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Robert Blake appeals $30 million civil verdict |
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Written by asap
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Thursday, 01 March 2007 |
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Robert Blake’s attorney thinks a jury was out to get “celebrities and rich people” when it handed down a $30 million wrongful death verdict against the actor.
That’s why he’s appealing the ruling.
The award to the family of Bonny Lee Bakley was the result of prejudice and jury misconduct and should be reversed, attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach wrote in the 55-page appeal.
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THE MURDER
Bakley was shot to death as she sat in Blake’s car outside a restaurant where the two had just dined in May 2001. Blake told police he had left her alone briefly while he retrieved a gun that he carried for protection and had accidentally left behind in the restaurant.
The actor was acquitted of his wife’s shooting death at his criminal trial in 2005 but found liable in the civil trial a few months later.
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THE WRONGFUL DEATH SUIT
“In a case featuring no forensic evidence or confession linking appellant Robert Blake to the murder of decedent Bonny Lee Bakley, nor any testimony by an eyewitness to the killing, a jury found him liable for her death and imposed a gargantuan award of $30 million for compensatory damages,” the appeal says.
Schwartzbach argues in the filing that the jurors’ intent was to punish Blake, something they were prohibited from doing in a case which did not address punitive damages.
The appeal said: “Jurors discussed setting the damage figure high enough to ’send a message’ that celebrities and rich people cannot get away with murder ... (and) the fact that O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson had escaped punishment.” Jackson was acquitted of child molestation charges in June 2005. | Only registered users can write comments.
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