Lawyer ‘Convinced’ of Blake Innocence

Robert Blake’s new lawyer on Monday assured the Los Angeles County judge presiding over the actor’s capital murder case that he would be ready to begin trial in September, despite having met his client just last week.

When asked in court about the upcoming trial date, attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach of Mill Valley replied, “Your honor, Sept. 9 is in my calendar.”

That’s the date that Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Darlene E. Schempp has set to begin trial. She ordered Blake back to court March 22.

It was Schwartzbach’s first public appearance as Blake’s counsel. He is the fourth criminal defense lawyer to represent the actor since Blake’s wife was fatally shot May 4, 2001, near a Studio City restaurant where they had dined. Blake’s other attorneys quit.

Schempp relieved Thomas A. Mesereau Jr. as Blake’s counsel of record last month, a few days before lawyers were set to begin questioning jurors in the case. Mesereau cited unspecified “irreconcilable differences” for his action.

The other lawyers -- Harland W. Braun and Jennifer L. Keller -- quit over Blake’s refusal to follow their advice against defending himself in the media.

On his way into the courthouse Monday, Blake, while still refusing to identify his new lawyer, assured reporters, “I’m convinced that I have the best person for the job.”

He did not speak to the media after the 10-minute court hearing.

The actor, best known as a streetwise detective on the 1970s television series “Baretta,” is facing life in prison without parole on charges he killed Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, after failing to solicit two former stuntmen to kill her.

Blake, 70, was released from jail a year ago on a $1.5-million bond, after spending 11 months behind bars in the Men’s Central Jail.

After the brief court hearing, Schwartzbach spoke to reporters outside the Van Nuys courthouse as his client quietly walked to the parking lot.

“First of all, I am convinced of Robert Blake’s innocence,” Schwartzbach said. “Secondly, I am confident that he’s going to be acquitted at trial.

“And third, Mr. Blake and I have already established a very good personal relationship and an appropriate attorney-client relationship. And if I had any doubt in my mind that that relationship would not endure, I would not be here today.”

Schwartzbach said he met Blake for the first time Feb. 22. He said he had not spoken with any of the previous lawyers.

“This is a very interesting and very challenging case, and I think that many experienced lawyers would look forward to the opportunity to be involved in the case,” Schwartzbach said.

The Bay Area lawyer is best known for winning the 1986 acquittal of Stephen Bingham, a Harvard-educated lawyer accused of smuggling a gun to a San Quentin State Prison inmate in 1971.

The weapon was used in an escape attempt in which six were killed.

Bingham fled the country for 13 years before returning to face trial. He was acquitted on two murder charges in the deaths of two prison guards killed in the uprising and of conspiring with inmate George Jackson, a Black Panther and leader of a black prison rights movement, to smuggle in the weapon.

Last year, another of Schwartzbach’s clients, Glen “Buddy” Nickerson, walked out of San Quentin after serving 18 years of a life sentence without parole for a double killing that he did not commit.

While representing another defendant in the same case, Schwartzbach and his co-counsel, Edward M. Sousa, found that Nickerson had been wrongly convicted, and over the next seven years dedicated themselves to his release.

“He knew that a man was in prison for something that he did not do, and he was going to see that injustice was corrected,” Sousa said. “Mr. Blake is very lucky to get someone of Gerry’s caliber on the case.”

Bingham, now a staff lawyer for Bay Area Legal Aid, described Schwartzbach as “a lawyer’s lawyer” and said he has experience with difficult clients.

Being a lawyer, “I was, by definition, a difficult client,” Bingham said. Bingham said he also “spoke a good deal to the media.”

Contra Costa County Public Defender David C. Coleman III was surprised that Schwartzbach was now representing the actor.

“He usually takes cases where there is a social-justice angle,” he said. “As a Northern Californian, I am completely unaware of what social-justice angle there is with Mr. Blake.”