And to sum up the coincidences, bringing Heidi to a full boil: Bristol Meyer's tender offer expired at 5:00 p.m. on October 26, 2001, just two days after Heidi's phone conversation with Peter. Schachter enters phone logs into evidence that record a 10 a.m. phone call Peter made to Heidi on October 25. "Isn't it true that Peter called you on October 25 because he wanted Martha to tender the ImClone stock in her pension account at $61?" Schachter asks again.
"No, I recall something different about the conversation." Schachter, of course, doesn't give her an opportunity to share. It's hard to argue with the facts: During the 21 minutes Peter and Heidi communicated in October 24, 2001, ImClone hit $61.52. Martha sold the shares in her pension account on October 25 and 26, at almost exactly that price.
On redirect, the only thing defense lawyer John Tigue gets out of Deluca is that Stewart reimbursed MSLO for Deluca's salary in '02.
The only other witness of the day is John DeMaine, a retired stock broker. He now acts as an independent consultant and has testified in over 300 trials. Today he demonstrates the extreme volatility of ImClone on December 27, claiming the stock "fell out of bed" immediately after NASDAQ opened. Even as the volume of stocks fell in the market at large—an event you'd expect during the Christmas holidays, he testifies—ImClone's volume spikes, as early as 9:30 a.m. He says target pricing makes sense with an unstable stock like ImClone. Defense seems to be using DeMaine's testimony to recall Bacanovic's assistant, Doug Faneuil, who also testified about ImClone's December 27 activity. In his statement, Faneuil quoted Bacanovic as shrieking into his cell, "Oh my God, the stock is going crazy, get Martha on the phone," a statement consistent with DeMaine's observations. Take it a step further, and we recall the message Faneuil left Martha's assistant, Amy Armstrong, on December 27, 2001, which said, "Peter Bacanovic says ImClone is selling downward." Which it was, at an alarming rate. Even if Martha did erase then put back the message, one could easily make the case that she knew how such a note could be interpreted. And it turns out she was right.
Bacanovic's defense team rests. Robert Morvillo is calling one witness to testify on Stewart's behalf: Martha's MSLO attorney, the one who actually took notes during her Feb 4, 2002 interview with the SEC.
Prediction: Both parties will rest tomorrow; Cedarbaum will hold the charge conference on Thursday; and closing arguments will be Monday and Tuesday.
Cedarbaum has yet to rule on which charges, if any, she'll drop.
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