McMartin Judge Tries to Speed Up Proceedings

After watching the first two children testify in the McMartin Pre-School molestation trial, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders said last week he is impatient with the pace of the proceedings and unhappy about the strain on the youngsters.

Pounders also criticized the conduct of the jurors, some of whom he has admonished to stay awake during the proceedings. He has threatened habitual latecomers with dismissal, fines or jail time. And he has warned them that they will be hopelessly confused when they begin deliberations a year or more from now unless they start taking notes on the testimony.

“I’ve never witnessed a cross-examination so tedious, difficult and tiring,” he told attorneys in the case, which began six weeks ago.

‘No Criticism Intended’

“No criticism (of the lawyers) is intended. It was thorough and appropriate for an adult.” However, he added, “these children are being pushed to the limit. . . . It seems to me no child could answer these questions.”

Speaking of the alleged child victims on the stand, the judge said he was “very unhappy with the way that the first witness (a 12-year-old girl) went downhill at the end” and noticed that her face became swollen and red after four days of questions. The parents of the second witness, an 11-year-old girl, said that she “slept all the way home and most of the weekend” after her first day on the stand and that the entire family was “emotionally drained.”

“I don’t like what I’ve seen,” Pounders said in announcing he does not intend to tolerate endless cross-examination like that of the preliminary hearing in which young witnesses were kept on the stand for as long as 15 days. After even a day or two, he said, “They are tired. It’s a big strain.”

11 More Expected to Testify

Eleven other children are scheduled to testify against Manhattan Beach nursery schoolteachers Raymond Buckey, 29, and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, 60. They are charged with 99 counts of molestation and a single count of conspiracy.

Pounders said he intends to limit the length and form of cross-examination, the part of testimony during which a witness is grilled by the defense. He said he will consider “stalling” by the lawyers in deciding when to end the questioning and will “cut off” the defense if it does not use its time effectively.

“There’s got to be a limit,” Pounders said early in the week, soon after defense attorneys began questioning the second witness. “I’m going to be very strict on (already) ‘asked and answered’ questions. I’m going to close it down. . . . Four days of cross-examination is enough.”

The two defense attorneys, who say the lengthy questions are necessary because of the large number of counts against the Buckeys, ask many of the same questions again and again and want to know such details as the color of the house in which a molestation took place, which swing a child sat on during a game and how much blood came out of a cat Raymond Buckey allegedly cut open in front of some of the children.

By late Thursday afternoon when defense attorney Daniel Davis, who represents Raymond Buckey, showed no signs of winding down, Pounders warned him, “You’ve got eight minutes, Mr. Davis.” Davis quickly wrapped up his questions.

As the court recessed for a two-week vacation, the judge thanked the youngster for cooperating and told her, “You’ve weathered all this better than I have.”

The girl hugged her mother and prosecutor Lael Rubin, sighing, “Yea! Now I can go to sleep.”

She had testified for five days in open court, facing the jury, a courtroom of spectators and the two teachers she said had molested her.

At the preliminary hearing she had testified for eight days (with spectators watching the proceedings on a television in an adjacent courtroom). At that time lawyer Davis objected to nearly every question asked by the prosecution, objections that Municipal Judge Aviva Bobb said were “not made in good faith, but (tactics) used to upset and confuse the witness.”

For example, he tried to prevent the child from stating her age--on grounds that her answer would be “speculation, irrelevant, hearsay.”

Dozing Jurors

Meantime, several members of the seven-man, five-woman jury (as well as six alternates) have appeared to be dozing during crucial testimony, prompting Pounders to tell them to ask for a break whenever any of them feel drowsy from lack of sleep or a big meal.

Despite earlier warnings aimed at several jurors, one has persisted in arriving late in the morning and after lunch. Pounders said if the tardiness continues, he will remove the man from jury duty or hold him in contempt and impose a fine and jail time.

He reminded the man--a Welfare Department worker who offered no explanation except that “I’m just not one to get up early in the morning”--that the county loses “$7.70 a minute every minute we’re not in court.”

The judge also told jurors he had noticed that few of them appeared to be writing anything down--cautioning them that witnesses and testimony that seem unforgettable now will blur by the end of the case when they begin deliberating the Buckeys’ fate.

The jury was drawn from 500 prospective jurors.