Parents, Abuse Groups Push for Retrial of 13 McMartin Charges

In an unusual sequel to the acquittals of Ray Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, parents of McMartin Pre-School students and child abuse organizations are staging a highly public campaign to protest the verdict and persuade prosecutors to retry Ray Buckey on 13 charges that ended in mistrial after the jury deadlocked.

During the two weeks since the acquittals on 52 counts were announced, the parents and their allies have appeared on national television talk shows, held press conferences, lobbied the county Board of Supervisors, collected what they describe as 6,000 letters of support--and even asked comedians to keep the issue alive by continuing to ridicule the McMartin verdict in their routines.

The campaign has been joined by families whose children testified. These families had remained silent throughout the nearly 3-year trial. This week, one of the families is featured on the cover of People magazine.

Prosecutors were meeting late Tuesday with Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner to decide whether to seek a retrial on the hung counts. Reiner’s decision was to be announced early today.

Regardless, the final decision rests with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders, who presided over the trial. He said Tuesday that he has conferred with the presiding judge of the Superior Court and the presiding judge of its criminal division.

“It’s his call,” said Superior Court Presiding Judge Richard Byrne. He explained that new evidence is not necessary, but only a reasonable expectation on the judge’s part that the case, if retried, would be resolved.

“From what Judge Pounders has said,” Byrne said, “his opinion is that . . . the verdict could have gone either way.”

Pounders, the judge explained, could decide against a retrial if he believes there is no “reasonable expectation” of a conviction.

“There is also a concern with the utilization of resources,” Byrne added, referring to the $15 million the case has already cost county taxpayers.

The eight-man, four-woman jury split 8-4 in favor of acquittal on most of the undecided counts, and 7-5 on one, according to one juror who asked not to be identified. The juror said four colleagues strongly believed in Ray Buckey’s innocence and another four strongly thought him guilty. Most of the jurors have honored a pact not to reveal how they were split on the hung counts.

Two of the 13 undecided counts, one alleging conspiracy and one alleging sodomy of the child who triggered the case, will not be pursued, prosecutors said.

The other 11 counts involve four children. Two families have indicated a willingness to go forward and the other two have refused, according to sources close to the case.

Early Tuesday, representatives of child abuse groups, including FOCOS (Families Of Crimes Of Silence), the Adam Walsh Center, Believe the Children and the Hispanic Theatre Project, gathered in front of the downtown Criminal Courts building to express their views, then moved on to the Hall of Administration where the county Board of Supervisors were meeting.

There, following an emotional hour of testimony from McMartin parents and one former student, the board voted 4-1 to ask Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp to review the 60,000 pages of court transcripts as well as the comments of jurors to determine if the historic molestation prosecution was botched and if the 13 deadlocked charges should be refiled.

The board asked the attorney general’s office to review the public comments of some jurors who said that they believed some children had been molested but that prosecutors had “failed to prove the molestations,” or at least that the Buckeys were responsible. The supervisors requested a report “concerning this discrepancy.”

The measure also asks that if Reiner chooses not to refile the charges, that he give the attorney general an opportunity to enter the case.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who authored the non-binding resolution, told his fellow supervisors, “The testimony was remarkable . . . (and) shows the need for refiling the 13 counts.”

Supervisor Ed Edleman, the only attorney serving on the board, opposed the resolution.

“I can sympathize with what people are saying here today,” he said. “But shouldn’t this decision by the district attorney be made on the basis of the law and . . . without regard for who is saying what? . . . For us to say prosecute or don’t prosecute or to even to bring in the attorney general is highly questionable.”

Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who voted for the resolution, also showed some reservations about the Antonovich motion. “It was the longest case in U.S. history. They had their day in court.”

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Reiner, said, “We will not base our case on any political pressure” and accused the board of “inflaming” the emotions that engulfed the longest and costliest criminal trial in history.

The request by the board is unusual. County Counsel DeWitt Clinton said he cannot recall a case where the board took this level of action. And a spokesman for the attorney general also could not recall any cases in which the Board of Supervisors asked the state to enter a case. He said the attorney general would have no comment until it had reviewed the request.

Attorneys for the Buckeys have complained about the public protests against the verdict, saying that the jurors were in the best position to decide the case and that their acquittals should be accepted.

Byrne described the campaign to influence Reiner and Pounders as “very rare, as McMartin is a very unusual and rare case. . . . It has all the ingredients to arouse public passion--defendants dragged through the system and children’s claims rejected.”

In one of the more unusual elements of the campaign, a coalition of child abuse watchdog groups wrote an open letter to comedians asking that they “include in their material comments ridiculing the McMartin verdict.”

TRIAL BY TV

Parents of former McMartin students are using talk shows to retry the case they lost in court. Howard Rosenberg’s column, F1