Girl, 10, Recounts Alleged Molestations by Buckey

The second of three children scheduled to testify in the McMartin Pre-School molestation trial told a crowded courtroom Thursday that defendant Ray Buckey urinated on her, sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her parents if she told anyone about it.

The 10-year-old witness, describing abuses that allegedly occurred while she attended the Manhattan Beach preschool as a 4-year-old, said that Buckey “stuck a pencil in my bottom” and “took a pencil and stuck it in my vagina.”

The girl, who was dressed in a black-and-white striped sailor suit and wore her shoulder length brown hair pulled back in a bow, also said that one day Buckey drove her and other children to a costume shop, where the children took bubble baths in several bathtubs and then went on an airplane ride.

She said that at the costume shop there was a fireman who changed into a ghost costume, as well as Buckey, who was dressed as a witch.

In an interview later, defense attorney Danny Davis discounted the testimony.

“We don’t have memory and fact here. It’s reconstruction and fabrication,” he said. “The fantasy of the costume shop was vivid. But the details she recalled of the alleged sexual molestations were almost nonexistent.”

One point of contradiction came when the girl said that Buckey had been naked during some of the alleged incidents.

Davis pointed out that she said during the preliminary hearing in 1983 that he was clothed.

“I have a better memory now about it,” the witness replied. “I was a little kid and didn’t know different then.”

The fifth-grader also testified Buckey had a mustache and beard when he was at the preschool.

Davis said later that “Ray Buckey has never had a beard or mustache in his life.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Joseph Martinez, however, said he believes the witness held up well under a long day of questioning, which will continue Tuesday. The prosecutor said Buckey could have had a beard and mustache for a couple of days and shaved it off. Or, he theorized, maybe the girl had become confused because an anatomical male doll used by therapists who questioned the girl after the alleged molestations had a mustache.

The witness was more relaxed than the first child who testified earlier this month. That witness said she could not remember Buckey performing the sexual acts with which he is charged.

However, the second child, who sat on the stand with a white teddy bear at her side, was calm and testified that the abuses took place.

During questioning about the alleged anal penetration with a pencil, Davis asked if she saw the pencil, or was guessing. She replied that she could not remember seeing it.

“Did it hurt?” Davis continued.

“I can’t remember,” she replied.

“What did you see?” the defense attorney persisted.

In an answer that brought laughter from the jury, the girl replied:

“Well I can’t see, can I, if my bottom is on one side of my body and my eyes are on the other side.”