NEW YORK, April 11 -- Martha Stewart must continue to serve five months in home confinement, a federal judge ruled Monday in refusing to modify her 2004 sentence for obstruction of justice.
Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., had asked U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum to cut her term of house arrest from five months to roughly 45 days. Stewart, convicted last year in New York federal court, has already served five months in prison and more than a month of house arrest.
Martha Stewart leaves a federal appeals court in New York March 17 after arguing for a shorter sentence; a judge rejected her request yesterday.
(Louis Lanzano -- AP)
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Cedarbaum said that the initial sentence of 10 months split between prison and home detention was "reasonable and appropriate." Stewart must now serve the remaining four months at her Bedford, N.Y., estate.
"Home detention is imposed as an alternative to imprisonment," Cedarbaum wrote in a three-page ruling issued Monday. "It is designed to be confining."
A U.S. appeals court in New York last month ordered Stewart resentenced because the sentencing guidelines under which she was punished are no longer binding on federal judges.
The ruling carried out the mandate of the U.S. Supreme Court, which said in January that the guidelines are only advisory. Stewart was released from a West Virginia prison March 4 after completing a five-month term.
"We are disappointed in the district court's ruling," Stewart's lawyers, led by former U.S. solicitor general Walter E. Dellinger III, said in a statement. "All she was seeking was the same opportunity for reconsideration as others in her position, and the chance to spend more hours at work."
Stewart, 63, and her former Merrill Lynch & Co. broker, Peter E. Bacanovic, 42, were convicted in March 2004 of lying to authorities probing her December 2001 sale of ImClone Systems Inc. stock. Stewart is appealing her conviction.
Stewart is planning to host two television shows this year, including her own version of NBC's reality show "The Apprentice," and a daytime television show that will feature Stewart giving cooking and homemaking tips.
Stewart sought a shorter term of house arrest, and permission to work 80 hours a week instead of 48, so she could fulfill business commitments she made after she was sentenced. Cedarbaum said Stewart and her partners knew of her sentence when they agreed to do business.
"Neither she nor they had any right to expect that those business arrangements would persuade me that the conditions of home confinement or the term of supervised release should be changed," Cedarbaum wrote. "The argument is circular."
Stewart's sentence last year was the minimum that was then allowed under the law.
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia shares fell 19 cents, to $20.36, in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. A spokeswoman for the company did not return a call seeking comment.
