McMartin Judge Blasts Defense’s ‘Improper’ Question

The judge in the McMartin Pre-School molestation trial excoriated a defense attorney for asking a “totally improper” and “outrageous” question of a key prosecution witness before the jury Tuesday and said he would decide how to remedy the situation today.

Exploding at lawyer Daniel Davis, who represents chief defendant Raymond Buckey, the usually even-tempered judge accused him of destroying the man’s character by asking a question that implied that he had confessed to a murder in a taped conversation and that the tape is being suppressed by prosecutors.

“The point is you didn’t have (any evidence) and his character has been destroyed by your asking that question,” said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders. “No character can withstand (a statement) that they’ve confessed to homicide. . . . It’s outrageous you’d ask that question without proof.”

The witness, jail-house informant George Freeman, remains a suspect in a 1979 murder that he says he did not commit. Although he was ordered to stand trial after a preliminary hearing, the district attorney’s office decided not to prosecute him, citing insufficient evidence.

Davis, attempting to link that decision to Freeman’s present testimony against Buckey, asked Freeman:

“Do you have any information that a tape recording (of Freeman’s voice) admitting directly or indirectly to the crime exists?”

“Nope,” Freeman replied.

Davis told Pounders he has “reliable information” that Freeman did make a tacit admission to the crime, but that he had been unable to get the tape--if it hasn’t been destroyed--because McMartin prosecutor Lael Rubin instructed Los Angeles police detectives not to communicate with his office.

“You mean you don’t have it?” Pounders asked incredulously. “That question is very significant. . . . Without the evidence in hand it is inappropriate to suggest he made (an admission). If you can’t back it up you shouldn’t have asked the question.”

Pounders noted that had prosecutors possessed such evidence, it would have been presented at the preliminary hearing. To suggest that they purposely didn’t “is a very black thing to accuse law enforcement of.”

Pounders had decreed from the start of Freeman’s testimony--and reminded the attorneys repeatedly during the day at bench conferences--that any questions about the unsolved murder were to be limited to evidence already presented.

Davis vowed earlier in open court that he would “do my best to convict Freeman of the murder,” which is not an issue in the molestation case.

Prosecutors said they have no knowledge of any murder confession by Freeman--who has admitted being near the scene of the crime and knowing who committed the murder. Rubin called Davis’ tactics “unfounded and sleazy inferences.” Davis routinely refuses to answer questions from The Times.

During seven days on the witness stand, Freeman has testified that while they briefly shared a cell at Men’s Central Jail, Buckey admitted to him that he had sodomized the boy who triggered the massive McMartin investigation, had molested numerous other children at the Manhattan Beach nursery school and had had sex with his sister for several years.

Freeman also testified that Buckey said he had buried photographs of his sexual activities near Wind Cave, S.D., shortly after his first arrest and release, and that lawyer Davis had made death threats against him if he testified against his client.