Doctor Takes the Stand in McMartin Case

A pediatrician who examined the three child witnesses in the retrial of McMartin Pre-School defendant Ray Buckey testified this week that she found physical evidence of “blunt force penetrating trauma” consistent with sexual abuse in all three.

During two days on the witness stand, Dr. Astrid Heger testified that she found vaginal scarring in the three girls and anal scarring in two of them.

“I think there’s significant trauma to this anus,” she said of one child, referring to photographs taken at the time of the examinations six years ago.

Heger is director of County-USC Medical Center’s child abuse and neglect program and an assistant professor at the University of Southern California. She is internationally known for her work in diagnosing sexual abuse in children.

Her testimony is considered key prosecution evidence that the alleged molestations are not a figment of the children’s imaginations.

Under lengthy cross-examination by defense lawyer Danny Davis, Heger maintained that there are--and were in 1984 at the time of the examinations--medical standards for diagnosing past trauma indicative of sexual abuse, and that she followed them.

She explained her findings to the jury with diagrams, photographs and slides, and said that she not only examined the children’s genitals but also conducted a complete physical examination and took a medical history from the child and a parent in each case before arriving at a diagnosis.

One of the child witnesses has testified in the retrial. The second of the alleged child victims is expected to take the stand late today.

Buckey is charged with eight counts of molestation involving the three girls, who are now approaching adolescence. They attended his family’s Manhattan Beach nursery school in the late 1970s and early ‘80s.

Buckey, who has maintained his innocence since he was arrested seven years ago, was acquitted of most of the charges against him in January. The remaining charges are among those that left an earlier jury deadlocked.