Witness, 11, Breaks Down on Stand at Buckey Trial : McMartin case: Girl asks for a break while testifying in molestation case. She returns after an hour, but answers most questions with “I can’t remember.”

An 11-year-old girl testifying in the retrial of McMartin molestation defendant Ray Buckey broke down under cross-examination Thursday morning, left the courtroom and--for about an hour--refused to return.

The girl, who did not testify in the original McMartin trial and was seen by prosecutors as an important new element in their case, came back only after a long recess. She then completed her testimony without further incident, her parents taking turns standing next to her for support.

The girl’s two days of testimony marked a rocky start for prosecutors, who are retrying Buckey on eight counts that an earlier jury could not resolve. Buckey, who has denied any wrongdoing, was acquitted in the first trial on the majority of charges against him.

The girl, whose testimony is needed to support two of the counts, is one of only three alleged child victims expected to testify at the retrial. Prosecutors had hoped that she would provide compelling new evidence against Buckey. Her answer to most questions, however, was, “I can’t remember.”

During her first day of testimony Wednesday, the girl had told jurors that the former Manhattan Beach nursery school teacher fondled her and took photographs of her as part of a game that came to be known as “naked movie star.” She said he had threatened to harm her family and underscored his threat by stabbing a turtle to death. She stuck to her story Thursday.

But on both days she testified that she could not remember him ever performing the specific sex acts with which he has been charged: putting a foreign object in her vagina and anus.

The defense said it had disproved the charges; the prosecution said her testimony still supports two child molestation counts, defined as “a lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14.”

After her first day on the stand, the girl’s parents told prosecutors she was reluctant to return to court. She expressed these feelings to prosecutors herself Thursday morning before finally agreeing to resume.

She answered only a few questions before interrupting the proceedings to complain of a stomachache and to ask for a break. Defense attorney Danny Davis had been questioning her gently about pain in her bottom when she attended McMartin seven years ago.

“She couldn’t say why she was upset,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Pam Ferrero, one of two prosecutors handling the retrial. “But it’s not hard to figure out: the questions bring up memories of things she has been trying to repress.”

Because of the girl’s cloudy memory of events that allegedly transpired seven to nine years ago, Ferrero said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg had decided even before she took the stand that he would find her “legally unavailable” in any area she could not remember. The finding enabled both sides to read aloud to the jury sections from her earlier testimony before a county grand jury and at a preliminary hearing.

She did not testify at Buckey’s first trial, in which he was acquitted of most of the charges. Prosecutors at that trial attempted to support counts involving her with testimony from her parents and a physician who examined her; the jury was unable to agree on a verdict.

Late Thursday, jurors viewed a videotaped interview with the second alleged child victim scheduled to testify. A young woman who worked at the preschool will take the witness stand today. The McMartin court will not be in session next week.

The retrial is expected to last six to nine months, although defense lawyer Davis says he has information that only two of the three children named in the criminal complaint will actually testify.

If convicted, Buckey could receive a maximum sentence of 22 years in prison. He already has spent five years behind bars but is now free on his own recognizance.