Martha Stewart pleads for legal aid

The Independent
By Katherine Griffiths in New York
11 November 2004


Martha Stewart, the jailed celebrity homemaker, has filed a claim with her company for $3.7m (£2.85m) for help with her legal bills.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which Stewart founded and still controls through her majority stockholding, said in a filing that Stewart submitted a claimrelating to her defence against the charge that she made false and misleading statements intended to influence the price of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia stock.

Federal Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum threw out that charge before Stewart's trial was concluded in March.

But a jury found her guilty of lying to investigators and obstructing justice related to an inquiry into her sale of ImClone Systems stock in December 2001, before damaging news about the company became public.

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