Inconsistencies Noted in Testimony of Girl, 8, in McMartin Hearing

An 8-year-old girl completed six days of testimony in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case preliminary hearing on Tuesday with some of her accounts of sexual abuse intact and others clouded with inconsistencies.

The girl, the third of 41 children expected to testify against seven defendants charged with 208 counts of molestation and conspiracy, contradicted herself Monday when she said under cross-examination that she was not forced to touch key defendant Ray Buckey’s genitals.

Recalling events that allegedly occurred five years ago, the girl testified last week that she was raped by Buckey, then forced to touch his genitals on a separate occasion.

When asked by Buckey’s attorney, Daniel Davis, if “the teachers put anything in your bottom or vagina,” the girl said no.

On Tuesday, however, under re-examination by prosecutor Lael Rubin, the girl said she thought the word “anything” referred to objects and not the teachers’ hands or genitals.

“When Mr. Davis asked you if anything was put in your bottom or vagina, what did the word ‘anything’ mean to you?” Rubin asked.

“Like a stick or an object,” the brown-haired girl replied.

She said she was confused by Davis’ questions.

Outside the courtroom, Rubin told reporters, “She was entirely consistent about her testimony.”

Davis, however, said that the girl’s testimony was full of contradictions and that a year-old videotape interview the girl had with therapists would prove further inconsistencies.

The girl testified last week that Buckey; his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, 58, and former teacher Betty Raidor, 65, molested her.

But on Monday, under cross-examination by Davis, the girl could not name the teachers.

‘Entire Testimony’

Rubin dismissed the inconsistency, saying the girl was confused.

“You have to judge the entire testimony, and overall her testimony was entirely consistent,” Rubin said.

The third-grader stood by her accounts of being forced to play “naked” games at the now-closed Manhattan Beach nursery school. During the “movie star” game, she said, she and her classmates were forced to pose nude while Ray Buckey took their pictures.

After being caught in the “cowboys and Indians” game, she said, she was fondled by the three former teachers, at various times, then forced to stand naked in a dark closet.

Also charged in the case are the school’s founder, Virginia McMartin, 77, and former teachers Peggy Ann Buckey, 28; Mary Ann Jackson, 57, and Babette Spitler, 36.