No Release on Bail for Robert Blake

By Stephen M. Silverman

05/01/2002 at 04:27 PM EDT

In a dramatic plea before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lloyd Nash on Wednesday, Robert Blake asked to be released from jail, where he is currently being held without bail. The former "Baretta" star, 68, was arrested on April 18 and charged with murder, solicitation of murder, conspiracy and the special circumstance of lying in wait for the May 4, 2001, shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. Judge Nash denied Blake's request but, according to the Associated Press, did not rule out the possibility that Blake could eventually be released on bail, once evidence is presented at a preliminary hearing. (The date of that hearing will be set on May 21, the jurist later said.) "For the past year I've been silent while this town, my country and the police have said whatever they want about me. Now it's my turn to fight back," Blake said in court, according to Reuters. "I have to fight for my life, and I can't do that from inside a concrete cell." He added: "For the past year practically everybody has tried to take (my life) away from me. The news media, who I once respected, the police, who I once respected, and my country, which I once respected." Blake informed Nash that he is severely dyslexic to the point that he cannot read any of the 35,000 pages of legal documents before him, and said that he could never even read his TV scripts for "Baretta." Blake's attorney Harland Braun argued in court that his client should released on $1 million bail, says AP. Prosecutors opposed bail, however, arguing that extensive phone records allegedly show that Blake made dozens of calls to two stuntmen and a private investigator in the days preceding the shooting.