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CNN Saturday Morning News
Celebrity Crime Analysis With Jane Velez-Mitchell
Aired January 18, 2003 - 09:18 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Another one of Robert Blake's lawyers calls it quits, saying Blake has gone against the counsel's advice not give TV interviews. In a videotaped deposition released yesterday, Blake spoke out against accusations that he murdered his wife, Bonnie Bakly, and said he's tired of not being able to talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Blake, I'm asking you not to talk about the case.
ROBERT BLAKE, ACTOR: I'm not talking about the case. I'm talking about my marriage to Sandra, long before the case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has been terrible publicity about you, it's been unfair.
BLAKE: Let me just talk for a minute. Geraldo Rivera did a whole show about a custody battle that didn't exist. There were lies that went on all over the place. The "TV Guide," look, when he was doing "Helltown," this is a girl that he raped when he was doing -- and I was quiet. I did what I was supposed to do. I didn't talk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: A preliminary hearing for Robert Blake is set for February 26.
Singer Bobby Brown will be spending the next week in jail. A judge in Georgia yesterday sentenced him to eight days in jail after Brown pleaded guilty to a 1996 drunken driving charge. Brown also has been ordered not to drive for a year.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Bobby Brown in jail, is that news? I don't know if that rises to the level of news.
Yes, let's check in with our celebrity watcher, Jane Velez- Mitchell. She is a correspondent for "Celebrity Justice," joining us from L.A. to talk about Sea Labs in trouble. We could go on for days, of course.
But let's start with Bobby. What is there to say about Bobby any more?
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, CORRESPONDENT, "CELEBRITY JUSTICE": Well, you know, when we first started this show, a hot of people said we wouldn't be able to fill it. And with the shenanigans going on today, we have to pick and choose. There's Bobby Brown, there's Whitney Houston, there's obviously the Winona case, there's the Blake case, and, of course, there is Diana Ross, the diva now caught on tape. And that's the one everybody's talking about this morning.
O'BRIEN: Well, let's talk about that tape. Unfortunately, we don't hear anything, so it really doesn't tell us very much. What are your thoughts about it?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, it's not very incriminating on the face of it, is it? And that could be a combination of good lawyering and good luck. Diana Ross's lawyer convinced the judge that there was no need to release the audio portion, so that was deleted, citing confidentiality that she released personal information. Now, the police report says she slurred her words. So we do not hear that.
Now, as far as the video, a detective who was putting this together last night in the Tucson Police Department told me that the first squad car that arrived, that spotted her and stopped her and conducted the field sobriety test, during which time she reportedly falls over and says, Ha, ha, ha, did not have a camera, that by the time the second car with the camera showed up, the one that you're looking at now, that part of the test was already over.
So that is a piece of good luck, at least that's what they are telling us now, unless some bombshell or more videotape comes out at the trial. So it's kind of good news for Diana Ross, considering.
O'BRIEN: You got to give her lawyer credit, though. Eventually that audio's going to come out, don't you think?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I would think in the trial, at least some portion of it, to establish what her state was at the time. But they -- the police are saying she had a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit.
And, of course, the reason why this is embarrassing for Miss Ross is that she likes to be called Miss Ross, she is the queen of all divas, the self-proclaimed diva. So it's not like she's an actor from the movie "Jackass." I mean, she's a woman who has set herself up as a regal persona. So it is a bit of a fall to see all of this play out.
O'BRIEN: All right. Robert Blake, quickly, that deposition goes through attorneys like we go through Kleenex. Where is his head at, do you think?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, a lot of people just were shaking their heads when they saw that deposition. I spoke to an author by the name of Dennis McDougal, who wrote a book on the Blake murder case, and he actually said it's classic Blake, that he had a history as an actor of being very difficult to work with, doing rants and raves even on late- night television talk shows in the '70s and the '80s, and also being very self-destructive and having a victim mentality.
So when he is ranting and raving on this deposition about being kept in a cage, and how he is suffering, and he doesn't think he's going to make it, he really felt that that was classic.
The Bakley family, on the other hand, feels that this is a crazy- like-a-fox behavior, that Robert Blake is essentially trying to scare off his attorneys, because every time they bring in a new attorney, that postpones the case. There are a couple of key witnesses who are ill, and the Bakley family thinks he may be trying to just postpone this case till they're not around anymore.
O'BRIEN: Wow. Interesting method acting, if that's true. All right, thank you very much, Jane Velez-Mitchell. She is a correspondent for "Celebrity Justice," an action-packed and rather full program these days. Thanks for being with us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thanks for having me.
COLLINS: And they thought they wouldn't be able to fill the time.
O'BRIEN: You know, it's amazing how the celebrities will provide you with material.
