Stewart trial leaps ahead as judge ends delay

0 Comments | USA TODAY, February, 2004 | by Greg Farrell

NEW YORK -- The government's obstruction-of-justice trial against Martha Stewart and her former Merrill Lynch broker, nearly derailed Thursday by a judicial ruling, is back on track.

Monday, U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum partially reversed her Thursday decree that the defense be given a full week before the government could present its star witness in the case. The reversal means that prosecutors could put the witness, Douglas Faneuil, on the stand as soon as today.

In court Monday, two Merrill executives bolstered the government's case. One testified that Martha Stewart's former broker, Peter Bacanovic, said in January 2002 that he spoke with Stewart on Dec. 27, 2001, the day she sold her ImClone stock. That is significant because defense lawyers have...