The Region - News from June 23, 1985

A hearing to determine whether the judge conducting the McMartin Pre-School molestation case should be ordered to allow children to testify by closed-circuit television has been set for July 1 by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul Turner. Municipal Judge Aviva K. Bobb had been scheduled to rule last week on whether the seven defendants, including the founder of the Manhattan Beach nursery school and six former teachers, should stand trial. However, prosecutors persuaded Turner to halt the proceedings and hear their arguments that a new state law allowing closed-circuit testimony should be applied retroactively--a move that prosecutors say would allow five more children to testify.