GUILTY on all 4 counts

 

this is totally surreal... she's going to be in jail for quite awhile.

 

 

 

Martha Stewart leaves court after hearing the verdict on Friday.

according to the legal analysts on the news, a successful appeal is very unlikely considering she got tagged on all 4 counts and she's now a convicted felon.

 

 

from cnn:

 

Stewart convicted on all charges

 

Jury finds style maven, ex-broker guilty of obstructing justice and lying to investigators.

March 5, 2004: 4:22 PM EST

 

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A jury found Martha Stewart guilty Friday of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a well-timed stock sale and the former stockbroker turned style-setter could face years in jail.

 

Martha Stewart has been found guilty on all four counts. CNNfn's Chris Huntington reports.

 

Her ex-broker, Peter Bacanovic, was found guilty on four of the five charges he faced.

 

Neither defendant appeared to show any emotion as the verdict was read, while the lead prosecutor seemed to be holding back tears of joy. Sentencing was set for June 17.

 

"The word is -- beware -- and don't engage in this type of conduct because it will not be tolerated," David Kelley, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said outside the courthouse.

 

One of the jurors said, "This is a victory for the little guys. No one is above the law."

 

In a written statement posted on her Web site, Stewart said, "Dear Friends: I am obviously distressed by the jury's verdict but I take comfort in knowing that I have done nothing wrong and that I have the enduring support of my family and friends."

 

Stewart said she would appeal. "I believe in the fairness of the judicial system and remain confident that I will ultimately prevail." (For more on Stewart's statement, click here).

 

The panel of eight women and four men began deliberating Wednesday on whether Stewart and her ex-broker, Peter Bacanovic, obstructed justice and lied to the government about her sale of ImClone Systems Inc. stock in December 2001.

 

Stewart, 62, was found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and two counts of making false statements -- charges that together carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

 

Bacanovic, 41, was convicted of making false statements, conspiracy, perjury and obstruction of justice -- with a maximum prison term of 25 years. He was acquitted on a charge of making and using false documents.

 

Both of them left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. Eyewitnesses said Stewart's daughter Alexis was crying.

 

"Unless this is somehow undone on appeal, she's a felon and she's going to prison," legal analyst Kendall Coffey said.

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"This was a total rout," said CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who sat through the trial. "The story she told investigators after she made the stock trade simply didn't add up."

 

The stock of the company she founded, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO: down $3.17 to $10.86, Research, Estimates), tumbled on the New York Stock Exchange, where Stewart once served as a director.

 

The conviction came exactly a week after the judge threw out the most serious charge against Stewart, securities fraud, which carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

 

Despite the intense publicity surrounding the trial -- the most closely watched of the recent corporate fraud cases -- the stock trade at its center involved a relatively small amount of money.? ?

? ? ?

Martha's close friend Dominick Dunne comments on the reaction inside the court room when the verdict was red.

 

Stewart avoided a loss of about $51,000 by selling her ImClone stock on Dec. 27, 2001 -- rather than the next trading day when the stock was falling on news that regulators rejected the company's application for a key cancer drug.

 

Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz are charged with looting Tyco of $600 million, John Rigas and his sons are charged with stealing millions from Adelphia, the cable company Rigas founded, and the collapse of Enron and WorldCom led to billions of dollars in losses for stockholders, while thousands lost their jobs.

 

Ex-Enron CEO Jeff Skilling and former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers were each recently indicted for their alleged roles in the collapse of those companies. (For more on the scandals, click here).

 

Prosecutors argued that Stewart sold her ImClone stock only after Bacanovic told his assistant to tip her off that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was trying to sell. Stewart and Bacanovic had told investigators they had an arrangement to sell once the stock fell to $60.

 

Bacanovic was broker to both Stewart and Waksal, who is serving a seven-year prison term after pleading guilty to securities fraud over his family's sale of ImClone shares.

 

The government's star witness in the case, Douglas Faneuil, Bacanovic's former assistant, testified that his boss ordered him to pass an inside tip about ImClone to Stewart.

 

The trial began Jan. 27, with testimony running through Feb. 25. Neither Stewart nor Bacanovic testified in their own defense, with attorneys for the two defendants calling just a handful of witnesses to rebut the government's case.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/05/news/compa...dex.htm?cnn=yes

:blink: OMG

 

I bet they will appeal though... But this is quiet something.

i'll take it.

man I didnt know she was good looking...shes going to have fun in jail.

I'm speechless! Stewart, 62, was found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and two counts of making false statements -- charges that together carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

:blink:

wow

 

sucks for her

Haha... her lawyers must have sucked.

she'll serve zero jail time.

 

Just a ton of probation.

I hope she gets the max. Send her guilty ass to jail and send a message to the rest of the "stars".....you screw up, you'll get the book thrown at you.

I hope she gets the max. Send her guilty ass to jail and send a message to the rest of the "stars".....you screw up, you'll get the book thrown at you.

Same here... give her 20 years... don't just let her off because she's a rich white woman

I really doubt she will be in Jail longer than six months.

I hope she gets the max. Send her guilty ass to jail and send a message to the rest of the "stars".....you screw up, you'll get the book thrown at you.

Oh come on. Celebrities should not receive more jail time just because of the surreality of it or any ill will we harbor towards those more famous than us. Give her the usual sentence for this type of stuff, politics be damned.

she'll serve zero jail time.

 

Just a ton of probation.

GOOD.

 

Don't waste tax dollars by putting her in jail, she's not a threat to society.

 

Fine the hell out of her.

 

Make money, don't spend it. :thumbup

a bunch of news legal experts said she'll probably get somewhere between 10 months to 2 years in prison.

 

she cant just get off with probation because the judge is required to follow sentencing guidelines, so it'll most likely be 1-2 years.

I hope she gets the max. Send her guilty ass to jail and send a message to the rest of the "stars".....you screw up, you'll get the book thrown at you.

Oh come on. Celebrities should not receive more jail time just because of the surreality of it or any ill will we harbor towards those more famous than us. Give her the usual sentence for this type of stuff, politics be damned. If she is guilty (which she is) she should get as much as possible. She shouldn't get off easy (like burque was implying) just because of who she is.

Marths Stewart Guilty Cartoons

I hope she gets the max. Send her guilty ass to jail and send a message to the rest of the "stars".....you screw up, you'll get the book thrown at you.

Oh come on. Celebrities should not receive more jail time just because of the surreality of it or any ill will we harbor towards those more famous than us. Give her the usual sentence for this type of stuff, politics be damned. If she is guilty (which she is) she should get as much as possible. She shouldn't get off easy (like burque was implying) just because of who she is. I'm not implying that she should get off because of who she is at all. How many celebrities ever actually make it to jail? I just figured her $$$$ lawyers would find a way to drag the appeals around for awhile and cut a deal or something that gave her no jail time. She can afford to drag out the process so she just might do it. I think the punishment is a little too heavy for the crime anyway. The funny thing is, if she would have held on to all that stock she sold, it would be worth more now than when she sold it off.

 

Alkazoid mentioned that the judge must follow some sentancing guidelines so I guess anything could happen. I don't think she deserves prison time just an ASSLOAD of fines. If she goes to prison she'll start a girl gang and call them the Jezzebelles.

I think the punishment is a little too heavy for the crime anyway.

Exactly. I think the danger here is oversentencing because she is a rich white famous woman, not undersentencing.

Ricj whitey's don't serve time!

 

Besides, she's not a threat to society. Anybody who takes money should be forced to pay it back as well as 99 percent of their income. You want to hurt someone who's all about money? Then take it all away.