Los Angeles ? Robert Blake posted $1 million bail for bodyguard Earle Caldwell, who was jailed on a charge of conspiring to kill the “Baretta” star’s wife, the actor’s lawyer said Friday.

“He’s an employee and a friend, and Robert felt responsible for him,” attorney Harland Braun said.

Braun said Blake had posted $1 million in cash rather than use a bail bondsman who would have been paid a fee.

“It was a business decision,” the attorney said, claiming that “California law requires an employer to stand behind an employee on any criminal charge arising from the employment.”

Attorney Steve Kaplan, who specializes in labor and employment law, said he had never heard of the law being interpreted to require posting of bail by an employer. Sometimes employers pay legal fees after a case is resolved, he said.

“I’ve never ever heard of it for bail,” he said. “It may be a rationalization on the part of an employer who feels an obligation to help his employee,” he said.

Caldwell, 46, was released from the Los Angeles County men’s jail early Friday. Caldwell, whose legal defense is also being paid by Blake, was not available for immediate comment.

Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson suggested that Blake’s action would raise eyebrows in the legal community.

“I think the hot issue right now is how far can Blake go toward helping Caldwell without it starting to look bad,” she said.

Caldwell and Blake have pleaded innocent.

Blake, 68, is charged with murder, conspiracy and solicitation to murder his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, who was shot to death May 4, 2001. She was the mother of their daughter, Rose Lenore Sophie, who will turn 2 in June. He married her just months earlier because of the child.

Blake remains jailed without bail pending trial. Prosecutors said Thursday they intended to seek a life prison term without parole if he is convicted.

The charges filed earlier this week alleged Caldwell conspired with Blake on or about Jan. 2, 2001, and in March of that year provided the actor a handgun in a zippered case.

The complaint laid out allegations that Blake solicited two people to kill his wife, showing each of them the gun in the case. One of the plans involved going to a desert area where Caldwell would have already dug holes for burial, it said.

Prosecutors also alleged that in early 2001, Caldwell, at Blake’s request, wrote and kept a list of items for use in the murder. It read: “2 shovels, small sledge, crowbar, 25 auto, ‘get blank gun ready,’ old rugs, duct tape, Draino, pool acid, lye, plant.”

Among “overt acts” listed in the criminal complaint was a trip by Blake, his wife and Caldwell to rural Three Rivers, Calif., and Parker, Ariz., in April 2001.

On that trip, the complaint said, “Caldwell, armed with a handgun, hid in bushes on the banks of a river and jumped out while defendant Blake and Bonny Lee Bakley were together.” The document did not elaborate on the alleged event.

In another development, a retired Los Angeles police officer who works as a private investigator said a report about comments Blake allegedly made to him were incorrect.

However, Bill Welch said he would be a witness for the prosecution in the case against Blake but he declined to say what his testimony would be.

A source who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press earlier this week that Welch would relate a conversation in which Blake allegedly said his life would be better if his wife was dead. The source stood by the account despite Welch’s denial.