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."

[Unicorn]

I second that!!!!!!

[TSgt]

Exactly!

Martha is out of touch with the real world.

I think the 16 months to 20 years will put her back in touch...

[Hildy]

OR...maybe she doesn't believe she did anything wrong...OR maybe she didn't do anything wrong.

[Reelect President Dubya]

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?

Would you?

[TomGuy]

Recipes to come:

Fritters for Felons.

Potatoes in the pokie.

Crispy critters in the clink.

Holiday hangers in the hoosgow.

[TomGuy]

OR...maybe she doesn't believe she did anything wrong...OR maybe she didn't do anything wrong.

As of Friday, she IS a convicted felon.

[LADY J]

"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."

There are still people in this world who try their best to live by the rules.

I have served on jury duty three times. The stupid ones are the ones that commit crimes and think they are above the law.

[11th Earl of Mar]

You are the one who wants her to be treated differently than the other 600.

So why do you not care about them? Because they are not celebrities?

[Mike Darancette]

Martha will win the appeal,

Since Martha's legal team did not put on a defense how can their team claim that their client was not represented? Martha's arrogant legal team is stuck on stupid.

She'll be showing the other cons how to make shank cozies.

[Howlin]

Says every single talking head on TV except for the Martha groupies like Rosie.

Try to deal in reality.

[KosmicKitty]

Martha will win the appeal

Kinda hard to do that when all of the judge's rulings in this case went in her favor.

Was talking to a lawyer friend last night. He said she'll probably do her time at a prison farm in Danbury, CT, though I still think that she might just be looking to purchase real estate somewhere else, if you get my drift.

As for me, I'm still looking for my angry group of white middle class women with our william-sonoma cookware to go rioting because of our anger at guilty verdict.

[nmh]

Martha will not be successful with an appeal. The Judge is strict on his sentencing and she boxed herself in a cornor. She blew it. She probably thought she'd charm people and because of her stature that she'd get away with it ... JUST BECAUSE SHE IS MARTHA STEWART.

[11th Earl of Mar]

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."

You can rule out O.J.

LOL!

[fuzzthatwuz]

"This is about stealing and lying, not class warfare."

Well written! The apologists, eg. Rosie and Cosby, seem to have missed this moral fact.

[Hildy]

Thank you for the clear grasp of the obvious.

[nmh]

Martha has ONLY HERSELF to blame. Not her lawyers. It is MARTHA that makes the decisions on AGREEING to a deal or not. It is MARTHA who LIED and put herself in THIS situation.

[Howlin]

OR...maybe she doesn't believe she did anything wrong...

That seems to be one of her biggest problems; she actually believes what she did was fine; leaving aside selling the stock, when she decided to lie UNDER OATH to the SEC, she sealed her fate.

[Howlin]

As somebody said the other day, I wonder what the thread count on prison sheets is.

[Reelect President Dubya]

Try to deal in reality.

This from the most deranged wacko around here.

[SubMareener]

Wow! Looks as if we are going to have the best decorated prison system in the world!