Judge Rejects 8 Witnesses to Speed McMartin Trial

Citing concern about “the real possibility of a mistrial,” the judge in the McMartin Pre-School molestation proceeding--certain to become the longest criminal trial in U.S. history--angrily eliminated eight prospective witnesses from the defense roster Tuesday and cautioned that the jurors appear to have lost interest and no longer even bother to take notes.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders, in blunt comments made while the jury was excused from his courtroom, said he was “desperately concerned” that there might not be enough jurors left to deliver a verdict.

The trial in the highly publicized case started two years ago with the painstaking selection of 12 jurors and six alternates. Four alternates since have been excused--two for medical reasons, one because of career difficulties posed by the case’s duration and a fourth who was deemed inattentive to testimony.

If a minimum of 12 jurors cannot be maintained, the judge would be forced to declare a mistrial in a case that already has cost county taxpayers $12 million.

“I have an obligation to see that it’s a fair trial and that it gets to a jury that’s still there,” Pounders told defense attorneys as he eliminated the eight prospective witnesses. “I am desperately concerned that we are not going to have a jury to complete this case, the most illogical case that’s ever gone to a jury.”

The judge noted that several of the remaining jurors have asked him to call their irate employers because the proceedings have lasted far beyond the original estimate of one year.

Pounders said that at the present pace a verdict might not be reached before 1990, even if he continues to eliminate all witnesses whose testimony he deems “frivolous and unnecessary.” The defense, he said, has yet to call such critical witnesses as the two defendants, Raymond Buckey, and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, two former defendants and at least one physician to rebut medical evidence presented by the prosecution.

The defense, which so far has introduced testimony from 37 witnesses, has not made public a full roster of the witnesses it wants to call.

When the defense concludes its case, a prosecution rebuttal will follow and take an estimated two months. After that, there is expected to be a month of defense rebuttal, followed by jury instructions and deliberations. A three-week vacation is scheduled for mid-summer.

‘Goes Down With the Ship’

Pounders said he had just talked with fellow judges at a weekend conference about the need for them to take control of of their courtrooms, and then observed ruefully of his own trial: “I’m the captain and the ship is sinking, and the captain goes down with the ship.”

At another point, his voice raised and his face reddened with apparent anger: “I will not allow it to run into a situation where it has to be mistried. It should have been tried in much less time.”

The prosecution’s case lasted more than 14 months as it sought with a total of 61 witnesses to prove 65 counts of molestation and conspiracy against the Buckeys. Nine children testified that they had been raped, sodomized or forced to have oral copulation, that they were photographed nude during “naked games” and that they were terrorized into silence by threats from Raymond Buckey, who allegedly made them watch as he mutilated and killed animals.

The prosecution also called the alleged victims’ parents, who testified about behavioral changes in their children; a physician who examined all of them and testified she found physical evidence of molestation in most; and videotaped interviews in which they first disclosed their nursery school experiences.

Cross-examination of several of the witnesses was lengthy.

The defense has been putting on its case for nearly six months.

Pounders directed his stern lecture to the defense attorneys. He warned that, because of time, the jurors might return a verdict based solely on “gut reaction,” but that if they do not reach a quick decision and sift through the mountains of evidence instead, “it could well take them into 1990.”

“I don’t think you have the attention of the jury anymore,” Pounders told the defense attorneys. “ . . . It is boring. There are a lot of aspects that put me to sleep.”

‘Vigorously Denied’

His comments came as the defense asked Pounders’ approval of eight prospective witnesses: five parents, a woman who interviewed the alleged victims and two court administrators. The motions were “vigorously denied” by Pounders, who said he was angry and insulted by the continued waste of time.

The judge told defense attorneys Dean Gits and Danny Davis that he has grown weary of giving them warnings.

“I’ve used the scalpel,” he said, referring to limits he has placed on the scope of certain testimony. “Now the ax.”

He said he will refuse to admit testimony from any witness he deems “not critical” and told the lawyers they do not have to present “every scrap of evidence. . . . At some point you exceed what is relevant and necessary. . . . We’ve covered all the bases.”

He said much of the testimony presented by the defense has been “collateral, cumulative and time-consuming.”

“Don’t start rattling sabers about constitutional rights,” Pounders shouted at Davis at one point in the heated proceedings. “I know the law. I’ve studied it for two decades.”

Davis, who represents Raymond Buckey, said he fears that “our presentations are going to be inhibited by the anger of the court.”

Replied Pounders tersely: “I hope so.”

Outside court, Gits said he felt “like the guy that happened to be under the piano when it fell. The prosecution got to put on their case for 14 months. We’ve been responding to their case 5 1/2 months. We’re on the receiving end of the scalpel.”

Gits said the complicated nature of the case has prolonged the defense, as the attorneys have attempted to anticipate and provide answers for all questions jurors might take into deliberations.

Prosecutor Lael Rubin said, “The stall-and-delay tactics by the defense are finally over. There is now a real end in sight to this case.”

At the end of next week, the McMartin trial will become the longest criminal trial in U.S. history, surpassing that of Hillside Strangler Angelo Buono, who was convicted after a trial that consumed two years and two days.