Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2004 | 9:15 a.m.
NEW YORK -- A defense witness said Martha Stewart's stockbroker told her he had plans for the homemaking mogul to dump her ImClone Systems before it fell to $60 -- weeks before she actually sold.
The testimony by Heidi DeLuca, a business manager for Stewart, supports the key element of the defense -- that Stewart and broker Peter Bacanovic had a pre-existing plan to sell her 3,928 ImClone shares.
The government contends the $60 plan was a cover story, devised after investigators started looking into the sale. Prosecutors say Stewart sold because she was tipped that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was selling his shares.
But DeLuca testified Monday that Bacanovic expressed a desire to get rid of the shares in a conversation on Nov. 8, 2001. That was weeks before Stewart sold the stock on Dec. 27, 2001.
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