The Region : Six McMartin School Case Tapes Found

Six audio tapes concerning the McMartin Pre-School molestation case have been discovered, prosecutors said, including one that contains a district attorney investigator’s 1984 interview of a key witness, Judy Johnson, regarding threats made on her life. Johnson, the mother who filed the first police complaint against defendant Raymond Buckey, which triggered the preschool probe, was found dead in her Manhattan Beach home last December of a liver disorder. The defense contends that Johnson’s allegations were the result of mental illness and that prosecutors concealed evidence about her for fear of jeopardizing their case. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders is expected to rule on the relevance and admissibility of the tapes on Monday.