Judge Reopens McMartin Hearing for 3 Witnesses

The judge hearing the McMartin Pre-School molestation case reversed herself Tuesday and reopened the preliminary hearing she had declared closed last month.

“To avoid any possibility that he (defense attorney Daniel Davis) could claim judicial error, I will allow him to reopen his affirmative defense solely to call three medical experts,” Municipal Judge Aviva K. Bobb ruled after hearing arguments on the matter.

On Dec. 24, Bobb had ordered the defense to present its next witness or to consider itself finished. When no witnesses were called, Bobb rested the defense’s case.

Further Questioning

She said, however, that she would allow pediatrician Astrid Heger, whose testimony had been interrupted last month, to be questioned further this week before deciding which, if any, of the seven defendants should stand trial, and on which counts.

Davis said he also plans to call Dr. Bruce Woodling, a Ventura physician who pioneered the use of the colposcope, a non-invasive instrument that allows sexual injuries to be magnified and photographed, and Dr. Kerry English, a pediatrician and noted child sexual abuse expert at Martin Luther King Medical Center.

Bobb said she believes that her previous order was “fully supported by the record before the court.” She reconsidered it, however, after hearing arguments from Davis and from the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lael Rubin, that her refusal to allow the defense to present expert witnesses might be viewed by a reviewing court as grounds for a new preliminary hearing. The hearing has already lasted 17 months.

Rubin testified that because of what she called “a screw-up for which I take full responsibility,” the defense had not been supplied with a complete set of photographic slides allegedly documenting the children’s injuries until late last month.

The Manhattan Beach preschool’s founder and six former teachers are charged with multiple counts of molestation and conspiracy involving 14 children enrolled at the school between 1978 and 1984.

In a rare split among the defense team, attorney William Powell, who represents defendant Mary Ann Jackson, argued against reopening the hearing, then moved that all charges against his client be dismissed or that her hearing be severed from that of key defendant Raymond Buckey and other defendants wishing to continue.

Lawyers for defendants Betty Raidor and Virginia McMartin said they would join in his request, and Bobb said she would probably rule on the matter this morning.