COLLINS: Every time. All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 18, 2003 - 09:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Another one of Robert Blake's lawyers calls it quits, saying Blake has gone against the counsel's advice not give TV interviews. In a videotaped deposition released yesterday, Blake spoke out against accusations that he murdered his wife, Bonnie Bakly, and said he's tired of not being able to talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Blake, I'm asking you not to talk about the case.
ROBERT BLAKE, ACTOR: I'm not talking about the case. I'm talking about my marriage to Sandra, long before the case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has been terrible publicity about you, it's been unfair.
BLAKE: Let me just talk for a minute. Geraldo Rivera did a whole show about a custody battle that didn't exist. There were lies that went on all over the place. The "TV Guide," look, when he was doing "Helltown," this is a girl that he raped when he was doing -- and I was quiet. I did what I was supposed to do. I didn't talk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: A preliminary hearing for Robert Blake is set for February 26.
Singer Bobby Brown will be spending the next week in jail. A judge in Georgia yesterday sentenced him to eight days in jail after Brown pleaded guilty to a 1996 drunken driving charge. Brown also has been ordered not to drive for a year.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Bobby Brown in jail, is that news? I don't know if that rises to the level of news.
Yes, let's check in with our celebrity watcher, Jane Velez- Mitchell. She is a correspondent for "Celebrity Justice," joining us from L.A. to talk about Sea Labs in trouble. We could go on for days, of course.
But let's start with Bobby. What is there to say about Bobby any more?
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, CORRESPONDENT, "CELEBRITY JUSTICE": Well, you know, when we first started this show, a hot of people said we wouldn't be able to fill it. And with the shenanigans going on today, we have to pick and choose. There's Bobby Brown, there's Whitney Houston, there's obviously the Winona case, there's the Blake case, and, of course, there is Diana Ross, the diva now caught on tape. And that's the one everybody's talking about this morning.
O'BRIEN: Well, let's talk about that tape. Unfortunately, we don't hear anything, so it really doesn't tell us very much. What are your thoughts about it?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, it's not very incriminating on the face of it, is it? And that could be a combination of good lawyering and good luck. Diana Ross's lawyer convinced the judge that there was no need to release the audio portion, so that was deleted, citing confidentiality that she released personal information. Now, the police report says she slurred her words. So we do not hear that.
Now, as far as the video, a detective who was putting this together last night in the Tucson Police Department told me that the first squad car that arrived, that spotted her and stopped her and conducted the field sobriety test, during which time she reportedly falls over and says, Ha, ha, ha, did not have a camera, that by the time the second car with the camera showed up, the one that you're looking at now, that part of the test was already over.
So that is a piece of good luck, at least that's what they are telling us now, unless some bombshell or more videotape comes out at the trial. So it's kind of good news for Diana Ross, considering.
O'BRIEN: You got to give her lawyer credit, though. Eventually that audio's going to come out, don't you think?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I would think in the trial, at least some portion of it, to establish what her state was at the time. But they -- the police are saying she had a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit.
And, of course, the reason why this is embarrassing for Miss Ross is that she likes to be called Miss Ross, she is the queen of all divas, the self-proclaimed diva. So it's not like she's an actor from the movie "Jackass." I mean, she's a woman who has set herself up as a regal persona. So it is a bit of a fall to see all of this play out.
O'BRIEN: All right. Robert Blake, quickly, that deposition goes through attorneys like we go through Kleenex. Where is his head at, do you think?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, a lot of people just were shaking their heads when they saw that deposition. I spoke to an author by the name of Dennis McDougal, who wrote a book on the Blake murder case, and he actually said it's classic Blake, that he had a history as an actor of being very difficult to work with, doing rants and raves even on late- night television talk shows in the '70s and the '80s, and also being very self-destructive and having a victim mentality.
So when he is ranting and raving on this deposition about being kept in a cage, and how he is suffering, and he doesn't think he's going to make it, he really felt that that was classic.
The Bakley family, on the other hand, feels that this is a crazy- like-a-fox behavior, that Robert Blake is essentially trying to scare off his attorneys, because every time they bring in a new attorney, that postpones the case. There are a couple of key witnesses who are ill, and the Bakley family thinks he may be trying to just postpone this case till they're not around anymore.
O'BRIEN: Wow. Interesting method acting, if that's true. All right, thank you very much, Jane Velez-Mitchell. She is a correspondent for "Celebrity Justice," an action-packed and rather full program these days. Thanks for being with us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thanks for having me.
COLLINS: And they thought they wouldn't be able to fill the time.
O'BRIEN: You know, it's amazing how the celebrities will provide you with material.
COLLINS: Every time. All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
