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American Morning

Startling New Documents Released in Blake Investigation

Aired June 12, 2002 - 09:10   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: There has been a new development, some might call it a stunning development, in the Robert Blake investigation; one which the defense claims could be a big help to its side. Blake, as you know, is waiting to be tried for the murder of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.

Charles Feldman is standing by. He is following this story, and he joins us now live from Los Angeles -- good morning, Charles. What do you have?

CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Paula.

What we have is this: we have obtained documents that Robert Blake's attorney says raised some very serious questions about the reliability of the LAPD investigation that led to the arrest of the former "Baretta" star.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FELDMAN (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, Paula, legal experts that I have talked with say that all of these developments are not likely to prevent any evidence from actually being introduced at the trial, if and when that comes many months down the road. But it could prove extremely embarrassing, especially to the lead detective in this case, when he takes the witness stand -- Paula. ZAHN: So based on what lawyers are telling you, there isn't enough here to get this case thrown out just based on this guy identifying himself as a cop when, in fact, he wasn't?

FELDMAN: Probably not. But, again, it goes to this whole issue of credibility. The Los Angeles Police Department had credibility issues, you may recall, in the O.J. Simpson case. It has had the credibility issues most recently in a corruption case involving the Rampart division with its anti-gang unit. So this is not very good news for the Los Angeles Department. And at a trial, credibility is everything.

ZAHN: So, Charles, I mean, here's what I want you to explain to us this morning. Why would an LAPD officer, when the department has been under fire for so many years, put himself in such a compromising position? It makes no sense to me at all.

FELDMAN: Well, if it doesn't make sense to a lot of the people that I talked to. One person I talked said -- and this is a direct quote -- "Just when you think the LAPD does something dumb, it does something dumber."

ZAHN: So Harland Braun licking his chops this morning?

FELDMAN: I think so. I think he's going to have a field day with this.

ZAHN: All right. Charles Feldman, it's fascinating. Thanks for getting your hands on those documents -- appreciate it. Have a good day.

FELDMAN: You're welcome. You too.

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