ENTERTAINMENT
June 22, 2009 | Harriet Ryan
Since the explosion of gossip blogs and the resurgence of celebrity magazines, L.A.'s courthouses have grown used to accommodating throngs of paparazzi, videographers, camera crews and reporters who trail the famous to their dates with infamy. But the crowd expected at this afternoon's preliminary hearing for R&B singer Chris Brown will be on a different order.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 26, 2008 | Victoria Kim
An appeals court Friday upheld a civil judgment holding actor Robert Blake responsible for his wife's death, but cut in half the $30 million he was ordered to pay her family. The 2nd District appellate court ruled Friday that Blake's attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach failed to show there had been a trial error in the wrongful-death suit. Schwartzbach had argued before the court in January that his client had not received a fair trial, citing juror misconduct and insufficient instruction given to the jury.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 16, 2008 | John Spano, Times Staff Writer
Robert Blake, the actor acquitted of his wife's murder, should not have to pay her survivors a $30-million civil court award because he did not get a fair trial, his lawyers told appellate judges Tuesday. "All we asked for was a fair trial, and it wasn't," M. Gerald Schwartzbach argued to the state 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles. "Celebrities have the same rights as anybody else. . . . Mr. Blake was denied that." Attorney Eric J.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
May 18, 2007 | Joe Mozingo, Times Staff Writer
High-profile Los Angeles trial attorneys told law students Thursday that lofty notions of jurisprudence, such as the presumption of innocence or burden of proof, are all well and good. But in defending clients, it's best to focus on how jurors actually think, they told a conference on celebrity justice at Loyola Law School.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 1, 2007 | From the Associated Press
Jurors in Robert Blake's civil trial discussed the cases of O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson, ignored the lack of evidence that Blake killed his wife and decided to "send a message that celebrities and rich people cannot get away with murder," the actor's attorney said in an appeal filed Wednesday. Blake's lawyer argued that the award of $30 million to the family of Bonny Lee Bakley in the wrongful-death case was the result of prejudice and jury misconduct and should be reversed.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 11, 2006 | From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Robert Blake won't be getting a new trial in the wrongful death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David M. Schacter on Monday denied the actor's motion to throw out the $30-million jury verdict. Blake, who was acquitted of Bakley's 2001 murder in criminal court, had accused jurors in the civil trial of misconduct. Attorney Eric J. Dubin, who represents Bakley's family, said the ruling "was absolutely fair."