October 8, 2004: Martha Stewart Goes to Prison

Stewart, being released

October 8, 2004: Martha Stewart, America's "domestic goddess," reports to prison, to begin her sentence.

Michael James "Mickey" Gubitosi was born and raised in Nutley. We knew him as actor Robert Blake. Martha Helen Kostyra was born on August 3, 1941 in Jersey City, but grew up in Nutley. We know her by the name she adopted after getting married: Martha Stewart.

Also living in Nutley in the 1950s, at least during the baseball season, were New York Yankee stars Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Gil McDougald. Martha babysat for their children. (Mantle, from Oklahoma, lived in Dallas in the off-season, while Yogi, a St. Louis native, moved to nearby Montclair, and San Francisco native McDougald to Wall, on the Jersey Shore.)

Martha began modeling, and was in a TV commercial at age 15. Her mother taught her how to cook and sew, her father taught her gardening, and when she visited her grandparents in Buffalo, New York, they taught her canning and preserving.

While modeling, she met law student Andrew Stewart, and married him in 1961. I don't want to say Martha is old, but she had to go to Barnard College, because she really wanted to go to the school which which Barnard is affiliated, Columbia University, did not admit women until 1983. By comparison, Andrew's Alma Mater, Yale, went co-ed in 1969. Martha graduated with a double major in history and architectural history.

Martha maintained her loves of cooking, gardening and architecture. Her husband's father hired her as a stockbroker. Andrew founded a publishing house. They bought a house that was built in 1805 in the New York suburb of Westport, Connecticut. In 1982, she combined all these interests into her first book, Entertaining.

This grew into related books, appearances on Larry King Live and The Oprah Winfrey Show, TV commercials for various products, the magazine Martha Stewart Living in 1990, the syndicated TV show of the same name (taped in the Westport house) in 1993, and the founding in 1997 of the overseeing company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Well above and beyond Andrew's income -- which may have been a reason they got divorced in 1987 -- she had built an empire, and became one of the megacelebrities of the Clinton Years. As her tagline says, "It's a good thing."

Martha and Andrew had one child, a daughter, Alexis Stewart, a radio talk-show host. She also married and divorced a lawyer, and has 2 children.

On December 27, 2001, Martha sold her stock shares of ImClone Systems. The next day, the stock's value fell 16 percent, saving her a loss of over $45,000. The Securities and Exchange Commission thought that might have been the result of insider trading, and launched an investigation.

She was indicted on June 4, 2003, and, after a 6-week trial that generated a lot of publicity, on March 10, 2004, she was convicted -- not of insider trading, but of conspiracy to obstruct, of obstruction of an agency proceeding, and of making false statements to federal investigators. On July 17, she was sentenced to 5 months in federal prison, and a fine of $30,000.

The lead prosecutor was James Comey, then a U.S. Deputy Attorney General. In 2013, President Barack Obama appointed him Director of the FBI. In 2016, he released a statement that may have cost Hillary Clinton the Presidential election. In 2017, Donald Trump fired him, anyway. He might be the most hated man in America, hated by fans of Trump, Mrs. Clinton, and Martha Stewart.

There was, however, little doubt that Martha was guilty. If she had come clean, she would have had to pay a fine, but probably would have avoided a criminal conviction. Thus, on October 8, 2004, she reported to the Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia, in the Shenandoah Mountains, about halfway between the State Capitol in Charleston and Roanoke, Virginia.

Like most new prisoners, she got some hazing. Being a celebrity, she got more than most. But she had enough strength of character to win them over, and became an informal liaison between the administration and her fellow inmates. She was released on March 4, 2005, and for the next 5 months, was on "supervised released" at her home in Bedford, Westchester County, north of New York City.

What did she do after that ended? The same thing she did before the investigation began: Be Martha Stewart. She went on as if nothing had happened. In 2012, she made a guest appearance on the NBC drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as the headmistress of an all-girls' private school, who defended one of her teachers who had been accused of a sex crime. In a rare moment of showing a crack in her unflappability, she said the performances of the actors playing the police "hit close to home."

In 2001, Robert Blake's wife was murdered. He was acquitted, but found liable for her death in a civil trial. The joke was that the wrong Nutley native went to prison.

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October 8, 2004 was a Friday. Game 3 of the American League Division Series was played at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. The New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins, 8-4. Kevin Brown was the winning pitcher. Bernie Williams and Hideki Matsui hit home runs. The Yankees won the series the next night.

The other ALDS was a 3-game sweep by the Boston Red Sox over the Oakland Athletics. The Red Sox won Game 3, 8-6 at Fenway Park in Boston. David Ortiz hit a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning. At the time, few people suspected that he had become a steroid freak.

Both National League Division Series were having a travel day. The St. Louis Cardinals would need 4 games to eliminate the Los Angeles Dodgers, while the Houston Astros needed all 5 games to beat the Atlanta Braves.

The NHL team owners had locked out the players, and eventually canceled the season. The NBA season started on November 2.

There was 1 game in college football: The University of Nevada at Las Vegas beat Brigham Young University: UNLV 24, BYU 20 at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah.

And in New Jersey high school football, my Alma Mater, East Brunswick, beat Sayreville, 16-7 at War Memorial Stadium in Sayreville. It was a key win en route to a Playoff berth, which led to a long-awaited Central Jersey Group IV Championship.