Buckey Makes His 1st Trial Appearance as Free Man; ‘Still Numb’

For the first time in nearly five years, McMartin defendant Raymond Buckey walked into the courtroom as a free man Thursday, rather than as a prisoner brought in from jail.

The 30-year-old key defendant in the Manhattan Beach preschool molestation case was released from Men’s Central Jail late Wednesday, after defense attorneys and friends posted a $3-million property bond and arrangements were made for him to live in an undisclosed location under 24-hour security guard. He had been behind bars since March, 1984.

“I’m still in a numb state,” Buckey said, sitting stiffly in the section of seats reserved for reporters while waiting for his trial to resume.

Smiling but taciturn, he was dressed neatly in a conservative gray suit, pink shirt and striped tie.

Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, 62, are charged with 65 counts of molestation and conspiracy involving 11 children who attended the family-run nursery school. Charges against five other McMartin teachers have been dropped by the district attorney, who cited insufficient evidence.

Buckey said he has not yet fulfilled his first wish--to see the ocean again--but celebrated his first night of freedom eating dinner in a Chinatown restaurant with his attorney, Danny Davis.

“I don’t remember emotional feelings that everybody out there takes for granted. I’ve been isolated in a nightmare,” Buckey said.

His mother, who is free on $295,000 bail, said there are no immediate plans for a family reunion.

“That’ll come later, and I hope it’ll be soon ‘cause I want him to see his gram,” she said, referring to his grandmother, Virginia McMartin, 81, a former defendant in the once-massive case who is reportedly in ill health.

Buckey is being accompanied by Paul Barron, an armed defense investigator, and a second guard who declined to identify himself. Barron said he is in charge of arranging for round-the-clock security for Buckey, one of the conditions of his release.

Buckey has said he is concerned about threats made against him and his family and said he planned to keep some distance between himself and his family for their safety.

“I still realize there are people out there who have gone off the deep end,” he told a television reporter just after his release.

Other conditions of Buckey’s release imposed by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders include a prohibition against contacting any children or families who have accused him of molestation, a requirement that he not enter the coastal area where he grew up--Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach or Redondo Beach--or leave the state, that he not have verbal or physical contact with anyone under 14, unless the child is a blood relative or accompanied by a parent, and that he refrain from drinking.

Pounders told jurors that the fact that Buckey had made bail “has nothing to do with (his) guilt or innocence.” Outside their hearing, the judge indicated that he was dismayed that news media had been tipped off to the defendant’s pending release, creating “a circus.”

Mob Scene

He said the news media mob scene outside the jail Wednesday night reminded him of the live televised slaying of President John F. Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby in 1963. The shooting occurred while Oswald was being moved by law enforcement officials past a throng of reporters and others.

“What I saw on television reminded me of Jack Ruby’s assassination attempt,” Pounders said. “There was obviously the presence of a lot of people allowed to get that close.”

Asked by a television reporter whether he looks forward to testifying in his own defense, Buckey said: “Yes and no. I don’t look forward to getting up there and saying something and then having people twisting the simple truth, but I definitely look forward to saying what I have to say.”

He will have several months to adjust to his new freedom before testifying, however, as the defense has presented few of its key witnesses and is expected to call physicians to refute medical evidence presented by the prosecution and psychologists to address the issue of children’s susceptibility to suggestion.

On the witness stand Thursday was Ray Fadel, owner of Harry’s Market, alleged to be the scene of some molestations.

The trial, now in its 22nd month, is expected to last into the fall.