D.A. Urges Rejection of Dismissal Motion in the McMartin Case

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office Friday urged a judge to reject a defense motion to dismiss all charges in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case, arguing that allegations of prosecutorial misconduct are based on flimsy statements from people with a financial stake in the case’s outcome and totally “lacking in substance and merit.”

“Defendants’ entire motion to dismiss or recuse (remove the district attorney as prosecutor) is based upon unreliable, specious information provided by unreliable sources . . . (who have) a direct pecuniary interest in assuring that the prosecution’s case be scuttled for the sake of producing a profitable screenplay and book,” the office wrote in its response filed in Superior Court.

The reference was to former Deputy Dist. Atty. Glenn Stevens, who has signed a contract with a Beverly Hills film maker who has said he intends to feature Stevens as a heroic young prosecutor who listens to his conscience at the expense of his career.

However, in an interview Friday, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti characterized Stevens as a liar and “an embarrassment to this office and to the criminal justice system.”

“He’s attempted to portray himself as the first (and only) one to cry out (about weaknesses in the case’s evidence against some of the defendants),” Garcetti seethed. “That’s just a damn lie. He did not. And he had the opportunity.”

Remained Silent

Garcetti said that throughout the many months during which Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner was reevaluating the massive case he had inherited from his predecessor, Stevens either remained silent or voiced strong support for the case even while others were expressing their concerns.

“The first person who raised questions was (Deputy Dist. Atty.) Christine Johnson . . . but Stevens felt the case was quite strong against all the defendants,” Garcetti said, consulting notes he had made of past meetings.

Stevens later resigned, after being told he was going to be fired for lying to his superiors about having been the source of leaks to the press about the state of the case and his belief that four or five of the defendants may be innocent. He now says he believes all seven are innocent; charges remain against only Ray Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey.

Reached by telephone Friday night, Stevens denied Garcetti’s charges, saying that his doubts grew gradually through the spring and summer of 1985, and that he had confided them to his co-prosecutors on the case and to his immediate supervisor in the district attorney’s office, Roger Gunson.

“I was not gung-ho to go on the entire case, but I was also cautious that if there was strong evidence we should wait for the investigation to be completed. As time went on, my doubts began to grow as children testified to very bizarre events that occurred at the McMartin School,” Stevens said.

He said he recommended, in writing, that charges against the six female defendants be dropped in November, 1985.

Hearing Set for Monday

A hearing on the dismissal motion is scheduled for Monday before Superior Court Judge William Pounders, but the district attorney’s office argued in its written response that such a hearing is unnecessary.

The motion accuses lead McMartin prosecutor Lael R. Rubin of lying to a judge to keep the defendants in jail, of lying to parents to persuade them to allow their children to testify, and of misrepresenting the prosecution’s intentions, among other things.

Perhaps most seriously, the motion accuses the prosecution of withholding crucial evidence from the defense that would have impeached the statements of a mother who sparked the investigation of child molestation at the Virginia McMartin Pre-School in Manhattan Beach.

The evidence in question is several pages of notes that indicate the woman had mental problems; however the district attorney’s office said in its response that it gave the defense other documents relating to her mental condition, that the materials were the responsibility of former prosecutor Stevens, and that at any rate they would not have affected the case.

The response points out that the motion is based on unsworn statements by Stevens, who in taped conversations with film makers Abby and Myra Mann subpoenaed by the district attorney’s office, told his new partners: “Yes, to our project, we drink to an acquittal. . . . I tell you something, you get an acquittal and then this (movie) project comes out and we’re all just absolutely sitting on top of the world.”