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No bail for TV cop
28/06/2002 08:01 - (SA)
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| Actor Robert Blake. (Reuters) |
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California - A judge on Thursday rejected actor Robert Blake's bid to go free on bail while awaiting trial on murder charges, saying he would take up the issue again after hearing evidence in the case later this year.
"I have a completely open mind with respect to bail," Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lloyd Nash, who sits in the suburb of Van Nuys, said. "But I want to hear the evidence."
Nash, who will evaluate the case against Blake and his co-defendant, bodyguard Earle Caldwell, at a preliminary hearing, encouraged defence attorneys to go forward with that proceeding so that the trial could start soon after.
Lawyers for Blake and Caldwell have asked for that hearing to be postponed until November, saying that they have been confronted with what former Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks called the largest investigation in his department's history.
Blake's attorney, Harland Braun, has urged Nash to free the Baretta star before the preliminary hearing on the grounds that his client suffers from dyslexia and has trouble assisting in his own defence from a jail cell.
Braun also argues that prosecutors hope to keep Blake behind bars as a tactical move - a claim that Deputy District Attorney Patrick Dixon has dismissed.
Dixon maintains that, as a wealthy murder defendant with the means to flee the country, Blake represents a "flight risk" and should be denied bail.
At a press conference after Nash's ruling, Braun said he might ask an appeals court to grant Blake a bail hearing.
Blake, a onetime child star who portrayed gruff detective Tony Baretta on the 1970s TV drama, is charged with the May 4, 2001 shooting death of his 44-year-old wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.
Caldwell, his bodyguard, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder.
- Reuters
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