Calif. Lawyer Vows to 'Wipe Smile Off' Blake's Face

Calif. Lawyer Vows to 'Wipe Smile Off' Blake's Face

Thu Mar 17, 3:34 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A day after actor Robert Blake celebrated his acquittal on charges of murdering his wife, a lawyer for the victim's family said on Thursday he would "wipe that smile off his face" in a civil case.

Blake, 71, held a jubilant news conference after being found not guilty on Wednesday in the May 2001 shooting death of his estranged wife of six months, Bonny Lee Bakley.

The star of the 1970s television detective show "Baretta" was also acquitted of soliciting a former stuntman to murder Bakley, and the jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of finding him not guilty of asking a second stuntman to kill her.

But the verdicts did not end Blake's legal saga. He is also the subject of a wrongful death civil lawsuit brought by Bakley's family, which was held over until the conclusion of the three-month criminal trial.

"I'm going to wipe that smile off his face," Eric Dubin, the lawyer for Bakley's family, told CNN on Thursday.

More:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&ncid=638&e=3&u=/nm/20050317/en_nm/crime_blake_dc_14

Take Jackson, Martha, and those phony "Shiavo Christians" w/ you.