Martha Trial Stewing For Weekend

Defense lawyers for Martha Stewart and her stockbroker will continue their assault on the credibility and motives of the prosecution's key witness on Monday.

There is no session Friday, giving jurors the weekend to contemplate e-mails sent out by brokerage assistant Douglas Faneuil. The correspondence depict the home style maven as a quick-tempered customer given to tirades.

Faneuil — the star witness in the stock-fraud trial — even said Stewart once threatened to leave the brokerage because she did not like the music when she was placed on hold.

The descriptions came in more than seven hours of intense cross-examination by a lawyer for Stewart's stockbroker, trying to show Faneuil hated Stewart and was out to get her.

Faneuil, 28, has testified broker Peter Bacanovic instructed him to give Stewart a tip that led her to dump ImClone Systems stock — countering Stewart's version that they already had a plan to sell the stock when it fell below $60.

"I think Peter Bacanovic's lawyer has done what he needs to do, which is that these guys had a friendly relationship, that there was no outright agreement between Bacanovic and Douglas Faneuil to lie. That's a big deal for Bacanovic," said CBSNews.com Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen.

In court Thursday, Bacanovic's lawyer introduced e-mails in which Faneuil described telephone encounters with Stewart in October 2001.

On Oct. 23, 2001, after handling a call from Stewart at Merrill Lynch & Co., Faneuil told a friend: "I have never, ever been treated more rudely by a stranger in my life. She actually hung up on me!"

Three days later, he wrote to another friend: "Martha yelled at me again today, but I snapped in her face and she actually backed down! Baby put Ms. Martha in her place!!!"

Faneuil initially supported Stewart and Bacanovic's story that they had a deal to sell her ImClone shares at $60. But he changed his story in 2002, claiming Bacanovic ordered him to tell Stewart that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was dumping his shares.

Waksal had advance knowledge of a government report on an experimental drug that later sent ImClone shares on a sharp decline.

Lawyers for Bacanovic have described Faneuil as "fixated" on Stewart while he worked at the brokerage, and were using the e-mails to convince the jury he did not like Stewart and may have been out to get her.

Bacanovic lawyer David Apfel asked Faneuil whether it was true Stewart once said "something about how bad the hold music was. She told you she was going to leave Mr. Bacanovic and leave Merrill Lynch unless the hold music was changed."

Faneuil confirmed the story, reports CBS News Early Show National Correspondent Jon Frankel. Members of the jury laughed; Stewart did not.

In one e-mail to a friend, Faneuil describes Stewart — apparently thinking she was speaking with Bacanovic instead — mocking someone who answered phones at the brokerage.

"This is not a joke!" he quoted Stewart as saying, just before hanging up. "Merrill Lynch is laying off 10,000 employees because of people like that idiot!"

As the e-mails from Faneuil were flashed on a giant screen in the courtroom, Stewart maintained the stoic expression she has held throughout the two-week-old trial. She did not speak to reporters as she left court.

"Peter Bacanovic's attorney did a good job of pointing out the personal animosity that was existing between Doug Faneuil and Martha Stewart," former SEC prosecutor Robert Heim told CBS News. "The purpose of that is to really show that Doug Faneuil has motivation to lie and that Martha Stewart is really not his best friend."

"It paints a really unflattering portrait of Martha Stewart, a portrait defense attorneys for Martha Stewart don't want to get across to the jury," said Cohen. "So it's a mixed bag during this round of cross-examination. It certainly doesn't hurt Douglas Faneuil. Most people would think it was odd if someone called and complained about the hold music."

Court was in recess Friday and the trial was to resume Monday, with Stewart lawyer Robert Morvillo questioning Faneuil.

"Now Faneuil has to go through this long, three-day weekend knowing that Martha Stewart's lawyers are gunning for him on Monday," Cohen said. "He probably won't have a restful weekend. Martha Stewart's lawyers have to say, 'Look, there was no agreement to lie here. Douglas Faneuil is the one who lied and has admitted to lying.' That's where they're going to pick up monday morning i suspect.

Faneuil also testified he believed he would lose his job unless he lied to cover up the true reason Stewart sold.

"I felt I would be fired if I didn't lie," Faneuil answered.

In addition to working with Bacanovic to obstruct justice by lying about the stock sale, Stewart is accused of deceiving investors in her own company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

The young assistant has also testified that Bacanovic — without explicitly asking him to lie — repeatedly pressured him to back up his and Stewart's assertion.

Faneuil admitted he joked with Bacanovic at work even as the broker was pressuring him. Faneuil described their relationship as "schizophrenic."

"Everything having to do with the events of Dec. 27 was extremely compartmentalized," Faneuil said.

Apfel asked Faneuil whether Bacanovic had specifically asked him to lie to investigators. Faneuil said Bacanovic had not — but "I understood what he was telling me."