Stewart to fight SEC civil charges

NEW YORK -- Martha Stewart continues to fight to clear her name.

Stewart, who completed a five-month prison sentence a year ago for lying about her sale of ImClone stock, has decided to fight rather than settle civil insider trading charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In an 11-page response to the SEC complaint filed late Thursday with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Stewart denied allegations that she sold 3,928 shares of ImClone Systems Inc. stock based on ``material, nonpublic information." Instead, she said she ``acted in good faith."

District Court Judge Richard J. Holwell has mandated that evidence-gathering be completed by Nov. 20 and set a pretrial conference for Nov. 17.

Fighting the charges offers Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., the chance to reclaim her chief executive and chairman titles. But another public trial could deal a blow to the firm and stall the turnaround it has made so far over the last year.

Some legal experts believed it might be in Stewart's interest to settle the charges since she has still been able to wield considerable influence over her multimedia empire.

Stewart was convicted in March 2004 for lying to federal prosecutors about selling ImClone shares a day before the Food and Drug Administration disclosed it had declined to review ImClone's application for its cancer drug.