SkyNet
07-16-2004, 01:20 PM
i didnt see this posted anywhere yet:
thanks to IWON.com
By Gail Appleson and Paul Thomasch
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart was sentenced on Friday to five months in federal prison and five months of house arrest for lying about a suspicious stock sale.
Speaking in a shaking voice before the sentencing, Stewart made a brief plea for leniency to U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, who could have given the 62-year-old businesswoman 16 months behind bars.
The judge recommended a minimum security prison in Connecticut, not far from one of Stewart's posh homes, and ordered two years' supervised release and a $30,000 fine. But Stewart does not have to surrender until an appeal is decided.
"This is a shameful day," said Stewart, who built a catering company into a media and merchandise empire of lifestyle magazines, cookbooks and television shows. "I ask that when you judge me, you remember all the good I've done."
Clad in a dark pantsuit, Stewart looked upset as the judge read the sentence but quickly regained her composure and kissed her daughter and her sister. She told reporters in the courtroom she was not surprised "at all" by the sentence.
Her voice was stronger and calmer as she addressed a crowd of media and supporters outside on the courthouse steps.
"I'll be back. Whatever I have to do in the next few months, I hope the months go by quickly," she said. "I'm used to all kinds of hard work, as you know, and I'm not afraid.
"I'm just very, very sorry that it's come to this, that a small personal matter has been able to be blown out of all proportion and with such venom... It's just terrible."
Stewart was found guilty in March of conspiracy, making false statements and obstruction of agency proceedings -- all stemming from her suspicious sale of stock in biotech company ImClone Systems Inc. on Dec. 27, 2001.
Prosecutors said the sale occurred after her stockbroker Peter Bacanovic ordered an assistant to tip Stewart that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was dumping all his shares, knowing federal regulators were about to give a thumbs down to the company's anti-cancer drug. Bacanovic is to be sentenced later on Friday.
While there was no case made that Stewart engaged in insider trading, prosecutors said she and her broker lied to cover up the secret tip. Waksal was sentenced to seven years in prison for insider trading.
The ensuing debacle wiped off $400 million in market capitalization, or nearly half, in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, the company she founded.
Shares in Martha Stewart Omnimedia surged after news of the sentence. The stock was up nearly 20 percent at $10.35 a share in mid-morning dealings.
"It's very light," said Peter Cohan, a management consultant and company watcher, of the sentence. "It's a vote. People like her, and they're happy she won't spend too much time in prison."
Indeed, Stewart was greeted outside the courthouse by supporters like Pat Turner, a Georgia resident who planned a trip to New York to coincide with the sentencing.
"I think she'll take this and turn it into a positive, hold her head high," Turner said. "I think she'll come back and be bigger and better because that's the kind of person she is."
Stewart has enjoyed remarkable support from fans, especially compared with more reviled white-collar criminals who are seen evading justice through wealth and influence.
Stewart's backers, many of whom see her as under attack for the very traits that made her successful, set up fan clubs and Web sites to promote her case, peppering everyone from the judge to President Bush with letters and petitions on her behalf.
On www.savemartha.com, they asked fans to pray for the woman they dubbed "the patron saint of servants and cooks."
Supporter Louise Egan, who was passing out earrings with "Free Martha" written in pink on them, said: "I think she's paid for it already."
Stewart's defense attorney Robert Morvillo sought unsuccessfully for probation and working with economically disadvantaged women as an alternative sentence for his client, who has stepped down as an officer and board member of her company.
"She has brought a measure of beauty to our everyday world," he told the judge.
haha good... stupid bitch!
Now we just need to put R Kelly and Kobe Bryant away and ill be good.
thanks to IWON.com
By Gail Appleson and Paul Thomasch
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart was sentenced on Friday to five months in federal prison and five months of house arrest for lying about a suspicious stock sale.
Speaking in a shaking voice before the sentencing, Stewart made a brief plea for leniency to U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, who could have given the 62-year-old businesswoman 16 months behind bars.
The judge recommended a minimum security prison in Connecticut, not far from one of Stewart's posh homes, and ordered two years' supervised release and a $30,000 fine. But Stewart does not have to surrender until an appeal is decided.
"This is a shameful day," said Stewart, who built a catering company into a media and merchandise empire of lifestyle magazines, cookbooks and television shows. "I ask that when you judge me, you remember all the good I've done."
Clad in a dark pantsuit, Stewart looked upset as the judge read the sentence but quickly regained her composure and kissed her daughter and her sister. She told reporters in the courtroom she was not surprised "at all" by the sentence.
Her voice was stronger and calmer as she addressed a crowd of media and supporters outside on the courthouse steps.
"I'll be back. Whatever I have to do in the next few months, I hope the months go by quickly," she said. "I'm used to all kinds of hard work, as you know, and I'm not afraid.
"I'm just very, very sorry that it's come to this, that a small personal matter has been able to be blown out of all proportion and with such venom... It's just terrible."
Stewart was found guilty in March of conspiracy, making false statements and obstruction of agency proceedings -- all stemming from her suspicious sale of stock in biotech company ImClone Systems Inc. on Dec. 27, 2001.
Prosecutors said the sale occurred after her stockbroker Peter Bacanovic ordered an assistant to tip Stewart that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was dumping all his shares, knowing federal regulators were about to give a thumbs down to the company's anti-cancer drug. Bacanovic is to be sentenced later on Friday.
While there was no case made that Stewart engaged in insider trading, prosecutors said she and her broker lied to cover up the secret tip. Waksal was sentenced to seven years in prison for insider trading.
The ensuing debacle wiped off $400 million in market capitalization, or nearly half, in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, the company she founded.
Shares in Martha Stewart Omnimedia surged after news of the sentence. The stock was up nearly 20 percent at $10.35 a share in mid-morning dealings.
"It's very light," said Peter Cohan, a management consultant and company watcher, of the sentence. "It's a vote. People like her, and they're happy she won't spend too much time in prison."
Indeed, Stewart was greeted outside the courthouse by supporters like Pat Turner, a Georgia resident who planned a trip to New York to coincide with the sentencing.
"I think she'll take this and turn it into a positive, hold her head high," Turner said. "I think she'll come back and be bigger and better because that's the kind of person she is."
Stewart has enjoyed remarkable support from fans, especially compared with more reviled white-collar criminals who are seen evading justice through wealth and influence.
Stewart's backers, many of whom see her as under attack for the very traits that made her successful, set up fan clubs and Web sites to promote her case, peppering everyone from the judge to President Bush with letters and petitions on her behalf.
On www.savemartha.com, they asked fans to pray for the woman they dubbed "the patron saint of servants and cooks."
Supporter Louise Egan, who was passing out earrings with "Free Martha" written in pink on them, said: "I think she's paid for it already."
Stewart's defense attorney Robert Morvillo sought unsuccessfully for probation and working with economically disadvantaged women as an alternative sentence for his client, who has stepped down as an officer and board member of her company.
"She has brought a measure of beauty to our everyday world," he told the judge.
haha good... stupid bitch!
Now we just need to put R Kelly and Kobe Bryant away and ill be good.