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American Morning
Blake's Lawyer Releases More Tapes
Aired August 13, 2002 - 09:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: News out of Los Angeles. Actor Robert Blake's lawyer has crafted a surprising defense for his client, who is accused of murdering his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. Now, the attorney plans to argue that the Los Angeles Police Department was out to catch a star, and exclusive audiotapes seems to support that claim.
CNN's Charles Feldman has been following the story in Los Angeles -- good morning, Charles. Boy, is this weird -- a weird development in a case that you -- you continue to confound us with because it gets weirder and weirder and weirderer (ph) every day.
CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Paula. No kidding. From the get go, this has been a very strange murder case indeed for Hollywood, or for anywhere else, and it is getting stranger still.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FELDMAN (voice-over): Robert Blake's defense attorney likes to repeat almost like a mantra that there is no forensic evidence linking his client to the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, something LAPD investigators do not deny. In fact, the case against the former "Baretta" television star relies almost exclusively upon the planned testimony of two Hollywood stunt men who claim Blake tried to hire then unsuccessfully to kill his wife. Police charged, Blake then shot and killed his wife himself.
But Harland Braun, Blake's high-powered criminal lawyer, says investigators never seriously pursued other potential suspects, because they knew that arresting a Hollywood star, albeit a fading one was a better career booster. Braun has provided CNN taped evidence he claims backs up his defense theory. Now, for the first time, here it is.
BONNY LEE BAKLEY, VICTIM: Hello...
ROBERT BLAKE, ACCUSED OF MURDERING HIS WIFE, BONNY LEE BAKLEY: Bonny?
BAKLEY: Yeah.
BLAKE: Hi, this is Bobby.
BAKLEY: Yes, I know.
FELDMAN: Exhibit A, a telephone conversation between Bonny Lee Bakley and Robert Blake, secretly recorded by Bakley in which she tells Blake about someone stalking her.
BAKLEY: What happened was this crazy, jealous guy was like stalking me and I didn't know it. He was like, that's why I had to move to Little Rock.
FELDMAN: Bakley made money sending nude photos of herself to men and sometimes also promised sex, a business Blake's lawyer says exposed her to potential harm. But within hours of Bakley's slaying, police had already zeroed in on Robert Blake as the main suspect, searching his home and in an unusual move, taking a book author along as an observer. In fact, the author was also present during police interviews with some key witnesses, although in at least one case the lead detective, Ron Ito initially implies that the writer is a fellow police officer.
DET. RON ITO, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: Hi, I'm Detective Ito. These are my partners here.
FELDMAN: Only after the witness repeatedly asks for identification does Detective Ito admit the partner is really a writer.
WITNESS: Do you have a card, sir?
AUTHOR: I don't have one.
WITNESS: Do you have identification?
AUTHOR: I'm with these two guys.
ITO: He's -- he is actually a writer and he's on our case with us.
FELDMAN: Blake's attorney argues that police tape indicates the lead detective was overly concerned with making money off the Robert Blake case.
UNKNOWN OFFICER: When are you going to arrest him?
ITO: Not before we've made enough overtime money.
UNKNOWN OFFICER: We solve no crime before its time.
ITO: What's the saying? September dollars for December dollars.
FELDMAN: We should point out it is not unusual in homicide investigations for detectives to incur overtime. Another police tape, contends Blake's lawyer, indicates Detective Ito was not happy with the lack of publicity he received for his role in the O.J. Simpson investigation.
ITO: I worked a year on that case.
WITNESS: IS that a fact?
ITO: Yeah, yeah. And I worked a year with Vannatter & Lange. WITNESS: Wow!
ITO: There was only two you saw always on TV was Lange & Vannatter.
FELDMAN: Detective Ito was referring to the two lead detectives who worked the O.J. Simpson case.
HARLAND BRAUN, BLAKE'S ATTORNEY: Robert Blake was a victim of Bonny Bakley. Hundreds of other people were victims of Bonny Bakley. The whole issue in this case is which victim of Bonny Bakley killed her. Was it Robert Blake or someone else? And the police, for their own personal gain and career advancement, focused immediately on Robert Blake.
MARGERRY BAKLEY, BONNY LEE BAKLEY'S SISTER: There's another side to this story, and you are only hearing little bits and pieces. There's hundreds of tapes, hundreds of hours of tapes, and he is only playing 14, 15 seconds of it. So, there is a lot of things behind these tapes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FELDMAN: Now, CNN spoke with detective Ron Ito in preparation for this story, but he refused to comment. Several requests for comment from the official LAPD spokesman went unanswered, and the author who went along for some of the Blake investigation did not return our repeated phone calls -- Paula.
ZAHN: I think Bonny Lee Bakley's sister had an interesting point, though, for us as an audience, trying to establish whatever this means, because we just heard a small portion of these tapes. There are hundreds of hours of these audiotapes. Was there anything else in them that was surprising to you that we should highlight here?
FELDMAN: There haven't been this many tapes probably since the Nixon presidency. Yes, there's probably 100 hours or more of audio recordings that Bonny Bakley made, the police made. We've only heard a small snippet ourselves, and we're being told that there's a lot more surprises down the road. So I have a feeling we are going to be hearing little pieces of these tapes as the months go by, you know.
ZAHN: Well, it would appear as though -- what -- at least what they have selectively shared with us so far that would bolster Mr. Braun's case. What kind of legal analysis are you hearing out there?
FELDMAN: Well, I mean, he's the one, of course, that's been giving these tapes out, and he makes no bones about it. And, of course, he is selectively leaking the ones, I'm sure, that he figures, as you just pointed out, back up his argument that his client isn't the one who killed Bonny Lee Bakley. There are other tapes, of course, that might show the other side, and we are going to have to wait and see whether or not those ever surface.
ZAHN: Charles Feldman. It's fascinating. We will be counting on you to take us on the very strange twists and turns of this case in the days to come. Thank you.
FELDMAN: OK.
ZAHN: Appreciate it.
FELDMAN: You're welcome.
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