High Court Backs Hearing on Testimony : TV Ruling in McMartin Case Will Stand

The state Supreme Court on Thursday let stand a lower court ruling that will require a judge hearing the McMartin Pre-School case to determine whether five child witnesses can testify over closed-circuit television.

The court refused to hear a challenge to a recently enacted law that allows children to testify during preliminary hearings via television in cases where they would face extreme trauma by testifying in front of defendants.

Peggy Ann Buckey, a former teacher at the Manhattan Beach preschool and one of seven defendants charged with child molestation, claimed in her petition to the court that the law denies defendants their constitutional right to confront their accusers.

Decision Overruled

Municipal Judge Aviva K. Bobb, presiding over the marathon preliminary hearing, denied the district attorney’s request that the five child witnesses be allowed to testify by closed-circuit television. Bobb ruled that the law, passed while the hearing was in progress, could not be applied retroactively to include the case.

A Superior Court judge overruled Bobb, requiring that she hold a hearing on the matter. The high court left that order intact. Only Justice Stanley Mosk voted to hear the case. Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird disqualified herself from all McMartin issues because she knows one of the victims, a spokesman for her has said.