No Trial, More Tribulation for Robert Blake

Robert Blake won't be getting another day in court.

A Los Angeles judge on Monday shot down Blake's request for a retrial in the civil lawsuit brought against him by the family of his late wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.

The ruling by Superior Court Judge David Schacter lets stand the original $30 million verdict against Blake.

Despite being found not guilty last year of his wife's 2001 murder, the civil jury ruled 10-2 in November that the former Baretta star had "intentionally caused" Bakley's death and ordered him to pay the multimillion-dollar judgment.

"I'm frankly shocked by the ruling given the record before the court of egregious misconduct," M. Gerald Schwartzbach, one of Blake's attorneys, said, adding that they planned to appeal Schacter's decision.

Last Friday, Blake's legal crew appeared in court to formally ask the judge to reconsider the case, citing questionable juror behavior--the notion of which was deemed baseless by Bakley's family.

"We had a three-month trial. The jury took two weeks in deciding that Robert Blake killed his wife," Eric Dubin, the Bakley family's attorney, told reporters. "The fact that Robert Blake wants a do-over does not mean he's entitled to one. He's no different than anybody else. He had his day in court, and he lost."

Blake has maintained throughout his criminal and civil trials that he is broke, with most of his earnings having been sucked up by legal fees. The Emmy winner offered Bakley's children a $250,000 settlement when they filed the wrongful death suit in 2002. Blake told a reporter last month that he has been spending time as a "stable boy" at his friend's Malibu ranch and is living in a small apartment, making ends meet with Social Security checks and his SAG pension.

Blake's motion to obtain a new trial came about a week after another judge turned down the actor's bankruptcy filing, in which he claimed he owed $1.6 million in taxes and other sums to creditors and that his total assets amounted to less than $500,000. The bankruptcy proceedings had prevented him from being forced to shell out any money since the civil judgment.

In a retrial motion filed Mar. 28, Blake's camp alleged jury misconduct in the "tainted" decision that led to the large payday for Bakley's kids. Attorneys M. Gerald Schwartzbach and Peter Ezzell noted potential violations such as a female juror who failed to disclose that her daughter was in prison for the killing of a teenage classmate, a group of jurors who argued that there were biblical reasons to rule against Blake and another juror who admitted discussing testimony during the trial.

Schwartzbach also said that his client's public image had been tarnished by the "absurd" verdict and that the jury had been more inclined to rule against Blake because of a string of celebrity acquittals, including Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson's.

"We want a new trial," Schwartzbach said in court Friday. "It's not about money. He has no money. It's about the integrity of the system." The attorney presented three affidavits implying misconduct, two from the jurors who had opposed the verdict and one who said he was coerced into finding Blake liable.

In documents filed opposing the motion for a new trial, Dubin offered a statement from juror Olivia Valdivia, one of the two dissenters, denying that the outcome was tainted. "Although I did not vote with the majority, I do believe it was both a fair trial and a fair verdict," she said. "The cigarette breaks and conversations I had with fellow jurors were brief and harmless," Valdivia said in response to the allegation that they wrongfully discussed the trial before deliberations officially began.

Juror Eloy Mendoza issued a statement addressing the claim of biblical influence on the jury: "My belief in the Bible did not prejudice either side in this case or prevent me from being a fair juror or the fairness of our verdict".

However, Schwartzbach countered in a brief filed Thursday, the jurors' declarations were "rife with inadmissible statements of opinion and hearsay, are not relevant to the law and lacked evidentiary value." The attorney also quoted Valdivia as saying that several jurors, including the foreman, "said during deliberations that the amount of damages awarded should send a message to the world that celebrities cannot get away with murder."

Judge Schachter, who also presided over the civil trial, had ordered the jury to consider only compensatory damages and not punitive damages for grief or sorrow on the family's behalf. Bakley was shot to death in May 2001 while waiting for Blake in their car outside of an Italian restaurant.