Martha Stewart Changed Key Message, Assistant Says

Reuters ^ | 2-10-04 | By Paul Thomasch and Gail Appleson

[petitfour]

But it wasn't the sole information. (and I admit to not following this case since it has hit the courtroom, nor in any depth when Martha first started taking heat) Didn't the ImClone guy call her and tell her about the FDA's decision?

[antivenom]

Lea Fastow was SMALLER potatoes...possibly "tater tots" she got 4 months...

[William Tell]

Iwo Jima said: "She was obviously scared by the feds and was tempted to try to change the evidence. But for whatever reason she thought better of it and said "put it back the way it was."

If I was paying someone to keep track of phone logs on a computer for me, I would certainly insist that they keep regular backups in case the computer fails.

Martha may have realized at the last minute that she was engaged in attempting to erase a message which might be interpreted as evidence of a crime, but possibly leaving backup copies which would prove that she had attempted to make the change. She may also have realized that a living witness to her modifying the phone log was every bit as potentially damaging as the original message.

Martha show every evidence of having arrogantly assumed that she didn't need expert legal advice. She could probably have copped a plea early on in exchange for implicating the broker. The circle in which she moves would not have tolerated such disloyalty. It is quite similar to the circle which protects the Klintons.

[Gtown]

No justice, no quiche! Free Martha!

[templar]

Martha did not request the information or seek to break the law ... To me it is the Broker who should be up on charges, but the broker is not the Billion dollar celebrity.

I think that she is being charged with lying about it during the investigation. She wouldn't have lied about it (assuming that she did, which is really up to a jury to determine) had she not known that what she did was illegal. Clinton did similar things and got impeached for it. He just had better friends in high places (so that he could avoid prosecution after leaving office) than Martha does.

[William Tell]

isthisnickcool said: "My bet? She is found innocent. "

Do you think she is "innocent"? Or that the jury won't care?

The many cases of cheating that you describe are probably cases that were not prosecuted. Once a person manages to find themselves in front of the jury, different judgements will apply.

Based on what I have read, Martha cheated some buyers of Imclone stock out of money they paid for the stock. It is little different than if Martha had burgled their homes while they were on vacation and stole their life savings.

[canyon]

Is there a criminal case pending against Peter Bacanovic? If not, why not?

I assume he was given immunity to testify against Martha, but I haven't paid that close of attention to know.

Peter is facing charges also. It was Peter's assistant who testified against Martha.

[lady lawyer]

You beat me to it. She probably realized that the government would be able to tell somehow when that message was changed. That would be more damning than leaving it alone.

[kimoajax]

This whole Martha thing is a huge waste of time, a diversion of focus as well as being a complete travesty of justice.

Any reasonable person knows it only has to do with the U.S. Attorney trying to bring home a scalp.

Martha's only mistake was initially being cooperative and talking to the U.S. Attorney without a lawyer.

[Sacajaweau]

A more likely scenario is is: Martha asked to see the memo, saw it, decided she would change it and either the lightbulb went off by itself or someone else was there saying: "If you change it, it won't match what he has on HIS hard drive."

[TheSpottedOwl]

This is just awful. I know the stories about Martha Stewart the tyrant, rotten, wife, rotten mother, employer, cheapskate.

What I want to know, is who wants to bury her? This is such small potatoes, considering what everyone else does.

[isthisnickcool]

Lea Fastow was SMALLER potatoes...possibly "tater tots" she got 4 months...

More heads will roll with the Enron case. The feds in Houston have so many people working on Enron they had to rent a building to house all the investigators.

Enron is very far from over. A lot of people will be losing their money and/or going to jail.

[Iwo Jima]

Well, that could be right, too. It's just not the way that it struck me when I heard it. But you could be correct.

[GovernmentShrinker]

They're both guilty. Faneuil copped a plea in exchange for his cooperation. I'm not sure what the deal is with Bacanovic.

[GovernmentShrinker]

who wants to bury her

Probably pretty much everybody who's ever dealt with her, directly or indirectly.

[Sacajaweau]

The jury doesn't care and it's stacked with eight women.

The fact that her secretary broke down into tears says "I love Martha no matter what" and we both got caught with our fingers on the computer keys.

[ErnBatavia]

Probably pretty much everybody who's ever dealt with her, directly or indirectly.

A friend of a former coworker is a floral designer who got stiffed to the point of having to obtain a judgement (around $5000 as I recall)...apparently Martha's attitude is that you should consider yourself privileged to be deemed good enough to do projects for her.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Probably pretty much everybody who's ever dealt with her, directly or indirectly.

True, but Martha was a bigtime donor to the Clinton machine, back in the day. I've kind of been looking at that angle. Maybe she said she was done supporting them?

[Dr. Eckleburg]

She's being prosecuted for things that go on every day of the week without a sneeze from the Feds. There's something else behind this show trial, IMO.

Either she was supporting the wrong candidates in a major way, or some people hope to obscure the fact that few Enron officials are behind bars, or she made a major enemy out of certain parties represented by the prissy Faneuil.

Her billion dollar company has now lost half its value, and K-Mart has suffered by her prosecution.

She's being major league railroaded. It's just not clear why.

[aruanan]

What I don't understand is the Broker provides insider information to its client and it is the client who is charged with a crime. The Broker is the guilty party. The Broker is the one with a license and is the one who instigated the crime.

That's because the prosecutors care less about any crime having been committed and more about bagging a big name. Going after MS rather than the broker gives them the big name. The same is true for the Palm Beach goombas going after Rush instead of the blackmailing drug dealer except here the big name has also been a giant political PITA for them and they've now got the opportunity to harm him like they think he's harmed Bill, Hillary, Janet Reno, et al. Of course, Rush isn't a testicle harvesting, cigar-inserting, Macadamia nut munching, finger wagging, Rose Law Firm records stealing, Vince Foster murder cover upping, child-incinerating, Elian-betraying Democrat.