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CNN Live Today
Documents Point to Possible Police Deception in Blake Case
Aired June 12, 2002 - 10:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: An exclusive for CNN, this one on a Hollywood murder mystery involving Robert Blake and a new chapter that's now being written. The central character is a book author whose role in the murder investigation is fueling allegations of police deception, and it could taint the prosecution's case.
Our Charles Feldman broke the story and has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Documents obtained by CNN appear to show the lead detective in the Robert Blake homicide case engaging in deceptive behavior while interviewing potential witnesses in the case, trying to pass off a book author writing about the case as a fellow police officer. According to the transcript of that police interview, Detective Ron Ito begins by saying, "Hi, I'm Detective Ito. These are my partners here."
It is only after one of the people being interviewed presses for the ID of the three men present that Detective Ito admits the third man is not a cop at all. "OK, he is actually a writer, and he's on our case with us." The person being interviewed says he thinks -- quote -- "It's rather odd, isn't it?"
Robert Blake's lawyer tells CNN the writer is Miles Corwin, an author of at least one book about the LAPD. A crime scene investigation note also obtained by CNN actually lists Corwin as part of the LAPD search team from the very beginning of the Blake investigation. Blake's attorney, Harland Braun, says the apparently deceptive practice goes towards impeaching the reliability of the entire investigation.
(on camera): I asked Detective Ito for an explanation of all of this, but he refused to answer any of my questions. His superiors at the LAPD have not returned phone calls, nor has the author.
(voice-over): Former LAPD detective, Tom Lange, a key investigator in the O.J. Simpson case, says in his over 300 homicide investigations he has never seen or heard anything like this. Next week, Blake's lawyer will again argue in favor of bail for the actor. He will also claim he needs half a year just to go over the material prosecutors have handed over as part of discovery.
(on camera): Harland, what are we looking at here? HARLAND BRAUN, ROBERT BLAKE'S ATTORNEY: Well these are 35,000 pages of discovery that we've obtained from the D.A.'s office. It goes from down there all the way over to here.
FELDMAN (on camera): And this cabinet here...
BRAUN: Which would be the 68th volume.
FELDMAN: Sixty-eight volumes and how many pages of material?
BRAUN: 35,192 pages so far.
FELDMAN: Right.
BRAUN: And of course the investigation is still continuing, because they arrested him before they completed their investigation. They're still out there looking for evidence.
FELDMAN: Now, the average homicide case would be how many volumes?
BRAUN: The average homicide case would probably be four volumes. Maybe 2,000 pages. A very simple homicide case may be, you know, one volume.
FELDMAN (voice-over): Blake's attorney says he has yet to see any physical evidence linking Blake to the murder of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. That it is all circumstantial.
LAURIE LEVENSON, PROFESSOR, SCHOOL OF LAW LOYOLA UNIVERSITY: It's really hard on prosecutors, because jurors are a little more suspicious of circumstantial evidence cases. They're looking for the hard physical evidence. And if you don't have that, the jurors have to rely on the credibility of the witnesses who come forward.
FELDMAN: Witnesses like the lead detective in this case. The one who apparently tried to hide the fact that his so-called partner is really a book author.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FELDMAN: Now, legal experts that I have talked say that the discovery that the police apparently engaged in some deceptive practices during their investigation is not at all likely to toss out this case, or prevent any evidence from being submitted at a future trial of Robert Blake.
However, the credibility of the lead detective is very much in question. And this is a department, the LAPD, that has suffered many credibility issues in the past few years. Credibility issues involving the O.J. Simpson case, and more recently, credibility issues involving the corruption case that led to the wrongful convictions of over 100 people.
KAGAN: And so, Charles, it sounds like the LAPD didn't really feel like chatting with you on this topic, but what about Harland Braun, Blake's attorney? Did he say at what point in the justice cycle he might bring it up?
FELDMAN: Well, I think it will come up. As I said, in the event there is a trial at some point in the future, that's barring that there isn't some sort of a plea agreement in the next few months. If there is a trial, when the lead detective takes the stand, as he must in this case, there are several different tactics that the defense can use: questioning his credibility, questioning how the investigation was conducted and also, raising the issue that with a book author present for some key interviews, perhaps some of the people being questioned may have embellished their stories, tried to make them sexier, because they knew that there was a book author there, if in fact they ever did know that.
KAGAN: And just quickly, I couldn't help but notice the name of the lead detective here, Ito. Of course, a famous name in Los Angeles legal circles. Any relation it Judge Ito, who ruled over the O.J. Simpson case?
FELDMAN: Good question, and the answer is no. And probably, Judge Ito is glad of that this morning.
KAGAN: Absolutely. We haven't heard much of him since that case was finished. Charles Feldman in Los Angeles. Thank you very much.
FELDMAN: You're welcome.
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