New Twist in Martha Stewart Case

Martha Stewart and Peter Bacanovic, her former Merrill Lynch broker, might have gone down together, but they will be sentenced separately.

Stewart is scheduled to be sentenced Friday, July 16 at 10:00 a.m. EDT at the U.S. Southern District Courthouse, while Bacanovic's sentencing takes place at 2:30 p.m., said a Court spokesman. The pair was originally set to be sentenced at the same hearing on Friday morning.

The sentencing split is the latest of many twists since the trial ended in March. Only last week Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum refused Stewart's request for a new trial on the grounds that a U.S. Secret Service laboratory director -- who happens to share the defendant's surname -- lied while testifying as an expert witness. Prior to that ruling, the judge denied the Stewart legal team's motion for a new trial based upon the false statements of juror Chappell Hartridge during jury qualification. ...