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Blake denied bail
10/10/2002 12:02 - (SA)
Dan Whitcomb
California - Actor Robert Blake, who is charged with murdering his wife, was denied bail by a Los Angeles judge on Wednesday and his lawyers immediately moved to appeal the issue to the California Supreme Court.
Blake's attorney, Harland Braun, also claimed that police or prosecutors had tampered with evidence against the 69-year-old Baretta star - charges that a district attorney's spokesperson called false and "a smokescreen".
Superior Court Judge Lloyd Nash, whose court is in the Los Angeles suburb of Van Nuys, ordered that Blake remain jailed at least until a December preliminary hearing on charges that he shot 44-year-old Bonny Lee Bakley to death in May of 2001.
"Based on the information provided to me ... I can make the finding that there is proof of his guilt," Nash said, invoking the legal standard required to deny bail.
Blake, wearing a blue suit, gave family members a stern look and tapped a clenched fist to his chest over his heart as he was taken from the courtroom by sheriff's deputies. Outside court his son, Noah Blake, said the Emmy-winning actor was "holding up as well as can be expected" under the strain.
During the hearing, Braun argued that a special charge of "lying in wait" that made Blake ineligible for bail should be dismissed because there was no evidence to support it.
Under California law, defendants charged with murder under special circumstances face the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted and can be held without bail. Prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty against Blake.
Deputy District Attorney Patrick Dixon argued that there was sufficient evidence to show that Blake had shot his wife to death and that he had planned the murder in advance.
Braun asked a defence investigator to obtain a rush transcript of the proceeding and said he would appeal Nash's ruling to the California Supreme Court as early as Thursday. The state high court had prompted the bail hearing by ordering sheriff's officials to explain why Blake had not yet had one.
Defence charges evidence tampering
Outside court, Braun said Nash conducted the hearing to satisfy that order but did not fairly evaluate the case against Blake or the defence arguments in favour of bail.
"He's sticking his finger in the eye of the Supreme Court," Braun said. "The Supreme Court should intervene. This case is making our system look bad."
Braun also claimed that authorities had tampered with evidence against Blake by removing three bullets from a case of 100 found at his home to suggest that they were used in the crime. Bakley was killed by two rounds fired from a German-made, World War II-era pistol and a third was found still in the murder weapon.
Braun said the bullets must have been taken from the case by a police officer or someone else to frame Blake because they did not exactly match the rounds use to kill Bakley. The bullets found at Blake's home, he said, were not new like those found at the crime scene but were "reloads" - or rebuilt by someone from already fired rounds.
But Sandi Gibbons, a spokesperson for the district attorney's office, said that prosecutors had made no secret that the bullets did not exactly match and gave no credence to his allegations of manufactured evidence.
"We have no indication that there was evidence tampering in this case," Gibbons said. "And by the way Mr. Braun was there too when Mr. Blake's home was searched."
Pressed further by reporters on the issue, Gibbons added: "To my knowledge the allegations by Mr. Braun, as so many of them are, are a smokescreen."
Blake, who won an Emmy for his portrayal of tough cop Tony Baretta in the hit 1970s TV series, began his career as a child star in the Our Gang comedies.
He appeared in dozens of movies, including 1967's In Cold Blood, based on the Truman Capote book of the same name, in which he portrayed one of two men who murdered a Kansas family and were ultimately hanged for their crime.
- Reuters
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