Claudia Stewart, Sean’s mother and the wife of Bob Stewart for 39 years, told jurors that she, Sean’s brother Ryan and their wives were almost always present when Sean and Bob Stewart were together. She said she never noticed them speaking privately.
“I would say, ‘What’s going on, what’s the issue?’” if she had seen them talking one-on-one, she said. “I’d probably think they were talking about me, because that’s how I am.”
Before the trial began, Sean’s lawyers tried to force Bob Stewart to testify as a defense witness. At a hearing, Bob pleaded his Fifth Amendment right against incriminating himself. U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain agreed with Bob’s lawyers that he couldn’t be forced to take the witness stand.
Father’s Gain
Prosecutors said that Sean Stewart benefited from his father’s insider trades when Bob Stewart used $10,055 to pay for the photographer at his son’s June 2011 wedding. Claudia Stewart testified that the couple also paid a $7,200 photographer’s bill for the wedding of Sean’s brother the following month.
Claudia has sat in the front row of the courtroom, behind her son at the defense table, for every day of the trial, which began with opening statements July 27. She and Sean both became tearful when his lawyer, Martin Cohen, showed jurors photos of what she called “happy family times,” including Sean with Bob in the pool, on the Little League team coached by Bob, and at a party for Ryan’s high school graduation.
The relationship with his father is “damaged, perhaps permanently damaged,” Sean said at the conclusion of questioning by his attorney.
“He is my father, and he raised me,” Sean said. “And I love him, and I always will.”
Both sides delivered closing arguments after Sean and Claudia Stewart’s testimony.
"Five times, the defendant handed his father tomorrow’s news today, so he could make some fast cash on stolen information," Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Eddy McCallum told jurors.