Buckey to Be Retried : DA’s Office Will Pursue 13 Unresolved Charges : Judge Sets Resumption on March 9

Raymond Buckey will be retried on the 13 counts of child molestation and conspiracy that left jurors deadlocked in the marathon McMartin Pre-School molestation trial, prosecutors announced today.

The decision came after long meetings with Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner and after a loud public campaign by parents whose children attended the McMartin nursery school.

The parents had appeared on television, called news conferences, enlisted politicians and solicited 6,000 letters supporting Buckey’s re-prosecution.

“This is a positive step for us,” said Marymae Cioffi, a McMartin parent who led the campaign to retry Buckey. “I’m going to run home and tell my kids we get another chance.”

“Everybody, the public and the families involved, is entitled to a resolution of this case,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Lael Rubin told reporters. She and co-prosecutor Roger Gunson insisted the blitz of news conferences and TV talk show appearances did not influence their decision to go forward.

Buckey’s civil attorney, Scott Bernstein, said outside court the decision was “outrageous” and “a combination of pressure and politics.”

The prosecutors could have dismissed the 13 counts after Buckey, 31, and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, 63, were acquitted by a jury on 52 other molestation charges.

Their trial was the longest and costliest in U.S. history and Superior Court Judge William Pounders said the facts involved in the remaining 13 counts “mitigate in favor of a long second trial.” He said he hoped the charges could be “scoped down” to shorten the proceedings.

Prosecutors said they would call only 15 witnesses and hoped to try the case in three months. But Pounders suggested it might be hard to find jurors who had not been swayed by publicity surrounding the Jan. 18 verdicts.

Pounders, who said he agreed with the decision to go forward with a new trial, urged that it begin quickly because “the range of emotions is very high. . . . There are a lot of people still sitting in agony. We should seek an end to this as soon as possible.”

He set a March 9 trial date, but conceded that could be complicated by a motion filed today by Buckey’s attorney, Danny Davis, charging Pounders with prejudice against the defense and asking that he be removed from the case. Pounders said he would challenge the motion, telling Davis: “I do not feel I’m biased against you or your client.”

After the hearing ended, Davis flared at reporters: “I think you should get your comments henceforth from the judge, who joined the prosecution in refiling this case.”

He suggested that Pounders, who heard nearly three years of evidence in the case, should have dismissed the counts on his own motion in the interest of justice.

The judge said in court he was ready to preside at the new trial.

“If someone has to be on the hot seat, I will still be here to develop ulcers and a weak heart. . . . I know no other judge is anxious to sit in my place.”

The McMartin case has been in the Los Angeles courts for six years and originally included seven defendants. Only Buckey and his mother stood trial. The case cost taxpayers over $13 million.

On Jan. 18, jurors acquitted Buckey and his mother of 52 molestation charges but deadlocked on 13 charges against Buckey. His mother did not attend today’s court session since she is no longer a defendant. Buckey was released on his own recognizance pending a new trial.

He spent nearly five years in jail before he was released on $1.5-million bail last February. After the jury verdicts, Pounders exonerated the bail.

Jurors who spent nearly three years hearing the case said the prosecution failed to prove 52 of the molestation counts. They said their votes on the deadlocked counts weighed on the side of acquittal. Some jurors said they believed children were molested but weren’t convinced it happened at the McMartin school.