Defense lawyers in the stock fraud trial of Westport’s Martha Stewart grilled star prosecution witness Douglas Faneuil today.
The maneuvering in the Manhattan federal courtroom was aimed at showing that Faneuil routinely joked with Stewart’s stockbroker even as he claims the broker intimidated him into covering up the facts of Stewart’s stock sale.
But the judge blocked the lawyers from putting e-mails into evidence showing that Faneuil, then a Merrill Lynch & Co. assistant, had an easygoing relationship with broker Peter Bacanovic, Stewart’s co-defendant.
Bacanovic attorney David Apfel said one of the joking e-mails from Faneuil to Bacanovic describes “a man having sex with a goat.” But U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum ordered the remark stricken from the record.
Faneuil has said that Bacanovic ordered him to tip Stewart on Dec. 27, 2001, that ImClone Systems founder Sam Waksal was dumping shares of stock, leading Stewart to do the same.
He also has said that Bacanovic pressured him to support a false cover story for the sale.
On the witness stand today, Faneuil admitted he joked with Bacanovic at work even as the broker was pressuring him. Faneuil described their relationship as “schizophrenic.”
“Everything having to do with the events of Dec. 27 was extremely compartmentalized,” Faneuil said.
Apfel asked Faneuil whether Bacanovic had specifically asked him to lie to investigators. Faneuil said Bacanovic had not – but “I understood what he was telling me.”
The defense began cross-examining Faneuil on Wednesday after he delivered damaging testimony against Stewart and her stockbroker.
