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NEW YORK (AP) — Pressing again for a new trial, Martha Stewart's lawyers said Wednesday they have uncovered more lies and omissions by one of the jurors who convicted her last month.
According to the papers filed in federal court, the former president of a Little League organization claimed juror Chappell Hartridge had told him he embezzled money from the group to support a cocaine habit.
The documents said Hartridge did not disclose the allegations on his jury questionnaire.
The papers also said Hartridge's son was convicted of attempted robbery in 2000 -- information Stewart's lawyers said he specifically omitted from his jury form.
Among many other questions, potential jurors for the Stewart trial were asked whether they had been in court before, been sued or been accused of any crime. The questionnaire also specifically asked if family members had had run-ins with the law.
Late last month, Stewart's lawyers said that Hartridge had lied in failing to disclose a 1997 arrest on charges of assaulting a woman he had been living with.
The defense has argued that it would have moved to have Hartridge stricken from the jury had they known about any of these facts from his past.
The papers filed Wednesday asked U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, who oversaw the homemaking authority's trial earlier this year, to grant a second trial or at least a hearing on the Hartridge matter.
Hartridge could not immediately be reached for comment. A listed number for him was out of service.
Federal prosecutors had no comment Wednesday. But last week, they said the disclosures about Hartridge were not enough to warrant a hearing, much less a new trial.
Stewart was convicted March 5 of lying about her sale of a block of biotechnology stock just before it plunged.
She will be sentenced June 17. Legal experts expect her to get 10 to 16 months in prison.
Experts have said Stewart faces an uphill battle in her bid for a new trial because she must show not just lies by a juror, but a clear bias that kept her from receiving a fair trial.
Addressing that point, Stewart's lawyers filed a copy of a news article quoting a woman who said Hartridge once assaulted her and "used to tell me he thought women were below him."
The lawyers also have said Hartridge's interviews after the trial, including a public statement that the verdict was a victory "for the little guy," show a bias against the wealthy Stewart.
On the issue of the embezzling and cocaine allegations, the Little League president, Francisco Rivera, said in an affidavit that the organization was afraid of negative press and losing sponsors if it pursued legal action against Hartridge.
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