•••Martha gets BUST-ed!!!•••

G-man · 11-27-2004, 01:09 AM

Martha Stewart

BUSTED!!!

NICE SPICE RACK

By RICH CALDER
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November 26, 2004 -- Martha Stewart's prison secrets — right down to the spices she allegedly sneaks into her bra — have been revealed by her cellmates. Fellow "Camp Cupcake" inmates are monitoring Martha's every move at the West Virginia lockup, and are disclosing the lengths she goes to to whip up gourmet treats behind bars, including stashing condiments and such in her unmentionables.

According to letters provided to The Post by one inquisitive inmate, prison guards searched the culinary queen's locker last month and found hidden food inside.

Stewart — Prisoner No. 55170-054 — was caught with the goods and punished with additional work duty after a prison pal ratted her out, the letters said.

The woman squealed on Stewart after the guru of good living allegedly refused to pay her for helping collect food that would be sneaked back to Stewart's quarters and cooked.

The letters discuss some of what The Post reported about Stewart's roller-coaster first six weeks behind bars but also provide outlandish details that were unknown until now.

For instance, Stewart on Oct. 18 was handed a list of items that her pal expected to be paid for, but Martha refused to pay "for the government's free stuff," the letter says. The pal gave Martha up, and the next morning, Stewart's locker was searched. Guards found brown sugar, powdered sugar, cinnamon, butter and other food hidden inside.

A second prisoner confirmed this story. She also said Stewart, since being caught, now smuggles condiments and small portions of food out of the kitchen by "stuffing them in her bra."

Dawn Zobel, a spokeswoman at the Federal Prison Camp in rural Alderson, W.Va., said she was unaware whether Stewart has violated any regulations or been reprimanded while incarcerated, adding that she "can't comment on such matters anyway" because of prisoner privacy laws.

George Sard, a spokesman for Stewart, declined to comment.

Stewart, 63, has been dubbed the "Contraband Queen" by fellow prisoners for hoarding items that are off-limits to inmates in their rooms, according to several prison sources. She was called into a lieutenant's office at least three times — at least twice for attempting to sneak eggs out of the main kitchen and another time for "being too nice" to other inmates, the letters said.

The penalties for hiding food in her locker included cleaning bathrooms, raking leaves and scrubbing a prison porch, the letters said.

The Post last month also reported that Stewart despises prison food so much that she's cooking her own meals — in a kitchenette with a microwave.

Stewart spends her free time these days exercising, reading mail, typing letters, crocheting and watching television with her fellow inmates. Her daughter, Alexis, regularly visits on weekends.

Stewart began serving a five-month sentence on Oct. 8 after being found guilty of obstruction of justice. She appealed the decision, but prosecutors on Wednesday filed a 220-page brief with a federal appeals court urging it to uphold the conviction based on "overwhelming evidence" against the celebrity homemaker.

Some prisoners are so star-struck by Stewart that they "hide the remote control for her" so she can control what is watched, one of the letters said. During the final Bush-Kerry presidential debate on Oct. 13, Martha whipped up a meal in the microwave, ate it and then tried watching the political mudslinging.

"The debate apparently didn't hold her attention because she fell asleep while it was on," a letter said.