McMartin Prosecution Winds Up Case; Judge to Instruct Jury

The lengthy, often tedious McMartin Pre-School molestation trial ended emotionally Wednesday, as Deputy Dist. Atty. Lael Rubin closed by slowly naming each of the 11 alleged child victims and asking the jury “to do the right thing.”

A score of McMartin parents, who filled the front rows of the crowded courtroom, sobbed softly as Rubin explained the prosecution’s theory that each young child described his or her experience with the only “tools” available to them, often weaving in seemingly bizarre details.

“It is a mistake, it is unfair, it is unconscionable to simply discount children’s testimony because certain statements seem unbelieveable,” Rubin told the Los Angeles Superior Court jury. “And I submit to you that children have told the truth of what has happened to them.

“They bottled it up for a long time inside and yet they had the courage, the ones who stuck with this, to sit on the witness stand and recount for one more time how they were molested by Raymond and by Peggy Buckey at the McMartin Pre-School.

“These stories are simply less painful ways of dealing with the truth; they’re not fantasies. Behind the facade of what supposedly was this loving, caring, wonderful preschool was a place that was really pretty horrible,” Rubin said.

After assessing the evidence--the videotaped interviews in which some youngsters told for the first time of being molested, the testimony of parents and children, the medical evidence and even testimony of defense witnesses--Rubin said, “you will see loud and clear that there were some pretty awful things that went on in that preschool at the hands of Peggy and Raymond Buckey.”

Rubin read aloud the testimony of one father, the first to testify, who told of not wanting to believe his daughter had been molested and how he gradually came to accept the fact as she opened up about what happened. He said the family had decided jointly to testify so that the truth could come out.

“I want to make you aware that this has not been something that all of us wanted to do. It’s something that we all decided was the right thing to do. Not necessarily good for us, but the right thing to do,” he had said.

Added Rubin gently, “Mr. Gunson (the co-prosecutor) and I and the children hope that you will do the right thing as well.”

The courtroom was quiet for a few seconds. Then, with a sigh, Judge William Pounders said, “That does it. That’s the end of the trial.”

Pounders said he will instruct the jury this afternoon before they begin deliberating the guilt or innocence of the defendants. Ray Buckey, 31, and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, 62, are charged with 65 counts of molestation and conspiracy. If convicted on all counts, both would face life in prison.

“The champagne is still on ice. I won’t pop the cork til the jury gives us a decision,” Pounders said, after the four-woman, eight-man panel departed.

The case--now in its third year of trial and more than six years since the first arrest--had teetered on the brink of mistrial as the jury, beset with health and job problems that tapped all six alternates, dwindled to its final 12 members.

In the prosecution’s final arguments, Deputy Dist. Atty. Roger Gunson analyzed the evidence, child by child and count by count.

Then defense attorneys Dean Gits and Danny Davis presented rebuttal, contending that the allegations were ridiculous and the crimes charged impossible.

The prosecution, which bears the burden of proof and must persuade the jury of the truth of the allegations “beyond a reasonable doubt” and “to a moral certainty,” had the last word.

Rubin addressed each of the defense’s points during her three days of closing arguments and accused it of “fooling with the evidence,” trying to trick the jury, calling some witnesses who lied and threatening and intimidating prosecution witnesses.

She defended the prosecution’s use of jailhouse informant George Freeman, who testified that Ray Buckey had admitted being a child molester.

Rubin spent considerable time discussing the medical evidence supporting the children’s accounts. Examinations of the alleged victims found that that all the girls had vaginal scarring and that more than half the group had anal scars or fissures indicative of sexual abuse.

The prosecutor also noted that several children told of improprieties at the school before the scandal broke, while others tried to signal that something was wrong by developing behavior problems or resisting going to school.

“Many of these kids tried to talk in their own way and nobody listened,” she said.