Why? Why? Distraught Parents Ask; Seek Inquiry

Their faces registering shock, anger and disappointment, more than two dozen parents of children allegedly abused at the McMartin Pre-School converged on the Criminal Courts Building on Friday to blast prosecutors for dropping charges against five of the seven defendants in the case.

The parents, some crying in each other’s arms and one clutching her pigtailed daughter, said the announcement by Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner surprised them.

“The number of people dropped was a shock,” said one red-eyed mother. “We expected one or two, three at the very most. To have five of them (dropped) is just unbelieveable.”

“Reiner is a chicken,” said another mother, her voice breaking. “We all have the same feeling about what is going on. Why? Why?”

No Choice, Reiner Says

After announcing that molestation charges will be filed against only Raymond Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, Reiner said he empathized with the parents but had little choice.

“The parents and the children have gone through an awful experience,” Reiner said at a press conference. “The stress has been incredible, has gone on for a long time. At the same time, we have a moral obligation not to file criminal charges unless there is evidence.”

Standing vigil outside a courtroom where prosecutors filed the paper work that reduced the case to two defendants, the angry parents vowed to press state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp for a reinvestigation of the evidence against the five dropped from the case.

Even after an emotional hourlong meeting with Reiner, few were mollified.

‘Disbelief, Anger’

“This is the most emotional day I’ve ever had,” one mother said after the meeting. “I’ve gone from disbelief to incredible sadness to anger to what in the hell do I do now?

“The real issue here is, there’s a difference between my moral obligation and the obligation of Mr. Reiner. As a D.A., what he feels inside doesn’t count. He has to go with his job description.”

A father of two former McMartin students, who acted as an unofficial spokesman for the group, said the parents “still feel those five people are guilty. We still believe our children.”

“We went in (to the meeting) with extreme disappointment and confusion. Did they appease us? No.

‘Our Only Avenue’

“We are going to try and appeal to the attorney general’s office to see if there is some investigation he can make,” he said. “That’s our only avenue.”

“I put a call in (to Van de Kamp’s office) before I came down here,” another parent said. “We were idealistic enough to believe crimes against children deserve prosecution. . . . We’re not going to let this drop and let people get away with it.”

Meanwhile, the parents said that most of them will cooperate fully in the proceedings against the two remaining defendants.

“We still believe the case is much larger than those two defendants,” said the father of a McMartin student. “But we’re behind him 100% on those two.”

“We feel we still have a very good case with the defendants,” added the mother of 7-year-old girl who is scheduled to testify against the Buckeys. “That’s what we’re going to go forward with now.”

Facing a Dilemma

In the interim, she said, all the parents face the dilemma of what to tell their children “when some already have gone through pure hell in that courtroom.”

“To have to come home and tell them what they said was not believed enough to send these people to trial. . . . How are they supposed to turn around and respect a legal system that didn’t respect them?” she asked.

“My children are 6 and 7,” a father said. “They felt (the defendants) had done something wrong. They had been told that. Now five have been let go. . . . If that isn’t a confusing message . . . I don’t know what is.”

The children, another mother added, do not trust the legal system already.

“Now they’re going to have to live in a town where they’ll see people who molested them,” she said. “That’s devastating.”