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Pharmacist, reverend on Martha jury
Eight women, four men chosen for panel; judge limits some defense arguments in the case.
January 26, 2004: 7:43 PM EST

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A pharmacist, a reverend and a man who blames the Enron scandal for losses in his mutual fund were among the 12 jurors selected Monday to judge Martha Stewart's obstruction of justice criminal case.

U.S. Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum chose a panel of eight women and four men following a week of interviews with perspective jurors behind closed doors aimed at weeding out those who have strong opinions about the self-made lifestyle maven.

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A panel of eight women and four men has been selected for Martha Stewart's obstruction of justice trial. CNNfn's Mary Snow reports.

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The jury also includes a woman who recently sued her dry cleaner for damages over an antique dress, and an events planner whose husband knows high-profile technology analyst Mary Meeker.

In addition, the judge chose four men and two women as alternates.

The interviews sought information on everything from whether the jurors believe defense lawyers are "less truthful" than prosecutors to whether they have watched Stewart on television, read her magazines or bought her products, according to transcripts released by the court.

Stewart's defense team was probably looking for women jurors who might be sympathetic to her, said Gerald Lefcourt, a New York attorney who specializes in white-collar criminal defense.

"They may have conducted pretrial focus groups to figure out (whether) some female jurors might think that if a man has done all this, he probably would've been prosecuted," he said. "She's simply been prosecuted because she is a powerful woman."

Lawyers from both sides are expected to present their opening statements Tuesday morning.

Jury selection came after Judge Cedarbaum agreed to a government motion limiting some of the arguments that Stewart's defense team can make.

Among the limitations: Stewart's lawyers can't say she was being prosecuted for proclaiming her innocence in the case or for asserting her First Amendment right to free speech.

"It's very unusual that the judge placed such restrictions on her defense counsel ... after she's been saying all along that she is innocent," Lefcourt said.

The defense also is barred from saying that the securities fraud charge Stewart faces is a novel application of securities laws, and from making statements that would tend to show the government's motives in investigating or prosecuting Stewart were improper.

The defense also can't say that the fact Stewart and former broker Peter Bacanovic aren't facing criminal insider trading charges means the government doesn't believe they committed such a crime.

"These limitations are reviewable if she is convicted," added Lefcourt.

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CNNfn also learned that the government's star witness, former Merrill Lynch brokerage assistant Doug Faneuil, probably will be the third person called by the prosecution and could testify as early as Tuesday.

Robert Morvillo, Stewart's lead lawyer, in what appeared to be a bid to discredit Faneuil, told the judge Monday that the former Merrill assistant at various times had been advised to tell the truth to investigators and the SEC, but later to keep lying.

The 28-year-old Faneuil pled guilty in October 2002 to misdemeanor charges of accepting perks or "something of value" in return for not coming forward to tell the government about an alleged inside stock tip given to Stewart.

Merrill Lynch fired Faneuil after his plea, and Bacanovic was fired for declining to cooperate with investigators looking at trading activity in the stock of ImClone Systems (IMCL: Research, Estimates).

"Martha's personal assistant could be another key witness for the government," said Lefcourt.

Stewart, 62, is charged with obstructing justice and conspiracy stemming from her sale of nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems stock in 2001, a day before the stock tumbled after the government rejected ImClone's application for an experimental cancer drug.

Sam Waksal, ImClone's founder and a friend of Stewart, is currently serving a seven-year prison term after pleading guilty to charges of trying to sell ImClone stock before the Erbitux news broke.  Top of page


-- CNNfn's Allan Chernoff and Reuters contributed to this story




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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.