Jury selection continues today in a New York federal courthouse where the stock-fraud trial of Westport’s Martha Stewart is underway.

The juror questioning was conducted in secret Tuesday as Stewart’s trial began in earnest. About three dozen filed into a judge’s chambers to answer questions, and more were expected today and the rest of the week.

About a dozen of the potential jurors interviewed Tuesday were given the green light by the judge to proceed to the next round of selection, a source close to the case told The Associated Press.

Denver-based Janus Capital Group Inc. today named Jill Paitchel as president of Janus International, its global division based in Westport.

The mutual funds company said Paitchel, formerly of Citigroup Asset Management, will be responsible for day-to-day oversight of international business, which had more than $6 billion in assets under management at the end of 2003.

Paitchel will report to Erich Gerth, senior vice president and managing director of the Janus Global Adviser business.

Gerth replaced Richard Garland, 42, who resigned last fall. Investigators said Garland may have approved improper trading arrangements. (See WestportNow Nov. 18, 2003)

Lawyers for media organizations covering the trial of Westport’s Martha Stewart urged a federal judge today to reverse her order barring the media from watching jury selection.

In court papers, media lawyers said the high-profile nature of the case is not enough to justify restricting the public’s right to monitor what happens in court.

“Because this case is newsworthy, it is all the more important to protect the right of access in order to reassure the public that the law is being applied evenhandedly, and that justice is being done,” the papers said.

The judge, Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum of Manhattan federal court, was to hear oral arguments on the matter later today.

The intense media interest in the inside trading-related trial of Westports Martha Stewart has prompted the federal judge in the case to bar news coverage of questioning of prospective jurors.

The process is usually held in open court.

U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum said today she was concerned reporters might disclose the names of potential jurors and their answers to the questions they are asked.

“There is a substantial risk that such publication or the possibility of such publication would prevent prospective jurors from giving full and frank answers to questions posed to them,” she wrote.

A tentative resolution has been reached in the Town of Westport’s complaint against Daybreak Nurseries for using a residential area for business operations.

Town Attorney Ira Bloom said today the agreement was reached Wednesday in the second day of a hearing in Superior Court in Stamford.

The town had asked the court to issue an injunction against Daybreak.

He said Daybreak has agreed to submit an application to the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) which will address complaints by the town and neighbors.

Daybreak’s application will include establishing buffer areas along the perimeter of the property, limiting hours of operation, including Sunday limits, and limits on height of stockpiling, Bloom said.

The town has issued repeated cease and desist orders against Daybreak Nurseries this year. WestportNow.com file photo

Arguments in the case began Tuesday in Superior Court in Stamford and continued today, according to Town Attorney Ira Bloom.

“It may or may not continue through tomorrow (Thursday),” he told WestportNow.

Bloom said because there are legal issues involved, he anticipates that the judge will request the parties to submit briefs after the evidence is completed.

It’s supposed to be a secret, but a Web site has reported on the questionnaire filled out by potential jurors in the trial of Westport’s Martha Stewart on insider trading-related charges.

The questionnaire asked whether they had bought her products or cooked with any of her recipes, according to an account posted on the Gawker.com Web site.

The site posted a lengthy report from a person who claimed to be one of the hundreds of potential jurors who filled out the query Tuesday at a federal courthouse in Manhattan.

The 35-page questionnaire also asked whether potential jurors owned stock in Stewart-controlled Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia or ImClone Systems, the company whose stock Stewart told in 2001, triggering an investigation.

Hundreds of potential jurors for the securities fraud trial of Westport’s Martha Stewart filed into a federal courthouse in Manhattan today to fill out questionnaires for the formal beginning of jury selection.

Lawyers on both sides will receive hundreds of completed questionnaires Wednesday, then spend two weeks reviewing them before interviewing some jurors in person on Jan. 20.

Opening arguments should come several days after that.