Jury selection begins in Martha Stewart trial
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Stewart and her attorney John Tigue shown last November.
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Jury selection began this week for the upcoming criminal trial of Martha Stewart. CNNfn's Allan Chernoff reports.
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- Jury selection began Tuesday in the Martha Stewart criminal trial, where the self-made lifestyle maven will try to defend herself against charges of obstruction of justice, making false statements and securities fraud.
Potential jurors were seen filing into the federal courthouse in Manhattan to fill out questionnaires for the formal start of jury selection. U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum has ordered the media not to speak to prospective jurors, citing the need for an unbiased jury.
Stewart, 62, sold nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems stock Dec. 27, 2001, a day before regulators rejected the company's application for approval of Erbitux, ImClone's experimental cancer drug -- news that send its stock tumbling. She's accused of lying to investigators and the public about the circumstances surrounding that sale.
Stewart has maintained that she didn't have inside information and had a long-standing arrangement with her broker to sell ImClone stock at a certain price. Both Stewart and the broker, Peter Bacanovic, have pleaded innocent to charges of obstruction of justice.
Merrill Lynch suspended Bacanovic in June 2002 after the firm found conflicting accounts about whether Stewart's agreement with Bacanovic about an ImClone sale existed. Stewart stepped down as CEO of Martha Stewart Living in an effort to minimize that company's falling stock prices, resulting at least in part from the publicity surrounding the allegations against her.
Lawyers from both sides will screen potential jurors carefully, asking questions about their knowledge of the case and whether they like or dislike Stewart, a legal expert said Monday.
"The prosecutors will want to make sure that the prospective jurors won't be intimidated or influenced by her celebrity status," said Henry Mazurek, a lawyer with the firm Gerald Shargel in New York.
If a prospective juror has read about Stewart or watched her interviews on TV, "the judge will most likely ask the person if he or she will be able set the knowledge aside," said Mazurek, who specializes in white-collar criminal defense.
The defense team will want jurors who'll give her the benefit of the doubt and honor the presumption of innocence, legal experts said. But finding 12 jurors without a strong opinion about Stewart may be difficult.
Cedarbaum will review the jurors chosen on January 20, according to the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York.
Mazurek estimated the trial will start on or about January 26, soon after jury selection is finalized, although it could take longer.
Once the government rests its case, the defense will determine whether Stewart will testify.
A guilty conviction on all counts could mean a prison sentence of as much as 30 years for Stewart and 25 years for Bacanovic, the U.S. Attorney's office said. But if Stewart is convicted on all counts, she'll probably face three-to-five years, Mazurek said, since full maximum sentences are rarely imposed.
Sam Waksal, ImClone's founder and a friend of Stewart, is serving a seven-year prison term after pleading guilty to charges of trying to sell ImClone stock before the Erbitux news broke.
