McMartin Pre-School Suit May Continue, Court Says : Law: U.S. justices let stand a lower ruling that revived a claim by a former defendant that there was a wrongful ‘conspiracy’ to prosecute her.

The Supreme Court on Monday gave the acquitted defendants in the McMartin preschool child molestation case another chance to seek damages from Los Angeles County and the city of Manhattan Beach for allegedly having wrongfully “conspired” to try them on unwarranted charges.

Without comment, the justices let stand a surprising ruling by a U.S. appellate court, which in February revived a $1-million damage suit that grew out of the nation’s most highly publicized case of alleged child sexual abuse.

The high court action gives lawyers for Peggy McMartin Buckey, who was co-owner of the troubled preschool, a new opportunity to persuade a judge that various officials knowingly violated the basic rights of the school’s officials and teachers.

“This means we might finally have a chance to get to a trial in our lifetime,” said James Davis, a lawyer for Buckey.

But the rulings do not mean that Buckey will prevail, only that litigation will continue.

In 1990, a jury acquitted Buckey of all the charges against her. Earlier, county prosecutors decided not to pursue charges against five other school employees.

Since then, these defendants have pursued an array of legal claims against the officials involved in the ill-fated prosecution. However, those claims were rejected in the California courts based on the principle that police and prosecutors--as well as those who aid them--are generally immune when pursuing a possible crime.

But Buckey achieved more success in the federal courts. Her federal complaint alleged that Manhattan Beach officials reacted to an allegation raised by a “paranoid” mother and then turned over the investigation to ill-trained officials of the private Children’s Institute International. In the interest of furthering his reelection campaign, then-Dist. Atty. Robert Philibosian is accused of undertaking the sensational prosecution. Buckey’s complaint also alleges that ABC-TV and reporter Wayne Satz defamed Buckey by publicizing still-secret allegations.

In response, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. threw out Buckey’s suit in 1990 and ruled that it did not state a legitimate claim for damages. Federal courts have looked askance at damage claims based on the notion of a “malicious prosecution.”

In February, however, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Buckey had raised a “distinct claim” that could result in a damage verdict.

“It is that all parties described in the complaint conspired under the color of state law to subject Buckey to the hardships and injuries which she suffered,” wrote Judge Joseph T. Sneed. He added that the judges did not know whether such a “wrongful conspiracy” could be proven. “We only indicate it is a possibility,” he said.

In two separate appeals, the many defendants in Buckey’s suit urged the high court to intervene and to declare that a “mere allegation of malicious prosecution” cannot subject officials to a damage verdict.

If allowed to stand, the 9th Circuit ruling would “sanction a cause of action . . . for every criminal defendant who is acquitted,” they said.

But the justices dismissed the appeals in the case (City of Manhattan Beach and Los Angeles County vs. Buckey, 92-560, and Children’s Institute International vs. Buckey, 92-628).