Judge rejects Stewart request for second trial

NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal judge refused to grant Martha Stewart a new trial, clearing the way for the celebrity homemaker to be sentenced next week for lying about a 2001 stock sale.
U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum on Thursday rejected a second request from Stewart, brushing aside allegations that a government ink expert lied on the stand.
The judge said there was "no reasonable likelihood that this perjury could have affected the jury's verdict." She added that "overwhelming independent evidence" supports the guilty verdict.
Stewart and her former stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, are expected to get 10 to 16 months in prison.
Stewart's lawyer, Robert Morvillo, said in a statement he was "very disappointed" by the ruling.
Prosecutors had no immediate comment.
Cedarbaum previously rejected a new-trial request from Stewart and Bacanovic based on defense allegations that a juror lied about his arrest record on his jury questionnaire to get on the panel.
This time, Stewart and Bacanovic asked for a new trial after Secret Service ink expert Larry Stewart was arrested on charges of lying repeatedly at the trial in February.
Larry Stewart, no relation to Martha Stewart, was accused of lying when he said he participated in ink-analysis testing of a worksheet that prosecutors said was doctored by Bacanovic. However, Bacanovic was ultimately acquitted of charges he falsified the worksheet.
Morvillo is expected to raise the issue of the juror and the ink expert with a federal appeals court after the sentencing.