- "Hartridge was the most vocal of the 12 jurors who
convicted Stewart, speaking at length to reporters outside the courthouse
on March 5 and making several television appearances. . . . "Maybe
it's a victory for the little guy who loses money in the markets because
of these types of transactions," he told reporters on the day of the
verdict."
-
- NEW YORK -- Martha Stewart
requested a new trial Wednesday, saying one of the jurors who convicted
her did not disclose a checkered past that includes an arrest on assault
charges.
-
- Stewart's lawyers said juror Chappell Hartridge has been
sued three times and has been accused of stealing money from a Little League
group -- but improperly left the accusations off his jury questionnaire.
-
- The lawyers said Hartridge, who called Stewart's guilty
verdict a victory for "the little guy," showed a clear bias against
Stewart that damaged her right to a fair trial.
-
- "Ms. Stewart's conviction cannot stand," Stewart
lawyer Robert Morvillo wrote in a filing in Manhattan federal court.
-
- Marvin Smilon, a spokesman for the prosecutors who brought
the case against the domestic entrepreneur, said: "We are reviewing
the motion and will respond at the appropriate time."
-
- Stewart was convicted March 5 of lying to federal investigators
about her sale of 3,298 shares of ImClone Systems Inc. stock on Dec. 27,
2001, just before it plunged on a negative government report.
-
- She is to be sentenced June 17. Legal experts believe
she will receive a sentence of 10 to 16 months in prison for the four guilty
counts -- obstructing justice, conspiracy and two counts of making false
statements.
-
- Morvillo said he would have moved to strike Hartridge
from the jury had Hartridge given truthful answers on his questionnaire
-- perhaps opening the way for a juror who would have found Stewart not
guilty.
-
- Hartridge could not immediately be reached for comment
on the allegations. A phone number that matches his Bronx address was listed
as out of service, and a message left at an alternate number was not returned.
-
- The Stewart filing said Hartridge was arrested and spent
several days in jail in 1997 after the woman with whom he was living accused
him of threatening to kill her and throwing her into a statue of an elephant
in her apartment.
-
- The woman was badly bruised but did not press charges
because she could not miss work to appear in court, the filing said.
-
- Included in the Stewart court filing was an affidavit
from the woman, who said Hartridge was "occasionally physically abusive"
to her during the four months they lived together.
-
- Hartridge "dishonestly suppressed information concerning
a gender-related incident in order to be able to sit in judgment of a well-known
and highly successful woman in a case alleging false statements,"
Morvillo wrote.
-
- The juror also did not disclose that he had been sued
three times, the Stewart filing said. The papers said civil judgments had
been entered against him in each case.
-
- Among many other questions, potential jurors for the
Stewart trial were asked whether they had been in court before, been sued
or been accused of any crime.
-
- The Stewart team sought a new trial under a 1984 Supreme
Court case that said convicts can seek new trials if they show that a juror
lied in jury selection and that the truth would have provided a basis to
remove that juror.
-
- The filing also included allegations from a Bronx Little
League coach -- never reported to law enforcement -- that Hartridge stole
as much as $50,000 from the organization while he was its treasurer.
-
- Hartridge was the most vocal of the 12 jurors who convicted
Stewart, speaking at length to reporters outside the courthouse on March
5 and making several television appearances.
-
- "Maybe it's a victory for the little guy who loses
money in the markets because of these types of transactions," he told
reporters on the day of the verdict.
-
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- http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/4698417.html
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