McMartin Testifies, but Jurors Can’t Hear It Yet

Family matriarch Virginia McMartin took the witness stand in the trial of her daughter and grandson Tuesday and vehemently denied that she had ever molested a child or seen the defendants do anything that might even be misconstrued as molestation.

“You’d have to be awfully evil-minded,” the 80-year-old McMartin said after telling defense attorney Dean Gits, “I’m not at all sure what any of you mean by ‘molested.’ Until this (case) came up, I’d never heard it.”

When Gits defined the term as the touching of private parts or genitals for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification, she answered, “No. Never.”

McMartin herself had been ordered to stand trial on one count of conspiracy last year, but the charge was dropped because of what Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner termed “incredibly weak” evidence against her and four teachers at the Manhattan Beach nursery school she had founded 30 years ago.

99 Counts of Molestation

However, her daughter, Peggy McMartin Buckey, 60, and grandson, Raymond Buckey, 29, are charged with 99 counts of molestation and one count of conspiracy involving 14 children who attended the school in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Tuesday’s testimony was taken outside the presence of the jury and videotaped for presentation during the defense phase of the trial six months or a year from now in the event that McMartin’s age or ill health would make her unable to testify.

While much of her first of an expected three days on the stand was concerned with her training and experience as a nursery school teacher and director and the policies governing the operation of the Virginia McMartin Pre-School, she contradicted much of the testimony of child witnesses and their parents at both the trial and the preliminary hearing.

She testified that she never saw children or animals harmed, that no secret rooms, closets or tunnels existed, that children were taken off school grounds only for an annual Halloween parade and field trips to the Police and Fire departments, and that parents were free to come and go at any time.

‘Naked Games’

Children have testified that McMartin was present during so-called “naked games,” and one child alleged that she had “touched” him on the chest and penis while he was naked.

The usually feisty McMartin--who entered the courtroom in a wheelchair--was subdued Tuesday, only occasionally attempting to argue with prosecutors when they objected to her long answers as being “non-responsive” or “narratives.”

During the 18-month preliminary hearing, a defiant McMartin had repeatedly disrupted proceedings with emotional outbursts. On one occasion she told the Municipal Court judge conducting the hearing, “I don’t care what your orders are” and attempted to leave the courtroom on her crutches, yelling “Don’t you dare touch me” at a bailiff who blocked her path. On another, she screamed, “This awful court, these awful people, these awful lies,” when she thought court bailiffs were harming her daughter, who had tripped over a television cable.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders had tentatively ruled that the public and press would be excluded from McMartin’s trial testimony but changed his mind after hearing arguments from the defense and media attorneys representing The Times and the Herald Examiner.

Judge’s Concern

Pounders said that he was concerned that jurors might read or watch accounts of her testimony and that he believed law required him to close the proceedings. However, media attorneys argued that more damage would be done by unofficial reports of McMartin’s testimony and that the statute Pounders cited had been negated by decisions in more recent cases.

Defense attorneys argued that to take McMartin’s testimony behind closed doors would interfere with their clients’ right to a public trial and free press. “She is the first person the public has heard from in 3 1/2 years who was there (besides the alleged child victims),” said lawyer Daniel Davis, who represents Ray Buckey.

McMartin’s attorney, James H. Davis, said McMartin had told him at her recent 80th birthday party that “I’m afraid I may not live long enough to get to court” and that she wanted people to hear her version of events.

Said Pounders: “I do see significant risks . . . but this is the only opportunity Virginia McMartin may be able to count on in presenting her case to the press and public.”