McMartin Boy Says He Was Pinched With Pliers

A 10-year-old boy testifying against his former McMartin Pre-School teachers, charged with 208 counts of molestation and conspiracy, said Thursday that his teachers used a pair of pliers to pinch his genitals.

Recalling events that allegedly occurred when he attended the Manhattan Beach school between 1977 and 1979, the boy testified that the school’s director, Peggy McMartin Buckey, 58, her son, Raymond Buckey, 26, her daughter, Peggy Ann Buckey, 29, and a stranger were in “Peggy Ann’s” classroom when the abuse allegedly took place.

The boy, the ninth of 41 children expected to testify in the 9-month-old preliminary hearing, said he also saw classmates being pinched with the pliers by the teachers.

“Were you ever touched or pinched on the butt or the penis with the pliers?” defense attorney Daniel Davis asked.

“Yes,” the boy replied, adding, “On the penis.”

“How many times did that happen to you?” Davis asked.

“Once or twice,” the young witness said.

The boy was not asked to elaborate on the incident as Davis went on to a different line of questioning.

The boy also said he was taken to four different houses where he and his classmates were photographed nude, and where his teachers killed rabbits, birds, mice and turtles in front of the children.

He said the three teachers and some strangers took the students to the homes to play the “naked movie star game,” in which he said the students were forced to take off their clothes and act out their favorite movie star while being photographed.

The boy earlier told of bizarre events that allegedly occurred while he attended the school, saying he was taken by teachers to a cemetery where children were forced to dig up bodies and touch them.

He also identified from a random collection of photographs two public figures--City Controller James Hahn and actor Chuck Norris, who had nothing to do with the case--as being among the strangers who molested children at the school.

‘So Incredible’

Defense attorneys asked the judge to strike the boy’s testimony because it was “so incredible.” Municipal Judge Aviva Bobb said she would rule on the motion when the entire preliminary hearing concluded.

Prosecutor Glenn Stevens told reporters that he stood by the boy’s testimony of being sexually and physically abused at the school.

“The child was molested and abused both physically and emotionally and what you are seeing (on the stand) is the result of trauma he suffered at the school,” Stevens said.

The hearing is being held to determine whether the seven defendants should stand trial in Superior Court.