Posted on 02/06/2004 10:05:53 AM PST by jjm2111
| New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com |
| Martha the Meanie! By GREG B. SMITH DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Friday, February 6th, 2004 After another bruising day at Martha Stewart's criminal trial, the diva of domesticity may be ready for another nickname: the new Queen of Mean. Star prosecution witness Doug Faneuil testified yesterday that Stewart was "extremely nasty" to him, and once even threatened to drop Merrill Lynch because she didn't like the telephone hold music. Another time, she called him a "little s---." There also were the phone calls that ended with Stewart hanging up. But one glorious time, according to an E-mail Faneuil had sent to a friend, "Martha yelled at me again but I snapped in her face and she actually backed down. Baby put Ms. Martha in her place." Faneuil's testimony came during cross-examination, as defense lawyers tried to establish that the broker's assistant disliked Stewart and was bent on getting even. It was a risky gambit. The chats and E-mails hurt Faneuil, portraying him as a vindictive low-level employee enraged at an imperious customer. On the other hand, they also could further Stewart's image as a bullying tyrant who treats underlings like dust bunnies. Faneuil is the broker's assistant who handled Stewart's sale of 4,000 ImClone Systems Inc. shares on Dec. 27, 2001. But that wasn't his only chat with Stewart. Faneuil described one nasty exchange with Stewart on Oct. 23, 2001, two months before her ImClone sale and days after Merrill announced it would lay off thousands of workers. At the time, Merrill was locked out of its World Financial Center headquarters because of the Sept. 11 attacks. In an E-mail titled "I just spoke to MARTHA!" Faneuil claimed Stewart called and raved on about someone at Merrill Lynch answering the phones: "Do you know who the hell is answering your phones? You call and you know what he sounds like? He says this. ..." Faneuil then claims Stewart "made the most ridiculous sound I've heard coming from an adult in quite some time, kind of like a lion roaring underwater." Faneuil claimed he laughed, and that made Stewart even more furious: "I thought she was joking. And then she yelled, "This is not a joke! Merrill Lynch is laying off 10,000 employees because of people like that idiot!" And then she hung up." He was outraged: "I have never been treated more rudely by a stranger on the telephone. She actually hung up on me! And she had the nerve - the NERVE - [to] mention the layoffs in her anger." In another conversation, Faneuil's boss, stockbroker Peter Bacanovic, put Stewart on hold to find something for her. He asked Faneuil to get on the phone and assure Stewart that he would be right with her, Bacanovic's lawyer, David Apfel, recalled. When Faneuil picked up, he found Stewart in a foul mood about the music she had to endure while stewing on hold, Apfel said. "She started saying something once you picked up the line about how bad the hold music at Merrill Lynch was?" Apfel asked. "That's right," Faneuil replied. "She did get upset with me immediately." "During that conversation, she told you that she was going to leave Mr. Bacanovic and leave Merrill Lynch unless the hold music was changed?" Apfel asked, and Faneuil replied "Correct." When Apfel asked why he had not told his boss about that, Faneuil replied, "This was the one conversation with Ms. Stewart I chose not to tell Peter about." As the hold music exchange unfolded, most of the courtroom erupted into laughter. Many jurors smiled, and Stewart's attorney, John Tigue, laughed out loud. Stewart, however, remained unsmiling and unflinching. Afterward, a source close to Stewart said, "I find it hard to believe that it was anything more than just a joke." The lawyer also asked Faneuil whether he told the FBI that Stewart once referred to him as a "little s---." Faneuil said he couldn't recall. He did, however, admit to writing another E-mail in which he described another blistering phone blast from Stewart. E-mailing his friend Robert Haskell, a columnist at W magazine, he wrote, "Martha yelled at me again today but I snapped in her face and she actually backed down! Baby put Ms. Martha in her place." The point of all this was to show that Faneuil had it in for Stewart when she happened to call to dump her ImClone stock and he got the call. Bacanovic's lawyer, Apfel, repeatedly implied that Faneuil was "fixated" on Stewart. "I have not been fixated on Miss Stewart, no," Faneuil replied. "I don't think that's the word," Judge Miriam Cedarbaum interjected with a smile.
Feeling disprespected
From testimony yesterday
Defense attorney David Apfel: She told you that she was going to leave Mr. [stockbroker Peter] Bacanovic and leave Merrill Lynch unless the hold music was changed?
Faneuil: Correct.
From an Oct. 23, 2001, E-mail
Subject: I just spoke to MARTHA!
I have never, ever been treated more rudely by a stranger on the telephone. She actually hung up on me!
From an Oct. 26, 2001, E-mail
P.S. Martha yelled at me again today, but I snapped in her face and she actually backed down! Baby put Ms. Martha in her place!!! |
The point of the testimony is that this guy who is testifying against her had a strong dislike of her -- that is (IMO) relevant. But the media coverage is basically: "She's a bitch, let's fry her."
OTH, Martha should have known better, this isn't her first run in with the SEC. Also, she was a NYSE board member and should have behaved ethically(even if not a board member actually), she needed to set an example not to be made an example of. She needs to be nailed hard if proven guilty.
No doubt very much deserved, too.
Of course, if she was a man all of this would just be considered normal macho in charge behavior. I wish I had a dime for every time I have been tolds my male boss is cranky and to stay away from him, and a dollar for every review I have gotten complaining about my cranky behavior.
There is a double standard, I know. I have lived it.
I HAVE heard that Martha is a real witch, but it's just second hand crap from other people.
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I've heard it too, from a friend of my sister-in-law who worked with her once. I was SO disillusioned! I had her cookbooks and had a subscription to her magazine ( I wanted to be perfect! LOL! )
I think part of why Martha is having a bad time is because some of the chickens are coming home to roost!
Me too ten years ago when I saw her demonstrate the proper was to peel and eat a banana!
Guilty of what? Outsider trading? She wasn't in insider. Even if she sold on the advice of someone, she had no way of determining if the advice were good or bad. Just rumor anyway. She may be liberal and she may be a b!tch on wheels, but she isn't guilty of anything serious.
She sold on the advice of her stock broker. Ummmmm -- that's how its supposed to work. This is a witch hunt.
She received nonpublic information (FDA rulings) which would affect the price of Imclone. (illegal), She received news of an insider selling all of his position ahead of the public announcement of the ruling. (illegal) She acted on this information (illegal).
As an NYSE board member, it was her moral and legal obligation to report this little tap dance, as Merrill is a NYSE member firm... she choose to profit from it instead.
Oh guilt by association. ENough to convict her right there.
got information that was nonpublic about her Imclone holdings from Wasckal through Merrill Lynch, in fact shared a broker in common
Got sell advice from her broker. She was supposed to know it wasn't public. I guess he said, Martha baby what I'm telling you is illegal, but you'd better act on it anyway. Somehow I doubt it.
This whole think is just Sptizer trying to pull a Guliani; helping his public career by sticking it to a well know public figure. And in NYC there are enough envious people (after all the Democratic party is built on envy and NYC votes overwhemingly 'rat) that he'll get away with it.
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