Lawyer Bids to Get Blake Out on Bail

Robert Blake’s attorney asked a Los Angeles judge Wednesday to reduce the murder charge against the actor and let him out of jail on bail.

Attorney Harland W. Braun also resumed his war of words with prosecutors, saying Los Angeles police detectives compromised their investigation by allowing a freelance author to watch them at work.

Blake, star of the “Baretta” television series of the late 1970s, was arrested in April and charged with murdering his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. Police allege that he approached five people to kill her before shooting her to death in Studio City last year.

In court papers, Braun argued that the lying-in-wait allegation should be declared unconstitutional and the charge dismissed. Without that element, Blake would no longer face capital charges and would be eligible for bail, Braun said. To prove the lying-in-wait allegation, prosecutors must show the same things they would have to demonstrate to convict Blake of the lesser crime of first-degree murder. That, Braun argued, permits prosecutors to arbitrarily decide who will and will not face the death penalty, and is unconstitutional.

A San Diego trial judge declared the same statute unconstitutionally vague earlier this month in an unrelated capital murder case.

Although that ruling is not binding on other judges, Braun hopes that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lloyd M. Nash will make a similar finding in the Blake case.

Nash denied a previous bail request. He ruled last month that Blake was not eligible for bail because he is charged with a capital crime, although prosecutors have said they will not seek execution.

Braun again argued that Blake does not pose a flight risk or a danger to society and said his client has cooperated with authorities in the year since the crime. He said prosecutors charged Blake with the special circumstance of lying in wait solely to deny him bail.

The actor, 68, has been held without bail at the Men’s Central Jail downtown since his arrest April 18 at the Hidden Hills home where he lived with his daughters. A hearing on Braun’s motion is set for Tuesday in Van Nuys.

The attorney also said Wednesday that the presence of author Miles Corwin at the crime scene, at Blake’s home and at witness interviews “tainted the investigation.” It also gave police “a hidden agenda” for targeting the actor as the prime suspect, the attorney said. Corwin at the time was on a book leave from the Los Angeles Times. He left the paper in January.

“What if they hadn’t charged Blake in the murder?” Braun asked. “Then how would the book end?”

LAPD Cmdr. Gary Brennan said Wednesday that Corwin spent a year researching a book on the department’s Robbery-Homicide Division, observing five criminal investigations, including Bakley’s. He said the arrangement with Corwin, who did not return telephone calls Wednesday seeking comment, was approved by then-Chief Bernard C. Parks and does not violate department policy.

“We are absolutely confident it doesn’t compromise the case, the credibility of detectives,” Brennan said. “When the trial is concluded, we are sure any objective observers will agree with us when they have full access to the facts.

“Harland Braun might want us to debate and discuss the merits of the case in the media,” he said. “It is a debate we refuse to engage in. This is a homicide investigation being conducted with credibility and professionalism.”

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Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report.