Give ‘Independent Verdict,’ McMartin Lawyer Asks Jurors : Trial: In his final argument in a lengthy case, a defense attorney warns of ‘medical evidence that may have been fabricated.’

Six years since the first arrest in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case, the defense spoke for the last time in court Thursday, asking the jury to “keep your health and keep your head and keep on the case--and please give both sides your fair, objective and independent verdict.”

Forcefully winding up 5 1/2 days of final arguments, lawyer Danny Davis, who represents defendant Ray Buckey, attacked the integrity of the prosecution for its use of a jailhouse informant and for allegedly shaping children’s testimony. He characterized the case as based on “insinuendos” and “unreliable medical evidence that may have been fabricated.”

“If we find that it was (symptoms of) diarrhea (rather than molestation) and Manhattan Beach went berserk,” triggering the longest and costliest criminal case in world history, he said, then “the horror that this case is a sham is absolutely numbing.”

The lawyer was referring to the 2 1/2-year-old boy whose mother, now dead, made the first complaint against “Mr. Ray” in 1983.

As a result, Manhattan Beach police sent parents a form letter about the investigation that created hysteria, resulting in charges being filed against the founder and six other teachers at the family owned nursery school and the closure of nine area preschools.

Davis argued that the prosecution had failed to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the alleged crimes occurred or, if they did, that they were committed by his client and they fell within the six-year period covered by the statute of limitations.

He urged the eight-man, four-woman jury to give Buckey “the benefit of the doubt.”

Buckey, now 31, and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, 62, are charged with 65 counts of molestation and conspiracy involving 11 children, nine of whom testified against them.

Charges against the other five defendants were dropped by the district attorney’s office for insufficient evidence, despite a preliminary hearing judge’s finding that all should stand trial.

After one day of final arguments by lawyer Dean Gits, who represents Peggy McMartin Buckey, Davis used the remaining 5 1/2 days allotted to the defense by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders in an attempt to refute the allegations, examining the evidence child by child and count by count.

Davis said the allegations are “defined, impossible, unreal occurrences” that for the most part would have had to happen either when his client was not at the seaside nursery school or with the knowledge of the other teachers, all of whom testified that they observed nothing even remotely suspicious.

The defense lawyer said the “lovely, rehearsed” children appeared to have memorized their testimony after suggestive interviews by therapists and coaching by the prosecution. And he told the panel if they believe the witnesses’ accounts of molestation they will also have to accept their bizarre tales of abuse in a carwash and grocery, and of animal mutilation and satanic-like rituals.

“You can still love children and want to believe them, but you cannot rely on their testimony,” he contended.

Earlier, Davis warned jurors not to get caught up in the present-day “children’s movement” by making his client “a scapegoat.” He compared the McMartin case to the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy hearings, both of which punished innocent people.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lael Rubin will have the last word. The prosecution has saved 3 1/2 days of its allotted time for her closing arguments, beginning today.

The case will go to the jury next week.