McMartin Pre-School Judge Keeps Seal on Jury’s First Verdict

On its 13th day of deliberations, the jury in the McMartin Pre-School molestation trial Tuesday returned the first of 65 verdicts, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders overcame his own curiosity and kept the decision sealed.

“I want to rip it open,” he said, smiling, as the court clerk interrupted courtroom proceedings to say, “I have a verdict on one count.”

Pounders had instructed the eight-man, four-woman jury to turn in verdicts on each count as they are reached. The judge said he will unseal the first verdict Dec. 15, just before the jury’s Christmas vacation, if no others have been reached. If three or more are turned in by week’s end, Pounders said he will unseal and announce them as early as Monday.

“We’re getting down to the point where we’re going to start taking them as they issue them,” he said, citing his fear that the longer deliberations last the more likely the loss of another juror--and a possible mistrial--becomes.

Jury deliberations began Nov. 2, but they have been interrupted by illnesses and holidays.

The defense has objected to “piecemeal” verdicts, citing the possible impact the public’s reaction could have on subsequent deliberations and the erroneous impression it could give jurors that they cannot reconsider decisions on sealed verdicts.

Pounders emphasized that no verdict is official until affirmed by jurors in open court, and said he would rather have partial verdicts than no verdicts at all.

Such a procedure has been used, but only rarely, and it has not been commented on by an appellate court.

“Waiting until the end is obviously the safest course, but in this case, it endangers a 2 1/2-year trial,” the judge said.

The judge said that as far as he can tell by the exhibits the jury has asked for, it has discussed only two of the 11 alleged victims and general information about the defendants.

The jury sent a note to Pounders on Monday indicating that after taking several ballots and holding discussions, it could not reach a unanimous decision on a count and asked whether it should hold onto that information or turn it in.

“The answer is you do not turn in information about your balloting process--only your unanimous decisions,” Pounders told the jurors Tuesday after summoning lawyers for both sides.

Buckey, 31, and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, 63, are charged on 64 counts of child molestation and one shared count of conspiracy involving 11 youngsters who attended their family-run nursery school in Manhattan Beach between 1978 and 1983.