I'm beginning to think that Martha should have been vetting and organizing witnesses. Even if she's guilty, she should have at least a competent legal team on her side.
For instance, it does not get any worse than DeLuca's testimony:
Then prosecutors undermined a defense witness for Bacanovic, Stewart's assistant, Heidi DeLuca, who still works for Stewart.Then this other defense witness was painful to watch:This week DeLuca had backed her boss' claim that Stewart and Bacanovic had a prior arrangement to dump ImClone if it fell to $60. She repeatedly insisted she discussed the $60 deal with Bacanovic in November 2001, a month before Stewart sold.
But prosecutors played a tape of Bacanovic yesterday telling a far different story to the Securities and Exchange Commission. "Did you talk to Heidi at all about ... `Martha Stewart told me that once the stock hits 60, I should sell?' " an SEC lawyer asked Bacanovic in early 2002.
"I don't go into that level of detail with Heidi," Bacanovic said. Asked, "So the issue of the $60 didn't come up with Heidi?" Bacanovic kept the answer simple.
"No," he said.
The sole witness was Steven Pearl, a lawyer who took notes for Stewart during her Feb. 4, 2002, meeting with the FBI.It seems that Martha Stewart is being the victim of legal malpractice.Defense lawyers had hoped Pearl would contradict the FBI agent who took notes, but Pearl's notes were confounding and he couldn't remember who said what.