Judge Drops Molestation Charges

Charges against a former South Bay preschool aide accused of sexually molesting five girls were dismissed Friday after a prosecutor said the girls’ parents did not want them to testify in a second trial. The dismissal came two weeks after jurors were unable to reach a verdict in the first trial of Michael Ruby.

Torrance Superior Court Judge William C. Beverly, acting on a motion by defense attorney William MacCabe, Friday dismissed the 11 counts of child molestation against the 18-year-old Ruby.

“I’m innocent and I’m sorry that didn’t come out at the trial,” Ruby said outside the courtroom.

Glenn Ruby said he has “no doubt” that his son is innocent of the charges. “If there had been some further investigation before the preliminary hearing, it is my opinion this trial would have never taken place,” he said.

Ruby was charged with molesting the girls at the now-closed Manhattan Ranch Preschool between September, 1983, and July, 1984.

During his 11-week trial, five girls, between the ages of 5 and 7, testified that he molested them and then threatened to kill their parents if they told anyone.

Jurors, however, said that inconsistencies in the girls’ testimony about where and how often they were molested caused them to deadlock after 13 days of deliberations.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lisa Hart, who prosecuted the case, said the decision not to retry Ruby was not a matter of “pulling out” but, rather, one of “consideration for the children.”

She said: “I understand the parents’ position completely. I have lived with them through this ordeal.”

Hart, who during the trial acknowledged to jurors that some of the children’s testimony was confusing, said she hopes the “public and the legal system become more sensitized” with the problems of child witnesses as a result of the case.

“I talked to my daughter and she was actually willing to go back through it again, which really surprised me,” said the mother of one of the girls who had testified in the first trial.

“Yet I felt our family couldn’t go through this kind of experience another time. It was really trying to sit back and watch your daughter up there (on the stand). It was more than we felt we could deal with again,” the mother said after court adjourned Friday.

Of the string of South Bay nursery schools closed since 1984 because of child abuse allegations, the Manhattan Ranch case is the first in which a defendant has stood trial.