By Erin McClam
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - Jurors at the Martha Stewart trial will have to grapple with two distinct images of the government's star witness: Was he a star-struck liar, or an impressionable young man caught up in someone else's crime?

The competing perceptions put forth by lawyers in the case will be pivotal as former Merrill Lynch & Co. brokerage assistant Douglas Faneuil takes the witness stand, probably beginning today.

Prosecutors say Faneuil passed a tip from broker Peter Bacanovic to Stewart Dec. 27, 2001, that the family of ImClone Systems founder Sam Waksal was trying to dump the stock.

Stewart sold her ImClone shares that day, just before they plummeted on a negative Food and Drug Administration report on an ImClone cancer drug.

Faneuil, then 26, initially supported Stewart and Bacanovic's account that they had a pre-existing arrangement to sell the stock when it fell to $60. Now he supports prosecutors' version.

"I think his youth helps the government," David Berg, a Houston white-collar crime attorney, said. "And the fact that he was trying to preserve his job.."

But even before Faneuil testifies, defense lawyers for Bacanovic and Stewart devoted parts of their opening statements to portraying him as a liar.

Bacanovic's lawyer, Richard Strassberg, went so far as to describe Faneuil as "fixated" by Martha Stewart, bragging to friends about even the most casual contact with her at Merrill Lynch.

Prosecutor Karen Patton Seymour hinted in her opening statement that Faneuil was easily influenced by Bacanovic, his boss.

"Is it OK to do that?" she quoted Faneuil as saying when Bacanovic told him to pass the Waksal tip to Stewart.

"You have to. You must," Bacanovic responded, according to Seymour.