After 4 Years in Jail, Buckey Has Bail Set at $3 Million

Bail was set at $3 million on Thursday for Raymond Buckey, the key defendant in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case who has been behind bars for nearly four years.

“It would be a travesty to hold him without bail for five years” without determining his guilt or innocence, said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders, who had previously refused to set bail for Buckey.

Family and friends cheered as Pounders announced his decision after 20 minutes of deliberation in chambers. “It’s a very troubling issue,” he said, describing it as “the most serious I’ve been asked to decide.”

Prosecutors said they were concerned that the 29-year-old Buckey, who is on trial for 80 counts of molestation and conspiracy involving 14 children who attended his grandmother’s Manhattan Beach nursery school, would carry out threats against his victims, molest other children or flee to avoid the minimum of 71 years in state prison a conviction would carry.

But his defense attorney, Daniel Davis, argued that his client had not fled or harmed anyone between the time of his first arrest and release in the fall of 1983, and his second arrest in March, 1984. He said Buckey would live with him and promised to monitor his whereabouts around the clock.

“I have to conclude that there is no substantial likelihood that he would carry out threats,” Pounders said in announcing his decision. “But I do think there is a concern about flight (so) I’m talking about very substantial bail.”

The judge added that in agreeing to set bail he is not commenting on the strength or weakness of the case against Buckey. Having already heard the testimony of three children who described acts of molestation, Pounders said, “I found them to be credible witnesses.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lael R. Rubin asked the court to set bail at $5 million; Davis said that “anything in excess of $2 million is out of the question, and anything above $1 million is presently out of the question” for Buckey to raise.

To walk out of Men’s Central Jail for the duration of his trial, which is expected to last most of next year, Buckey would have to come up with $300,000 cash--the premium for a bail bond-- and security sufficient to cover the amount of the bond. Or he could put up $6 million in real estate equity.

His mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, 61, who is on trial on 21 counts of molestation and conspiracy, was released from custody two years ago after friends and relatives posted eight pieces of property in lieu of $495,000 cash bond.

Seated in the front row of courtroom spectators, along with her husband and daughter (Peggy Ann Buckey, a former defendant in the case), she wiped away tears as Pounders announced that he would set bail. “I’m just grateful that he got a bail,” she said afterwards. “I didn’t really expect it.”

Davis could seek reduction of the $3-million amount in a bail review hearing next week. He told the judge he doesn’t intend to seek Buckey’s release before Jan. 4, when the trial resumes.