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| Martha Stewart gets 5 months |
| By Boston Globe |
| Published: 07/26/2004 |
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Martha Stewart, the former stockbroker who turned her skill and passion for decorating and cooking into a multimedia empire, was sentenced yesterday to five months in federal prison, five months of house arrest, and two years of supervised probation for lying to federal investigators about a stock sale in the winter of 2001. A defiant Stewart emerged from the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan and stood before a throng of media and a cheering group of fans, calling her legal problems a ''small personal matter blown all out of proportion with such venom and gore" and vowing, ''I will be back." Besides prison time, Stewart, 62, will be confined for five months to her home where she will wear an electronic bracelet. She also must pay a $30,000 fine. Some legal specialists yesterday decried her sentence as lenient, Stewart is appealing the conviction and will remain free until an appeals court returns a verdict. US District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum recommended Stewart serve her sentence at a federal women's prison in Danbury, Conn., just 27 miles from her home in Westport. The Federal Bureau of Prisons will have the final say as to where she serves her time. Unlike others charged in a federal crackdown on white-collar crimes triggered by the collapse of former energy trading giant Enron Corp., Stewart has not been widely excoriated. Instead, websites and fan clubs were created to champion her throughout her legal battles, and Stewart said she has received thousands of positive letters and more than 170,000 encouraging e-mails. Meanwhile, news of her sentence sent Martha Stewart Omnimedia stock up nearly 37 percent. Specialists suggest the light sentence lifted the uncertainty around the company's future. In October 1999, about the time the company went public, Martha Stewart Living was worth $2.5 billion. At the close of trading yesterday, the company's market value was $585 million. |
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