Federal Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum's decision to dismiss a charge that Martha Stewart defrauded investors in her own company by lying about her sale of ImClone stock turned on the different standards for "evidentiary sufficiency" in criminal and civil securities fraud cases.
White-collar crime experts say that the impact of the missing charge can cut both ways when the jury convenes to consider the remaining charges against Stewart and her co-defendant, former Merrill Lynch broker Peter Bacanovic.
Details here from the New York Law Journal.