Actor won't answer questions at deposition

LOS ANGELES -- Robert Blake's criminal lawyer said Monday he will not permit his client to answer questions at a civil deposition in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Blake's slain wife.

Thomas Mesereau Jr. said he previously proposed that the civil suit inquiries be postponed until after Blake's criminal trial but a judge turned down that request.

Superior Court Judge David Schacter asked attorneys to meet with him on the matter Tuesday afternoon.

The deposition was scheduled for Wednesday at the jail where the 69-year-old actor is awaiting trial on charges of murdering Bonny Lee Bakley. She was shot to death May 4, 2001. A preliminary hearing in Blake's murder case is set for Feb. 26.

Eric Dubin, the lawyer representing Bakley's family, said Monday that he wants to delay all proceedings in the civil case but has been opposed by Blake's civil lawyers.

Dubin said that if Blake should be convicted of murder, it would make the civil suit easier to win. If he is acquitted, the civil suit could go forward much as a similar suit did in the O.J. Simpson case.

"I would like to put the case on hold, shake hands and let the prosecutors and detectives do their work," he said.

Dubin said the civil suit was filed to comply with a one-year statute of limitations.

Mesereau's request to cancel Blake's deposition was turned down by the judge after Blake's civil lawyers declined to agree to postpone all discovery in the civil case, according to Dubin.

One of the civil lawyers, Peter Ezzell, said he would reserve comment until Tuesday's hearing.