Blake puts up a million to free his bodyguard

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, April 27, 2002

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Robert Blake doesn’t have the option to post bail to get himself out from behind bars, but he paid $1 million to free his jailed bodyguard.

Blake posted bail for Earle Caldwell, who has been charged with conspiring to help the "Baretta" star murder his wife. Caldwell, 46, was released Friday from the downtown county jail.

Blake, who was being held without bail, will seek to have bail set at a court hearing next week.

Blake paid cash to free Caldwell, the actor’s lawyer said. Blake also is paying for the man’s legal defense.

"He’s an employee and a friend, and Robert felt responsible for him," attorney Harland Braun said.

Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson suggested that Blake’s action will raise eyebrows in the legal community.

"It can begin to look like hush money," she said.

Caldwell has pleaded innocent to a count of conspiracy to murder Blake’s wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, who was shot to death on May 4, 2001, in a car outside a restaurant.

Blake, 68, is charged with murder, conspiracy and solicitation to murder.

Prosecutors contend that Caldwell provided the actor with a handgun two months before the killing. A criminal complaint filed earlier this week alleges that Blake showed the gun to two people he solicited to kill his wife.

Prosecutors also alleged that in early 2001, Caldwell, at Blake’s request, wrote and kept a list of items for use in the murder.

Among "overt acts" listed in the criminal complaint was a trip by Blake, his wife and Caldwell to rural Three Rivers, Calif., and Parker, Ariz., in April 2001.

On that trip, the complaint said, "Caldwell, armed with a handgun, hid in bushes on the banks of a river and jumped out while defendant Blake and Bonny Lee Bakley were together." The document did not elaborate.

Caldwell was not immediately available for comment. In another development, a retired Los Angeles police officer who works as a private investigator said a report about comments Blake allegedly made to him were incorrect.

A source who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press earlier this week that Bill Welch would testify that Blake said his life would be better if his wife was dead. The source stood by the account despite Welch’s denial.

Welch said he will be a witness for the prosecution in the case against Blake but he declined to say what his testimony would be.

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