By Erin McClam
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - Weeks before Martha Stewart sold her ImClone Systems stock, her broker mentioned a desire to get rid of the shares before they fell to $60, a defense witness testified Monday.

Lawyers for Stewart and broker Peter Bacanovic hope the testimony, by Stewart business manager Heidi DeLuca, undercuts the government's charge that the notion of selling ImClone at $60 was no more than a cover story.

DeLuca said she was handling the transfer of Stewart's shares from another bank to Bacanovic's bank, Merrill Lynch & Co., when he told her he could "set a floor price of $60 or $61" for those shares as a safeguard.

"He said he would speak to Martha about it personally," DeLuca said.

DeLuca placed the conversation Nov. 8, 2001. Stewart sold all 3,928 of her ImClone shares Dec. 27, 2001.

The government contends that the sale happened because Bacanovic ordered his assistant to tip Stewart that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was dumping his shares that day - not because of a pre-arranged $60 plan.

Today the defense hopes to use DeLuca to undermine the testimony of Douglas Faneuil, the Merrill Lynch assistant who was the star prosecution witness.

Faneuil testified that DeLuca was angry with him in a January 2002 phone call because the ImClone sale, made at a gain to Stewart, disrupted Stewart's careful planning to sell some stocks at a loss for tax purposes.

DeLuca is expected to contradict that testimony.

The testimony Monday came as Stewart got support from Bill Cosby, who wore sunglasses as he sat next to her daughter in the courtroom. Asked by reporters why he showed up, Cosby said: "I'm here for a friend."

Also Monday, U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum declined to rule immediately on whether she should throw out any charges in the case.