate dean of the Yale School of Management.

"This is going to have a strong influence on jurors from here on out." And legal experts say she'll likely go to prison for one to three years, probably at a minimum- security "prison farm."

[Reelect President Dubya]

Martha will win the appeal, and all the underachieving class-warfare mongers will wail and gnash their teeth.

[tbeatty]

Maybe she'll get to work in the kitchen.

[tbeatty]

I hope she doesn't win an appeal. This is about stealing and lying, not class warfare.

[Ditto]

Martha will win the appeal......

On what grounds?

[ChadGore]

Re: Martha Stewart Refused April Deal To Avoid Prison

Hmmm She's dumb, and lies too. No wonder she's a liberal.

[11th Earl of Mar]

I saw on the news that there have been over six hundred prosecutions of corporate wrongdoing since Enron/WorldCom.

If Martha wasn't a celeb, would you even care that she was convicted of obstructing a fraud investigation or that she lied to federal investigators?

[Bluntpoint]

Did Rosie make it to all those prosecutions?

[11th Earl of Mar]

She only made it to half of them but Bill Cosby covered the other half for her.

[TomGuy]

she could have gotten off with a $200,000 fine and no jail time,

Martha needs to fire her lawyer for being stupid or hire someone to kick her in the butt.

Her 'gain' from the stock manipulation was $50,000.

The plea apparently would have cost her $200,000 and no jail time. But she refuses.

Per the Judge Commentator Napolitano on FoxNews, she now has a mandatory sentence of at least 16 months prison time (up to 16 years) and around $1 Million fine.

Either Martha got stupid legal advise or Martha's greed made her stupid.

[Bluntpoint]

If through the Court House doors the lesbo Rosie fits, then the jury must acquit.

[philetus]

I think when the time comes for her to go to jail, Martha won't be available.

[11th Earl of Mar]

Either Martha got stupid legal advise or Martha's greed made her stupid.

It probably wasn't greed. Sounds more like pride to me. "You can't touch me. I'm Martha!"

[Howlin]

She won't win on appeal.

[Howlin]

It's Door Number Two, Tom.

She's just too greedy and too important to be subjected to the same rules that we, the great unwashed masses, are.

And the funniest part of this deal is that it apparently was on the table until the second they filed the first charges against her; I read back then that she actually accepted the deal, but at the last minute, decided to make a call to somebody at the DOJ and try to go over the head of the New York prosecutor to get an even better deal!

Things went all to hell shortly after that.

[Howlin]

I'm sick to death of watching all her celebrity friends like Dommick Dunne come on TV and talk about what a travesty this is.

They honestly believe that the rich "are" different!

[Bluntpoint]

If some smuck teenager keyed Dunne's Mercedes he would be screaming for the kid to get twenty years.

[dmzTahoe]

Perhaps someone can recall who said a quote I am about to paraphrase: "I would not want to be judged by twelve people too stupid to not get off jury duty."

[Bluntpoint]

You can rule out O.J.

[Reelect President Dubya]

She won't win on appeal.

Says you.