Martha Stewart Seeks New Trial

Martha Stewart Seeks New Trial
NEW YORK, June 10, 2004

Martha Stewart asked a judge on Thursday to grant her a new trial, citing charges that a government witness at her first trial lied repeatedly on the stand.

The request, considered a long shot by legal experts, came four weeks before Stewart and former stockbroker Peter Bacanovic are to be sentenced for lying about a well-timed stock sale by the celebrity homemaker in 2001.

The motion argues the conviction is tainted by newly unveiled perjury charges against Larry Stewart, a Secret Service laboratory director who was called as an expert witness at the trial in February.

Prosecutors say Larry Stewart, who is not related to Martha Stewart, lied on the stand about the role he played in ink-analysis tests conducted on a worksheet prepared by Bacanovic. Larry Stewart has not entered a plea.

Court papers filed by lawyers for Martha Stewart said several other Secret Service officials were in court, monitoring the trial, and were aware of the perjury but did not say anything about it.

"Their silence is scandalous and not the way we expect the government to conduct itself," Stewart's lawyers, Robert Morvillo and John T. Tigue, said in a statement.

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