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Martha Stewart - Witness charged w/ Perjury
« on: May 21st, 2004, 2:17pm » |
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Perjury charged in Martha case
Stock in Martha Stewart Living jumps 20% as perjury charge announced against key government witness.
May 21, 2004: 3:03 PM EDT
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A Secret Service employee involved in the government's case against Martha Stewart was charged with perjury Friday, federal prosecutors said.
Shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO: up $1.08 to $9.63, Research, Estimates) shot up as much as 23 percent on the news, though backed off some later.
Larry Stewart, who testified as an expert witness about the ink on a worksheet maintained by Martha Stewart's broker, Peter Bacanovic, was charged with two counts of perjury in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.
Stewart, 46, of Bethesda, Maryland, who is not related to Martha Stewart, surrendered Friday to the Secret Service, according to court documents.
The perjury charges were related to testimony he gave Feb. 19 and Feb. 25, the documents said. If convicted of the charges, Larry Stewart faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and maximum fines of $500,000.
Larry Stewart testified that the ink used to make a note to sell ImClone stock at $60 was scientifically distinguishable from other ink contained on the document. But he had no involvement whatsoever on the original examination of the worksheet in August 2002, according to the complaint.
Specifically, the statements in question were about claims that he "worked the case together" with another examiner during an August 2002 examination of the worksheet, that he worked "side by side at he same time" with another examiner and other related issues.
Tai Park, a former prosecutor and white collar criminal defense partner in Shearman & Sterling, said that this latest development will help Martha Stewart.
"There's going to have to be a retrial....this was clearly at some level important testimony. The safest thing to do would be to grant a retrial," he said.
"The government is either going to consent to a retrial because the jury verdict was tainted by potentially perjured testimony or the government is going to have to explain to the court why the prejudiced testimony was harmless--in other words, that the testimony did not influence the jury's verdict," Park added.
"Today's charges are indeed troubling, very troubling, because a trusted lab examiner violated the public trust," U.S. attorney David Kelley said during a new conference Friday afternoon.
"We are quite confident that the false testimony will have no impact on the convictions of Martha Stewart and Peter Bacanovic," Kelley added.
On March 5, a Jury found Martha Stewart guilty on four counts of obstructing justice and lying about her sale of ImClone in late 2001.
Bacanovic was convicted on four of five counts against him. He was acquitted of making and using false documents
Martha Stewart's sentencing has been set for June 17.
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