Judge Denies Motion to Set Bail for Buckey

The judge in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case refused Friday to set bail for chief defendant Raymond C. Buckey.

“Based on the evidence I’ve seen, in particular the repeated testimony of so many of the child victims,” said Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders, “I’m denying the motion. . . . The cold record clearly establishes that there are threats.”

Pounders added that “at this time” he fears that Buckey might try to carry them out.

Citing both the California Constitution and the “victims’ bill of rights,” Pounders said he was keeping Buckey, 28, in jail in the interest of public safety and because a man facing 80 felony counts and more than 100 years behind bars might have an incentive to flee.

Buckey, speaking in court for the first time, pleaded for his freedom by asking Pounders to “give me a chance.” He has spent nearly three years in maximum security in County Jail.

‘Never . . . Harmed a Child’

“I am an innocent man,” he said, speaking softly and directly to the judge. “I have never in my life harmed a child, nor could I comprehend how anyone could. I have never in my life threatened a child . . . or harmed or killed an animal.”

Many of the 14 children who testified at the 18-month preliminary hearing described having been sexually abused by Buckey and threatened with harm if they told anyone about it. They testified that he underscored his threats by mutilating and killing rabbits and other animals.

The state Constitution provides that no one can be held without bail unless he is charged with a capital crime or with a felony involving violence and it is likely that his release would result in great bodily harm to others, or unless he is charged with a felony and the judge finds “based on clear and convincing evidence that the person has threatened another with great bodily harm and that there is a substantial likelihood that the person would carry out the threat if released.”

But Pounders added that he does not consider the matter closed and that Buckey’s freedom “may be as close as the next turn of the cards” as the case evolves. Trial is set to begin Jan. 12.

Arguing in a downtown courtroom packed with McMartin parents and Buckey’s supporters, defense attorney Daniel G. Davis said the circumstances under which Buckey was originally detained without bail in the spring of 1984 have changed, that the scope and tone of the case is different and that the release of other McMartin defendants did not result in harm to anyone.

In addition, he proposed that Buckey be kept under surveillance by three investigators, to ensure both that he does no wrong and that no false accusations could be made against him.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Lael R. Rubin argued that what has changed since evidence was first presented to a county grand jury is that 14 children have testified--and been extensively cross-examined--at a lengthy preliminary hearing. During a combined total of 88 days on the witness stand, she said, they described “45 threats that were made by Ray Buckey to harm them and/or to harm their parents--threats made solely by Raymond Buckey.”

She added that the magistrate who heard the evidence found the children credible and held Buckey to answer on the charges.

The prosecution said it believes that Buckey is “a great danger to the community and to the children who are the victims” and asked Pounders “to safeguard the community and deny bail to Ray Buckey in its entirety.”

Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, who has been free since January when friends and relatives posted eight pieces of property in lieu of $500,000 cash bail, are charged with a total of 101 counts of child molestation and conspiracy involving 14 former students at the Virginia McMartin Pre-School in Manhattan Beach. The district attorney’s office dropped charges against the nursery school’s founder and four teachers there in January, citing insufficient evidence. All seven had been ordered to stand trial by Los Angeles Municipal Judge Aviva K. Bobb.