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American Morning

Braun Admits Blake's Relationship with Stuntmen

Aired April 25, 2002 - 07:41   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Two Hollywood stuntmen who worked with Robert Blake on the series, "Baretta," could get featured roles as key prosecution witnesses in the Robert Blake murder case. But it was Harland Braun, Blake's attorney, who actually revealed to reporters yesterday that those two stuntmen indeed had told prosecutors that Blake tried to hire them to kill his wife. Braun added that the star did know the two stuntmen casually, but denies he tried to hire them at hit men.

Blake, as you know, was arrested last week and charged with fatally shooting his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, last May. Joining us now to talk about the legal strategy in this case, CNN legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin -- good to see you.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, Paula.

ZAHN: All right. What is going on?

TOOBIN: So we have got some craziness ramping up early here. OK.

ZAHN: You've got that nasty old "Enquirer" in the middle of it.

TOOBIN: OK. We've got Matt Drudge. Matt Drudge reported yesterday that the "National Enquirer" is doing a big story on these alleged hit men at the end of the week. He says that.

ZAHN: OK.

TOOBIN: So what does Braun do yesterday? Braun tries to beat the "Enquirer." He goes public himself and says, yes, these stuntmen did come forward. But wait a second. If they really got an offer to kill Bonny Bakley from Robert Blake, why didn't they go to the police? You know, which is a legitimate question I think.

So what Braun is doing is he is getting a jump on the news cycle by releasing their names, even though that information is at one level very damaging to his client.

ZAHN: So the strategy is very clear here.

TOOBIN: Right.

ZAHN: He's got to discredit and dishonor the victim, and discredit these stuntmen who he said only had a very casual relationship with Robert Blake.

TOOBIN: And you wonder why lawyers are so popular, right? No, he is doing what...

ZAHN: Right on up there with the dog catcher, Jeffrey.

TOOBIN: Absolutely. He is trying -- you know, he's got a lot of problems in this case. The victim -- you know, any victim is sympathetic at some level, and these witnesses, if their testimony is believed, if Blake really did try to hire them as hit men, it's incredibly devastating evidence against his client.

ZAHN: Let's put up on the screen the level of detail Harland Braun went into in an on-camera interview. He basically said, in talking about these two stuntmen, "A lot of this is just people he'd hang around with, he'd tell them about how this woman is ruining his life and what a difficult situation it is." And he said, "Some of these guys would make comments to him like, 'Why don't you kill the B,' or something like that."

TOOBIN: He is really trying to sell the story. I mean, he is trying to turn this into, you know, a Hollywood drama with lots of players and lots of complications. And the thing about defense attorneys always is they want to make a story as complicated as possible. A prosecutor, like I used to be, we like simple, boring cases that juries could take -- understand very simply. Braun is trying to make this into a drama with lots of key players and complicated stories, which will make it, presumably, or he hopes, more confusing to a juror.

ZAHN: OK. So where is the gray area here? The gray areas is you've got these two stuntmen who he is going to say were probably just waiting for a nice, big check from the "National Enquirer" to make up some story.

TOOBIN: And that's...

ZAHN: This is all a fantasy?

TOOBIN: And that's the thing that really makes these cases so complicated, because the "National Enquirer" has a practice, it's a legal practice, of paying people that they interview. If you are a witness in a trial and you have been paid by a tabloid, it really limits your usefulness as a witness. It happened several times through the O.J. Simpson case.

ZAHN: Ah, but the way they might get around this is, in fact, it was the son that granted apparently -- well, we don't know, because we haven't seen the story yet. The son that granted the interview about his father being hired by Robert Blake.

TOOBIN: Exactly. So the defense could claim that they were just laundering the money to the witness by giving it to the son, and yet another level of intrigue could be reached. But this issue of -- the nickname is cash for trash -- that these tabloids paying witnesses in prominent cases. Remember the Michael Jackson child abuse investigation?

ZAHN: Sure.

TOOBIN: It was completely crippled, destroyed, because so many witnesses had taken money either from tabloid TV shows or tabloids. So you know, it sounds crazy, but these payments really do have a big impact on these cases.

ZAHN: We know that the prosecutors Los Angeles have been beaten up unmercifully, particularly in the wake of the O.J. Simpson trial.

TOOBIN: Right.

ZAHN: So if you are a prosecutor on this team this morning, what are you doing?

TOOBIN: I think you are keeping your head down in doing your job. You've got to trust that the evidence in court matters most. And I think to the extent we all talk about the strategy and it does matter, if you've got good evidence, if you can tie Robert Blake to the murder weapon, which is one claim in the case, if you can show that he asked people to kill Bonny Bakley, you know, you don't worry about the spin, you don't worry about the...

ZAHN: And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the defense attorney has actually got on the record to say that Robert Blake had a motive to kill her.

TOOBIN: That can help, but I mean, Braun is not crazy. The reason he is doing that is to try to raise the flag of suspicion on other suspects to say that this woman was so terrible and she led such a dissolute life, that other people wanted to kill her. I mean, he is doing what he can.

You know, defense attorneys, they play the hands that are dealt them. But in terms of prosecutors, I think you've just got to put your head down, try the case in court and trust that the facts matter.

ZAHN: All right. Jeffrey Toobin, thanks for your insights.

TOOBIN: All right.

ZAHN: He gives it to us from both sides there.

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