LOS ANGELES (AP) – Television and still cameras will be allowed in the courtroom in the Robert Blake murder case during opening statements, closing arguments and the verdict but not during testimony, a judge ruled Friday.

Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp acknowledged that media lawyers have filed papers challenging her decision and said she would hear arguments on that question at the next hearing Feb. 2.

Outside court, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office said prosecutors had not opposed having cameras broadcast the entire trial, and Blake’s lawyer, Thomas Mesereau Jr., said he favored having cameras in the courtroom.

“I think this will be a professionally conducted trial,” Mesereau said. “And any time the public gets to see such a trial, the public benefits.”

Blake, the former star of TV’s “Baretta” series, is charged with murdering his 44-year-old wife, Bonny Bakley, on May 4, 2001. She was found shot to death in their car outside a restaurant. Blake had married Bakley after she gave birth to a girl he had fathered.

Blake, 70, who is free on $1.5 million bail, has said that he is innocent. He attended the hearing Friday but said nothing in court.

Mesereau and one of the prosecutors, Shellie Samuels, wrangled for several hours in court over evidence.

Samuels accused Mesereau of trying to “bury us under paper” with complex demands for documents that he said have not been turned over. She alleged it was a tactic to keep prosecutors busy and distract them from the main issues of the case.

Mesereau countered that the material he is seeking is central to the charges against Blake, adding, “I don’t know how else to protect ourselves.”

He and his associate, Susan Yu, presented 31 different demands for documents they said had never been disclosed. Schempp granted some requests and rejected others, saying that in some cases Mesereau could obtain the material on his own by interviewing witnesses.

One of the key points of contention was an incident a few weeks ago in which the prosecutors took pieces of evidence, including Blake’s clothing, to a criminalist in Oregon who was to analyze them.

Mesereau said Samuels, who went along, gave an order for one of Blake’s shirts to be cut up when there was a discovery of a stain that no one had noticed before. He said that was a violation of a court order to keep the evidence intact.

But Schempp disagreed, saying, “I think something like this could not have been foreseen, and a quick decision had to be made. It would have been preferred if they called the court, but that was not done.”

Mesereau asked for sanctions against Samuels for the action, but the judge said, “I am not going to waste the court’s time on sanctions or anything else.”

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