No More Charges Expected in Preschool Abuse Probe

No further criminal charges are expected in the massive South Bay preschool molestation investigation, and the sheriff’s task force created a year ago to probe allegations of widespread child sexual abuse is being quietly disbanded, The Times has learned.

Parents of most of the alleged victims at the McMartin and Manhattan Ranch preschools in Manhattan Beach have withdrawn their children as witnesses, making prosecution impossible, sources close to the case said.

Children who attended three other schools under investigation--St. Cross and Children’s Path in Hermosa Beach and The Learning Game in Manhattan Beach--are too young to make good witnesses, the sources said.

And some other children have recanted their initial allegations, investigators said.

“We’re running out of leads,” said the task force’s chief, Sheriff’s Lt. Richard Willey. “And parents, because of their frustration with the system, are pulling their children out. “I really can’t blame the parents. . . ,” he said. “The system simply isn’t geared to deal with very young victims and to afford them a feeling of safety or security.”

On Thursday night, members of the task force and Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner’s staff will begin a series of meetings with parents of children who attended the schools involved to explain their decisions to seek no further charges and to dismantle the investigative unit.

“We are not cutting off parents or closing the books,” Willey said. Letters will be sent to all parents naming a “liaison deputy” they should contact if they have additional information. He said the younger children will be followed and reinterviewed later.

“We will monitor their progress and if any can, at a later time, qualify to testify in court we will proceed,” he said.

The decisions to disband the task force and file no more criminal charges come against a backdrop of disarray and dissent among prosecutors in the McMartin case, which spawned the South Bay investigation. The majority of child witnesses in the McMartin preliminary hearing have been dropped and most of the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence.

As the hearing draws to a close, perhaps as early as next week, the three prosecutors are reported to be arguing among themselves about whether charges against some of the defendants should be dropped altogether.

The gradual phase-out of the 20-man task force began late last month with the transfer of four investigators back to their former units. Willey said that another four will be released this month and that the majority will be reassigned by the end of November.

Formed Last Year

The Sexual Exploitation of Children Task Force was created in October, 1984, to investigate the deluge of allegations of child sexual abuse involving South Bay preschools that surfaced after charges were filed against McMartin Pre-School founder Virginia McMartin and six teachers, and against Michael Ruby, a teen-age playground aide at nearby Manhattan Ranch.

It was composed of a select group of men and women with a combined 150 years of investigative experience, much of it in the area of sex crimes or child abuse.

The team investigated five South Bay preschools, identified 56 suspects, searched several homes and businesses, interviewed 100 adults and several hundred children and followed up on hundreds of leads.

But despite medical evidence of molestation in numerous children, a year’s effort, a cost of more than $1 million and the latest in investigative technology, such as a computerized system for correlating information, the task force did not make a single arrest.

(Several other schools are still under investigation by local police departments and state licensing investigators.)

Two Implicated

In August, the task force presented evidence to the district attorney’s office on two people who had been implicated by testimony in the McMartin preliminary hearing under way for the last year. They are Charles Buckey, father of two McMartin defendants and husband of a third, and Ray Fadel, a Manhattan Beach grocer.

And last week the investigators also turned over evidence on three teachers and aides at Manhattan Ranch.

Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said late Tuesday that he has not reviewed the cases and that no final decision on whether to file any charges has been made.

However, sources close to the investigation said that no filings are expected, addding that the pullout by parents makes prosecution impossible. Only three of seven prospective witnesses against one suspect are still available, for example, and in several instances the case would hinge on the testimony of only one child.

Parents Worn Out

“The McMartin case has had a major impact on our abilities to proceed down here (in Manhattan Beach),” Willey said. “The process has worn parents out, and they’re just now getting their kids back through therapy, just now starting to have whole, real kids again. . . . And in many cases the (potential) damage they see to their children (if they permit them to testify) far outweighs any need or desire to prosecute.”

For now, however, the South Bay investigation appears to be over. And charges in the McMartin case have dwindled. Municipal Judge Aviva K. Bobb dismissed two-thirds of the more than 300 original charges against the seven McMartin defendants for lack of evidence after only 14 of the 41 complaining witnesses took the stand.