McMartin Witness Disappears

A jail-house informant who claims he heard a confession from a defendant in the McMartin Pre-School molestation trial failed to show up in court for a second day today.

The prosecution said George Freeman, who has received immunity from prosecution after admitting perjury in earlier cases, had disappeared. The defense suggested he had fled to Mexico. Freeman was unable to testify Wednesday because he was hospitalized with bronchitis. Deputy District Atty. Lael Rubin said today that Freeman’s daughter called in the early morning to say her father had vomited blood during the night and she had taken him back to the hospital. But Rubin said an investigator sent to pick him up was told he had never entered the hospital.