McMartin Counts Stand, Judge Rules

A Los Angeles Municipal Court judge refused today to throw out many of the 208 molestation and conspiracy counts against the seven defendants charged in the McMartin Pre-School sex case.

Defense attorneys had asked Judge Aviva K. Bobb to drop the charges on grounds that they were beyond the statute of limitations, which limits the time during which a person must be charged with a crime. The defense had argued that a new section of the California Penal Code, which went into effect in January, shortened the statute of limitations for acts of child molestation committed before 1982 from six years to three.

However, Bobb ruled in favor of the prosecution, which argued that the state Legislature inadvertently shortened the statute and did not intend to decriminalize child molestation.

“Nowhere is there any indication (of an intention) to decrease the statute of limitations,” the judge said, citing several state legislative policy papers.

Defense to Appeal

McMartin defense attorneys said they will appeal this morning’s decision.

The inadvertent shortening of the statute of limitations grew out of the Legislature’s effort to standardize sections of the Penal Code last year.

The apparent error came to light several weeks ago when Los Angeles Municipal Judge Edward L. Davenport dismissed a case against a 27-year-old man charged with molesting his 10-year-old sister-in-law five years ago. In that case, the man’s attorney argued that under the new law, the statute of limitations is three years, not six, and the judge agreed.

An emergency measure intending to clarify the Legislature’s intent in making the revisions was introduced last month, according to McMartin prosecutor Glenn Stevens.

After the ruling, the seventh child was scheduled to begin testifying in the preliminary hearing for seven former teachers at the now-closed Manhattan Beach nursery school. The witness is the sister of a 5-year-old girl, who testified Thursday that she was raped and sodomized with pencils by Raymond Buckey, a chief defendant in the case.