Posted on 08/28/2005 8:17:25 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
KATONAH, N.Y. Unless she gets into trouble with her probation officer, Martha Stewart will gain her freedom Wednesday from her hideous home confinement sentence and that bothersome, unstylish electronic monitoring anklet.
After five months in prison for lying about a stock sale and five months of court-ordered restrictions at her Westchester County estate plus three weeks tacked on for misbehaving the queen of domestic marketing should be able to move around like any other convicted felon who has done her time.
Stewart will still be on probation, but she will no longer be limited to 48 hours out of the house per week.
Stewart had expected to shed the anklet Aug. 10, but on Aug. 3, her 64th birthday, her attorney announced that she had agreed to an extension.
The violation that got her the extra time was never made public, although there were reports that she popped into a yoga class and was spotted driving around her 153-acre estate, which could be violations if they were not related to her work. Chris Stanton, chief federal probation officer in New York, would not say whether there were other violations.
The continuing probation means that until March 2007, Stewart is not allowed to get drunk, own a gun or leave the federal court district without permission.
She must meet with her probation officer whenever requested and submit monthly reports on her activities.
Stewart has described home confinement as hideous and says the electronic anklet irritates her skin and complicates her exercise routine.
Freed from home confinement, she will be much more visible with two new television shows. Martha, her syndicated weekday lifestyles show, will premiere Sept. 12. The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, a weekly NBC prime-time series, will premiere Sept. 21.
She's baaaaaaaaaaack !!
She already ended it attending by company cocktail parties. She violated the court, and nothing happened to her.
I'd have jailed her for 3 years.
Being the NASTY woman that she is, she will have more problems.
News at 6.
I think the punishment far outweighs the crime. Look at how other celebrities can literally get away with murder. Look at Teddy Kennedy, leaving Mary Jo to die in a submerged car. Look at Michael Jackson. Look at the Clintoons. I personally don't care for Martha, but come on, an ankle bracelet? What's she going to do, run out and cash in some bonds?
It's beyond me how a convicted felon can be rewarded.
Something twisted about this.
She's being made an example. The libs pass a gazillion laws they know 1) they won't comply with (think xx42xx and rape) and 2) they can't possibly enforce, except on a small scale. So they ocasionally have what I refer to as a "High tech public execution," preferably of a WASP, to show they mean business.
What Martha did was wrong - insider trading undermines confidence in the basis of the financial system - but people do it all day every day. She just got caught, and, being the ego she is, wouldn't cop a plea, and to make it worse, lied about it.
The humor starts from the fact that she was a big xx42xx supporter.
At least she never bad mouthed her country. At least she didn't slander the President. Considering the common practice of other of stock traders who did worse and walked, she could have. Not Martha. All the good luck in the world lady, to you.
Convicted molesters get out of jail and Martha Stewart has to wear an ankle bracelet.The judge should do a few years for that one.
I fully expect her to come out through her front gate, arms raised, chanting, "Free at last, free at last, God Almighty, free at last!" With tears streaming down her face and on prime time TV.
That would be a video worth eating up all my remaining computer memory to keep.
Her real crimes were greed and lying. Does anyone really believe she has changed? Her next trip to jail will be for much longer, greed and lying are almost impossible to change.
If anyone should be thankful they live in the USA, it's Martha. Why would she ever bad-mouth this country? She got what she has because she lives where she can grow and prosper on her own, without gov't. telling her how to do it. She went to jail because she lied and cheated on selling stocks. Just because someone else did it more than Martha did does not, in any way, excuse her actions. I hope she learned her lessons well, and I hope she has continued success without lying and cheating to get what she wants. Had I been the judge, she would have served five and five/years prison/parole-but that's just me.
The question then is this. It seems to me (cries at the back, don't be so pompous)- ahem, there is a phenomena out there.
The more successful some people are, the more great gifts their country has given them ie: fame, money,the adulation of the masses, the favour of lax enforcement on THEIR trangressions, the more they hate America.
For starters, Moore, Fonda, Baldwin, and so on. She could have joined em',got that cabal to rant on her behalf, but has too much class. IMHO
The fact that she did not join those you write of says a lot about her style. I'm glad she is out of prison, and I'm glad she got the sentence over with. Too many times we look the other way when a "famous" person is caught stealing the cookies. She got caught, she lied about it, and she took her lumps like a real person would. Is she a role model for all of us? I think not. Should she be denied a chance at her own redemption? I hope not, and I hope she realizes the effect she has had on those of us who will never be "famous". I was more disappointed in her actions than I was mad about it, and she paid the piper, so that's it as far as I'm concerned.
Well said. Yep, she took her lumps and said but little after. On that we certainly can agree.
"I'd have jailed her for 3 years."
Was that the maximum she could get? I would have definitely given her the max -- at some hard-time gray-bar hotel, not at a country club.
I was really on her side until her sneakiness came out - playing with phone records and trying to frame her assistant. That's just vile.
So that leaves lying.(Greed may be one of the seven deadly sins,but it's not a crime[yet]).I just wonder whether those who questioned her,the ones she is accused of having lied to,are held to the same standard of honesty.Some cops will say anything to get you to talk.
Just a little credit to the system though. They saw to it that she was not destroyed. Ok, kudos. She is now sadder,older and wiser, er' well maybe two of those things. LOL
Let see, How do I answer? First came the greed, which was going to enrich her even more than she already was, then when they questioned her she lied. So without the greed she would never had had to lie. to which she lied even more to cover up the other lies. Greed started it all and the chances of her doing it again are very high. Nothing trumps greed.
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