Virginia McMartin’s Testimony Stricken

A day of testimony punctuated with outbursts from McMartin Pre-School founder Virginia McMartin, 82, was stricken by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders Friday, and three hours of excerpts from her earlier videotaped testimony was presented to the jury in its place.

Pounders said the woman’s “contumacious conduct” in his courtroom had come close to forcing him to cite her for contempt and jail her for two days, an action he did not want to take because of her health and her age. He had threatened to take such steps Thursday, when McMartin began arguing with him and challenging his authority. “She continues to spout off in front of the jury,” the judge said.

“I have now concluded that Mrs. McMartin is medically infirm and cannot complete her testimony,” he told the jury Friday. Several jurors ripped pages from their notebooks as he ordered her comments stricken from the record.

McMartin, called primarily to clarify entries in her diaries that make reference to her family and to children at her Manhattan Beach nursery school, was the prosecution’s final rebuttal witness in the molestation and conspiracy trial of her daughter, Peggy McMartin Buckey, and grandson, Ray Buckey.

The proceedings will resume Wednesday. Closing arguments in the marathon case are scheduled to begin Oct. 10.