Blake Says That Workers Could Confirm Alibi

Actor Robert Blake testified Monday that undocumented workers at Vitello’s restaurant could confirm his alibi the night of his wife’s slaying.

Blake, 72, has long said he was in the Studio City restaurant retrieving a gun when Bonny Lee Bakley was shot to death in the couple’s car, parked in the street nearby. But one of the restaurant’s owners testified at Blake’s criminal trial, which ended in acquittal earlier this year, that he didn’t remember seeing the actor.

Testifying Monday in a civil action brought by Bakley’s family, Blake said waiters or busboys he described as undocumented had witnessed his return to the restaurant on May 4, 2001. Upon retrieving his weapon, a .38-caliber handgun, Blake said he told the men: “I’m cool. I found it.”

Sources from the Los Angeles Police Department, who asked not to be identified, said that Blake had never before mentioned such witnesses.

“We never found anybody who said that,” said an investigator familiar with the case. Citing the ongoing litigation, he requested anonymity. “Unless Blake is going to produce those witnesses, it didn’t happen as far as we know.”

Eric J. Dubin, the lawyer for the Bakley family, derided Blake’s testimony.

“It’s a new jury, so I guess we have a new alibi,” Dubin said outside of court. “I would call it a desperate attempt to create an alibi that had never been there for four years and never will be there.”

Peter Q. Ezzell, Blake’s attorney, contended that the testimony was nothing new.

“He told the LAPD on May 4, 2001, that there were people at the cash register,” Ezzell said in a telephone interview after the court session. “The police could not find the employees because they were undocumented and feared the police.”

Bakley’s four children have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the actor, alleging that he should compensate them for the loss of their mother. They are hoping for a repeat of the O.J. Simpson case, in which the former NFL star was held liable for two deaths despite being cleared of criminal charges.

For the children to receive financial damages from Blake, star of the 1970s “Baretta” TV series, the civil jury must find that he more likely than not caused Bakley’s death.

Blake has been on the witness stand for five days over several weeks. Resuming questioning Monday after a weeklong break, Ezzell returned to the cornerstone of the defense strategy: attacking Bakley’s character as a convicted swindler who ran a lonely hearts club scam and suggesting that she had a number of enemies who might have killed her.

Prosecutors alleged during the criminal trial that Blake killed Bakley to protect their daughter, Rosie, now 5, from her wayward mother and the mother’s family.

Blake testified that Bakley, 44, used her pregnancy to coerce the actor into marrying her. He also said he wanted to help out Bakley after her hard-luck life.

Alternately quoting World War II hero Gen. George S. Patton and ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus, Blake said he had loved Bakley but married her largely out of pity.

Discussing the night of the slaying, the actor said he had parked his car on the street near the restaurant -- rather than in the parking lot -- because he wanted to avoid the crowds.

Blake said he noticed nothing out of the ordinary around the restaurant. Earlier, he had testified that he was concerned about strangers near his home about the time of Bakley’s death.

Blake is to testify again today.