Jail House Informant in McMartin Case Held in Robbery

A jail house informant who testified in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case has been arrested for investigation of robbing a woman at gunpoint, authorities said.

The court was told of George Freeman’s arrest by Deputy Dist. Atty. Roger Gunson, who said the impact of the arrest is unclear.

“The defense is aware of it,” Gunson said Friday. “It would be their presentation if he comes up again.”

Freeman, a five-time convicted felon whose record includes robbery, burglary and grand theft, allegedly knocked on the door of a home on Woodfield Road in La Canada Flintridge at 9:25 a.m. Monday, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Stephen Gattis.

$3,000 in Jewelry Taken

When a woman opened the door, a man pointed a gun at her, entered the house along with a second man and robbed her of more than $3,000 in jewelry, Gattis said Saturday.

Investigators learned that Freeman was staying at a Burbank motel, where the managers were shown his photograph. Freeman was arrested Tuesday morning after the managers notified authorities that he had returned, Gattis said.

“He was asleep on the bed” when deputies arrived, Gattis said, adding that a handgun was recovered.

Freeman, 45, was arraigned on a robbery charge Wednesday in Glendale Municipal Court. He was held at the county Hall of Justice jail in lieu of $255,000 bail, said Sheriff’s Deputy Detta Roberts.

Second Suspect Arrested

The other man who allegedly took part in the robbery with Freeman and fled with him in a car was arrested Monday afternoon, Gattis said.

Gary Marshall, 24, was held for investigation of robbery, Gattis said.

Freeman, an admitted perjurer, has testified in the McMartin trial in Superior Court that defendant Raymond Buckey confessed to him that he sodomized a student at the Manhattan Beach preschool.

Buckey, 29, and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, 60, are charged with 100 counts of conspiracy and child molestation.

Freeman testified that while sharing a jail cell for two days in March, 1984, Buckey also admitted to incest with his sister and to burying pornographic films and photographs of McMartin students in South Dakota.

The defense later disclosed that Freeman had admitted perjuring himself on three previous occasions, including once in the preliminary hearing for the McMartin case.

Prosecutors granted him immunity for those incidents rather than face a mistrial.