Jurors already taking sides in Robert Blake case
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wrongful death case against Robert Blake was marked Tuesday by a verbal
attack on the lawyer who filed the lawsuit.
Other panelists expressed strong disapproval of the actor's acquittal
on charges of murdering his wife.
None of the 70 people summoned for possible participation in the civil
trial had been eliminated by lawyers by midway through the second day
of jury selection.
Blake, who earlier this year was found not guilty of murdering Bonny
Lee Bakley in 2001, is now the target of a civil lawsuit filed by
attorney Eric Dubin on behalf of her two adult and two minor children.
An unusually acrimonious tone set during the first day of questioning
persisted Tuesday.
"I have a rather highly tuned ... detector and it's been going off big
time since you started" the questioning, one prospective juror said.
"If I were sitting next to you, I would not want you to be representing
me."
Dubin appeared taken aback.
"Wow," he said. "Do you think your dislike for me could affect the
children I represent?"
The man said it would not, but Dubin followed up: "Have you ever hated
a lawyer as much as me?"
"No," the man said.
The man went on to assert that the lawsuit was "a second swing at Mr.
Blake" and to suggest that Blake was not being given a chance to
confront his accusers because Bakley's children were not present.
However, four other prospective jurors criticized Blake's acquittal in
his criminal trial.
One was a recently retired deputy who was the public information
officer for the Sheriff's Department in Blake's criminal case. He said
he was in charge of setting up Blake's interview with Barbara Walters
and frequently made public statements on behalf of Sheriff Lee Baca.
He said he was convinced that the prosecution met its burden of proof
in the criminal case and "character assassination of the deceased has
very little to do with this."
The judge has said that Blake's lawyers may present evidence about the
past of Bakley, who ran a mail-order scheme in which she sold nude
pictures of herself to men and promised them sex in return for money.
"Do you think you should be on this jury?" Dubin asked.
"I really don't know," said the man, who later asserted he could be
fair and put aside what he knew of the case.
Bakley, 44, was shot as she sat in Blake's car outside a restaurant
where they had dined. Blake has asserted that he re-entered the
restaurant briefly and found his wife shot when he returned to the car.