Judge Orders Stewart to Serve Sentence

NEW YORK – A federal judge Monday ordered Martha Stewart to serve her full five months of house arrest, brushing aside claims from the celebrity homemaker that the sentence is damaging her business.

Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, in a tersely worded three-page order, rejected a bid from Stewart to go free early – or at least to be allowed to leave home more often for work.

“Home detention is imposed as an alternative to imprisonment. It is designed to be confining,” the judge wrote. “I see no reason to modify the sentence.”

Stewart, 63, was convicted last year of lying to the government about a stock sale. She served five months in prison in West Virginia, then in early March began five months of house arrest at her sprawling Westchester County estate, north of New York City.

The homemaking maven had told the judge that serving the rest of her sentence would hamper production of her two upcoming television series – a daytime talk show and a new rendition of NBC’s “The Apprentice.”

Prosecutors had mocked the bid for a shorter sentence, telling the judge in court papers that “minor inconvenience to one’s ability to star in a television show is an insufficient ground for resentencing.”

The judge declined Stewart’s bid to be allowed to leave home 80 hours per week for business. Under the original sentence, she is allowed 48 hours per week.

“In my opinion, the sentence I imposed was particularly needed to reflect the seriousness of the offense, to promote respect for the law and to provide just punishment,” the judge wrote.

Stewart’s lawyers said they were disappointed.

“All she was seeking was the same opportunity for reconsideration as others in her position, and the chance to spend more hours at work,” they said in a statement.

Prosecutors declined to comment on the ruling.

A spokeswoman for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., the media empire Stewart founded, said in a statement the company was disappointed as well – but added Stewart has made “a tremendous and positive impact” since leaving prison.

“She has added her creative guidance and influences, and has leveraged current technologies to make the most of her schedule,” the company said.

Company shares slid after the ruling was issued, finishing the day down 19 cents, or about 1 percent, at $20.36 on the New York Stock Exchange. It traded above $35 just before Stewart left prison.

In a March Web chat from the estate, Stewart told fans that the electronic monitoring bracelet she must wear during house arrest is “somewhat uncomfortable and irritating.”

Stewart requested a resentencing after a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year made federal sentencing guidelines simply advisory for judges rather than mandatory.

The original sentence of five months in prison and five months of home confinement was the least possible sentence Stewart could have received under the guidelines for her crimes.

Cedarbaum said she would have imposed the same sentence even if the guidelines had not been mandatory at the time of the sentencing last summer.

Stewart and former stockbroker Peter Bacanovic were convicted of lying about why Stewart dumped nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems stock in 2001, just before it took a dive on a negative government report about the company.

Bacanovic began serving his own five-month prison term in January in Nevada. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is weighing bids from Stewart and Bacanovic to overturn their convictions.