SOUTHLAND : Buckey Judge Says He Refused to Talk on Phone With Reiner

The judge in the McMartin Pre-School molestation trial said today that Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner tried to contact him last week, apparently to discuss reports of plea-bargain discussions in the case.

Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg said he refused to speak with Reiner on the telephone, saying it would be improper for him to do so because he was presiding over the retrial of former McMartin teacher Ray Buckey on eight molestation counts.

“I personally cannot conceive of any reason why Mr. Reiner would want to communicate with me,” Weisberg, appearing angry, told lawyers in the case as the retrial resumed after a one-week recess.

Weisberg said that, while in New York last Tuesday to attend the graduation of his stepson from Columbia University, one of Reiner’s investigators telephoned him and said that “Ira Reiner wanted to talk to me the next morning and wanted to know if I would make myself available.”

The investigator said Reiner apparently wanted to talk with Weisberg about an article in the Daily Journal, a Los Angeles legal newspaper, that reported that prosecutors had discussed a possible plea bargain with Buckey’s attorney, Danny Davis. The judge said he refused the next day to speak with Reiner.