Martha Stewart: "There's many other good people that have gone to prison" Photo: Louis Lanzano/AP
Posted on 07/18/2004 10:32:50 PM PDT by MadIvan
Martha Stewart likens herself to Nelson Mandela
Martha Stewart: "There's many other good people that have gone to prison" Photo: Louis Lanzano/AP |
But all Martha Stewart’s public outpourings have achieved is to provide a road map for other indicted executives on how not to present themselves to the judiciary, senior lawyers said yesterday.
The multimillionaire television star hired Herb Hoelter, a leading defence lawyer to advise her on her presentation and demeanour as well as to negotiate community service.
But in an interview with Barbara Walters on ABC television on Friday, she compared herself to Mr Mandela, the anti-apartheid campaigner who was imprisoned in South Africa for 27 years. She referred to the Nobel Prize winner in response to a question about her fortitude for prison life.
“If it is looming ahead of me, I’m going to have to face it, and take it and do it and get it over with,” she said, adding “There’s many other good people that have gone to prison. Look at Nelson Mandela.”
Such musings have not impressed other members of the New York bar who expressed astonishment at the tactlessness of Ms Stewart, who is known as the “Domestic Diva” in America for her cookery and interior design shows, books and magazines.
“Everything that occurred at trial is due to her own arrogance and hubris,” said Jake Zamansky, a New York securities lawyer. “She was the one who asked her investigators ‘Are you gentlemen done? I have a company to run.’ This is when she was giving her so-called false statements to the government. That irritates people, it makes them think she looks down on them.”
Michael Bachner, a New York securities lawyer, said that Ms Stewart’s lack of remorse post-sentencing contrasted sharply with her demeanour in front of Judge Miriam Cedarbaum, who heard the case.
“If Judge Cedarbaum was aware of the lack of remorse that she showed after sentencing, compared with the ostensible contrition she showed inside the court before she was sentenced, she would have given her a much greater sentence. Judges like to feel that the defendant has learned a lesson,” Mr Bachner said.
“Nelson Mandela was sentenced for nothing more than being black. She is not being incarcerated because she is a woman but because she has committed a serious crime.”
Ms Stewart was convicted of repeatedly lying to the government over a sale of shares in December 2001.
After being sentenced on Friday to five months in prison and five months of home detention , Ms Stewart issued a public statement referring to her crime as a “small personal matter” that had been “blown out of all proportion”. Mr Bachner said: “It seems strange that you have to teach someone who holds themselves up as the height of etiquette, how to behave in court and in public but you see it all the time.
“Apparently (Martha Stewart) needed to learn how to behave when she’s not in Connecticut.”
Lawyers agreed that in the end, Ms Stewart and her legal team had little to do with Ms Cedarbaum’s ultimate decision. The judge may have been influenced by a move in the US towards changing the sentencing guidelines that will allow judges to make more decisions based on circumstances surrounding a crime.
The fact that she ran a company, employed people and had no previous convictions was taken into account.
Ms Stewart’s conduct after sentencing will not technically affect her chances of success at appeal. The court will exclusively examine the errors said to have been made at the trial.
Nonetheless, lawyers say, the courts are human too. Her demeanour will have been noted and her lawyers are probably not that happy about it.
Ultimately, her attitude following her sentence speaks volumes.
“This kind of arrogance is consistent of the person that brought her to trial in the first place. Martha Stewart doesn’t seem to have learned a thing,” said Mr Bachner.
STEWART
MANDELA
Translation of Bachner's statement: "The government should be able to abridge Stewart's Right to Free Speech by punishing her for exercising the Right."
The American legal system and its practitioners are a dangerous, out-of-control joke.
So, why didn't they charge her with insider trading?
Anybody who has that kind of money is an idiot for keeping it in the country and leaving themselves at the mercy of the crooks in black robes - the same ones who let Billy Jeff off even after his in-their-face perjury.
Stewart should have kept her money offshore, and fled to safer climes the minute these jokers came calling. And spare me the "she's a criminal" rhetoric. ANYBODY is a criminal, or not, according to the caprice of the esquires and black robes. It's all about the money, baby.
bump.
Martha was railroaded, plain and simple.
I thin Martha Stewart's comments on Friday indicate she's going insane....the lack of proportion is telling.
Stewart is akin to Mandela?
Somebody get a net....this woman's ate up with the goofies......
Her misguided attempt to position herself with Mandela only backfires with the mainstream American public who, at one time, pulled her product off shelves like a fire sale.
Ironically, while she remains a stalwart NY Liberal, her most sympathetic supporters could actually be conservatives who admire her entrepreneurial accomplishments.
But like her cronies, it appears Martha will not indulge in self-examination and set herself right.
1) He was NOT arrested and jailed because he is a black! HE WAS AND IS A STINKING COMMIE,WHO WAS A TERRORIST.He was caught,tried,convicted,and jailed because he blew things up and killed people.
2) His crusade re AIDS is worthless;no more than a shakedown a la Jesse Jackson.
3) Under his reign,crime ran rampant and criminals(and I'm talking about ALL manner of crimes...not the least being black on black!) got away with murder;literally.Though,truth to tell,things are worse now,under Mbeki.
4) After only one year of his presidency,even blacks were fed up with him.
There's lots more,but at least the author of this article managed to get it right about Martha.
You said it right, pal. Nelson is was and always will be a Commie. Didn't matter what color he was. When arrested, he had plans in his possession of a large government building he was planning on blowing up. Nelson Mandela was no less a common troublemaker than Timothy McVeigh. Only the venue was different. All these liberals who kneel at the feet of Nelson Mandela need a full and fast history lesson about who and what he actually is and was. Makes me wanna puke.
Perhaps because the prosecutors did not believe that they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she committed insider trading.
The prosecutors DID prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Waksal committed insider trading. While investigating that crime, which was proven, Martha lied to investigators. Such lying is a crime. The prosecutors proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Martha committed the crime of lying to investigators.
Martha should have demanded a lawyer and exercised her right to remain silent. She did not do this because she hoped to get away with the lying. She was convicted because there were other people who were unwilling to lie under oath. If there were no sanctions against lying our "justice" system would be worse off, not better.
She's a liar and a thief,and a crook.She was NOT singled out;she was part of the Sam Waksal/ImClone investigation. and she had lawyers with her.She lied to the FBI,the SEC,and to two Congressional committees.She was a member of the NYSE,when she committed CRIMINAL acts,which has NOTHING to do with "crooks in black robes".And fore the record,this has nothing to do with Clinton,who,when he WAS face with a trial,was punished.
Why are you advocating even more perfidious acts be engaged in,by Martha?
BTW,she IS a convicted felon;found guilty by a jury of her peers.
Are you happy that O.J.'s jury used nullification to free a murderer?
Do you want one set of rules for the wealthy and well connected and another one,for everyone else? That's what your post appears to imply.
No,she was NOT "railroaded".
I watched her comments on Fox Friday. It was a thinly veiled attempt to blame Bush, IMO. "A small personal matter blown completely out of proportion." Am I to be insulted because $250,000 is not a small matter to me? Or, are we to project the blame on an overzealous prosecutor under the direction of W's administration?
I have one thing to say to her - you shouldn't do the crime if you can't do the time.
And since I was agreeing with you,what's the problem?
A self-serving prosecution by a politically-motivated Court Establishment qualifies as 'railroading' to me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.