Ronald Keith Siegel (January 2, 1943 – March 24, 2019)[1] was an American psychopharmacologist who was an associate research professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles.
He was affiliated with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University before joining the research faculty of UCLA in 1972, where he remained until his retirement in 2008.
[4] In 2005, Siegel was an expert witness for the defense in the Robert Blake murder trial, testifying on the long-term effects of methamphetamine and cocaine use.
According to the jury foreman in the trial, Siegel was "one of the most compelling witnesses" in discrediting the testimony of Ronald Hambleton, who claimed that Blake had asked him to murder Bonnie Lee Bakley.
[5] In the course of his testimony in the Blake trial, Siegel disclosed that in one study, he had taught monkeys to smoke crack cocaine.