Girl, 12, Tells Jury of Sex Molestations at McMartin

A self-assured 12-year-old girl, the first alleged victim to take the stand in the McMartin Pre-School molestation trial, testified Monday that she was sexually abused by both Raymond Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey.

She told the jury that the defendants repeatedly forced her to play a “naked movie star” game while cameras clicked and that Ray Buckey graphically threatened her and her classmates at the Manhattan Beach nursery school by sticking a knife in a dead cat.

“Remember the cat,” the child testified that he told her. “What I did to it, you know that could happen to your parents” if they were ever told about the games.

Buckey, 29, and his mother, 60, are on trial for one count of conspiracy and 99 counts of molestation involving 14 children at the school.

Stuck to Earlier Testimony

The blonde-haired youngster stuck closely to her testimony at the preliminary hearing two years ago, varying from it only slightly.

For example, she testified Monday for the first time that Ray Buckey had not only fondled her but also had inserted his fingers into her vagina. She repeated that Peggy Buckey had also touched her on the outside of the vagina.

Asked by prosecutor Lael Rubin about the change in her testimony, she said she had tried to tell Rubin about the incident earlier but “I got, like, really embarrassed and started to cry.”

She said she finally told her mother last month, “because, like, I couldn’t like even admit it to myself until a couple of weeks ago when I told my mom . . . cause, like, it’s so embarrassing and stuff.”

The girl testified that the molestations took place in conjunction with a game in which she and other children were told to undress, pile their clothes in a heap and “model around.” On occasion both the Buckeys also undressed, she said, and school founder Virginia McMartin watched on at least two occasions.

Saw a Camera Lens

She said that she saw a camera lens aimed at the group of nude youngsters as they posed and heard the sound of the shutter, and that when she stayed late for lunch and naptime, she was taken to a house where “strangers” also photographed her.

The girl said she is now sure that the molestations took place in her last year at the school, when she was about 5 (rather than earlier, as she testified at the preliminary hearing), that the dead cat threat was made after the first time she played the naked game (rather than later), and that she is no longer sure that she was given a pink, sleep-inducing liquid by her teachers, as she testified at the hearing in 1985.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Dean Gits, who represents Peggy Buckey, the articulate youngster said she is clearer about events at the nursery school today “because I’ve thought more about it.” At first, she said, she couldn’t remember details about what happened several years before. “I knew that something had happened. . . . I had a fear about them (the Buckeys).”

She said she asked to be taken to Children’s Institute International, a Los Angeles child abuse diagnostic and treatment center, after an elementary school classmate who had gone to McMartin told her that he had gone and felt better about “getting rid of some yucky secrets” there.

“So did you kinda begin to wonder if you had some secrets?” Gits asked her.

“I didn’t really wonder. I kind of knew,” the girl answered.

‘Didn’t Really Forget’

She said that she thought that talking to a therapist in March of 1984 had “helped” her remember, but insisted that “I didn’t really forget (events of her pre-school years). I put it in the back of my mind.”

The girl, whose cross-examination will continue today by Gits and defense attorney Daniel Davis, who represents Ray Buckey, is among the oldest of the 13 children scheduled to testify in the trial, which is expected to last at least one year.

Superior Court Judge William Pounders has asked that the names of alleged victims and their parents not be published, and took other steps to ease the trauma for the young witnesses. On Monday, he ordered frequent breaks, positioned the child’s parents within her line of vision, allowed her to visit with them when the lawyers held sidebar conferences, and told her to put her hand over the microphone and talk to him if she felt uncomfortable or had any problem while on the witness stand.

The child’s father testified last week that during her three years at McMartin, his daughter had pleaded not to be left at the school for naptime, awakened shaking in the night and shied away from showing any affection to male relatives.

He said his daughter has always had an “independent” mind and that he is “absolutely convinced” that she was molested.

“I was hoping to God that she hadn’t. . . . No, I did not want to find out that she had been molested,” he said.