Lawyers in Blake Case Argue Over Bail for the Actor

A Superior Court judge delayed a decision Tuesday on whether to set bail for Robert Blake, but ruled that a lawyer the actor is paying may continue to represent his co-defendant.

Blake is charged with murder, two counts of soliciting murder and conspiracy in the fatal shooting of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, near a Studio City restaurant on May 4, 2001. Blake’s bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, is charged with conspiracy in the Bakley slaying. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

During a brief court hearing Tuesday in Van Nuys, Judge Lloyd M. Nash allowed Caldwell, 46, to retain attorney Arna H. Zlotnik.

Nash and prosecutors had voiced concerns about whether a criminal defense attorney can accept money from one defendant to represent another in the same case without feeling some loyalty to whomever is paying the bills.

Nash appointed criminal defense attorney Steve Sitkoff last month to discuss potential conflicts of interest with Caldwell, who faces life in prison if convicted.

Caldwell, who was released from custody in April after Blake posted $1-million bail, told the judge Tuesday that he wanted to keep Zlotnik as his lawyer.

Also Tuesday, Blake’s attorney, Harland W. Braun, filed a motion claiming that the lead Los Angeles police detective investigating the Bakley case was seeking fame. Braun contends that Det. Ronald Y. Ito was disappointed by not getting enough media attention during the O.J. Simpson murder case and is trying to make up for it with the Blake case.

Deputy Dist. Attys. Patrick R. Dixon and Gregory A. Dohi defended Ito in court documents.

“Det. Ito is not cooperating in the production of any movie, nor does he have a book deal,” the prosecutors wrote.

Braun also challenged whether enough evidence exists to support charging Blake with capital murder. Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty.

Braun has asked Nash to declare unconstitutional the lying-in-wait special circumstance allegation against the 68-year-old actor, which would make him eligible for bail. Blake has been held without bail at Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles since his April 18 arrest at his Hidden Hills home.

Prosecutors rebutted Braun’s statements, saying he downplayed the most compelling evidence against his client. It includes a prepaid phone card that prosecutors say was used to conceal calls Blake made from his home to ex-stuntmen from his 1970s television series “Baretta” whom he allegedly asked to kill Bakley.

Of the 126 calls made on the phone card, prosecutors say, 56 were made to one of the stuntmen, two to the other man and 64 were to a private investigator that Blake hired to investigate Bakley before he married her. Authorities say Blake despised Bakley, whom he married six months before her death after a paternity test proved that he fathered her child.

Nash set a June 27 hearing on the bail motion.