Parents Call It ‘Sham’ as Buckey Prosecution Rests

After less than three weeks of testimony, prosecutors in the retrial of McMartin Pre-School defendant Ray Buckey rested their case Friday.

The abrupt halt to the case, which heard testimony from only three alleged child victims, brought expressions of surprise and shock from some parents of former students at the Manhattan Beach nursery school who said they had expected a more extensive case.

They promptly labeled the proceedings “a sham trial for political purposes, an appeasement trial.” They were referring to Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner’s decision to retry Buckey, 32, on eight of the 13 charges unresolved at his first trial. Reiner, a candidate for state attorney general, announced that he would proceed against Buckey after intense lobbying from parents.

Prosecutors maintain that they have merely streamlined a case already reduced in scope. In the original trial, which broke records for length and cost, Buckey was found not guilty of 40 charges against him, and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, was acquitted on all 12 charges lodged against her.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Joe Martinez expressed confidence in the case despite the bare-bones presentation. “We said it would be tried differently this time,” Martinez said.

Defense attorney Danny Davis did not return calls from The Times. Davis has predicted that the defense case would take two months.

Martinez said that he and co-prosecutor Pam Ferrero are “focusing on the issues and presenting only relevant evidence. We want to paint a clear, concise picture. That doesn’t take an epic trial.”

Added Martinez: “We put on everything that is relevant to getting a conviction. We avoided a lot of things that might confuse a jury. . . . All that matters is whether he molested these little girls.”

The retrial has been in sharp contrast to the original trial.

The prosecution’s case took only 13 days, in contrast to the first trial’s 15 months.

A jury was impaneled in 13 days, despite the publicity the case has generated since its inception seven years ago. Selecting the first jury took three months.

Opening statments lasted hours, not days as in the first trial.

Cross-examination was brief. Child witnesses began and ended their testimony in less than two court days. During the preliminary hearing and first trial, children were kept on the stand for days or weeks.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg, known for his efficient handling of cases, has moved things along, refusing to agree to delays requested by the defense.

The prosecution presented only 11 witnesses in the retrial, compared to 61 at the earlier proceedings. They included the three girls named in eight molestation counts against Buckey, their parents, and a pediatrician who examined them and said she found physical evidence of sexual abuse.

On the witness stand, all three girls insisted that Buckey had sexually abused them in a variety of ways, although they could not recall details, frequently answering, “I don’t remember.” Their testimony, coming a decade after the alleged incidents, was often inconsistent with earlier statements they made in interviews and other court proceedings.

There is a sense of deja vu about the trial, since most of the witnesses have testified repeatedly in earlier proceedings. Testimony has been predictable and largely devoid of emotion.

On Thursday, however, a mother broke down on the witness stand when asked what her daughter had told her about the alleged molestations. Glaring at Buckey, she burst out, “I’m so angry at you I could kill you right now!”

The final witness Friday was a U.S. Customs inspector who contacted prosecutors after reading that one child had described Buckey as having had a mustache and beard, which the defense contends he has never had.

The agent, Mitchell Malpee, testified that he had known Buckey for years and had seen him running on the beach in the early 1980s. He said he recognized him but noted something strange about his appearance; then he realized it was that Buckey had grown a sparse mustache.

On Friday, as defense attorneys prepared to begin their case, Weisberg ruled, as have three judges previously, that they are not entitled to therapy records of the alleged child victims.

Meanwhile, some McMartin parents who have become activists in the movement against child sexual abuse said they feel betrayed by what seemed to them a hurried, perfunctory trial.

“What kind of a case is this?” asked one, who asked not to be identified by name and noted that many other children are anxious to testify as corroborating witnesses. “This is a sham.”

Said parent Marilyn Salas: “People call us obsessed because we can’t put it behind us. But we feel a certain responsibility: This is the only (molestation) case that has national attention and a lot of people elsewhere have embraced it as their own.

“We’re not going to stop even when this (trial) is over.”