Jurors Say Prosecution Never Demonstrated Buckey Responsibility

Jurors in the the McMartin child molestation trial said today that they believe some of the preschool children were molested but that the prosecution never established that the defendants were responsible.

Preschool operators Raymond Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, were acquitted on 52 child molestation charges. The jury deadlocked on 12 sex abuse counts against Buckey and one conspiracy count against him and his mother.

In a courtroom interview after the verdicts were read, seven of the jurors were asked how many of them thought that some of the children had been molested. All raised their hands.

“I believe that some of the children may have been molested, but proving it was kind of shaky,” said juror Daryl Hutchins, a statement echoed by several other jurors.

Said juror Brenda Williams: “Even if you accept that the children were molested, it didn’t necessarily mean they were molested at the McMartin preschool. . . . We did the best job we could do with the information that was given us.”

The jurors also said parents’ fears and the techniques of psychologists who interviewed the students may have planted ideas in the children’s heads.

“I believe that the children believed what they were saying was true in the courtroom,” said Julie Peters, one of the jurors. “At CII (Childrens Institute International, where psychologists conducted taped interviews with the children) I could not tell from watching the tape that the children were telling what actually happened to them or if they were repeating what their parents told them.”

Juror John Breece said: “We did not get, in the children’s own words, their story. We had videotapes. . . . Interviewers at CII asked leading questions in such a manner that we never got the children’s story in their own words.”

Juror Williams agreed. “I think that if CII tapes had not been” introduced, it might have been easier for the panel, she said.

Juror Hutchins, who has two preschool-age children, said the CII interviewer’s “technique was rather bad in choice.” He said “if they would have got the child to come forward without using leading questions, almost badgering the child, it would have been a lot easier.”

The jurors had been deliberating the fate of the Buckeys since Nov. 2, after hearing 2 1/2 years of testimony.

Several jurors said their lives changed during the trial. One male juror said that the trial had become “a job” and that it would be an adjustment to get back to his real job. Another said that his business went under during the trial, and he now needed a job. Another said his wife died and he remarried. A woman juror said she married during the trial.

As for the pressures on the jury, Peters said, “It’s been very hard.”

“There were days when I didn’t know if I could stand it anymore,” she said. “I think it’s going to be very hard getting back into the real world.”

The trial judge, Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders, encouraged the jurors to speak with the news media to explain their verdicts. Seven jurors met with reporters and answered questions. Two were interviewed privately. Three declined to speak with reporters.

All the jurors agreed that no one had come out of the case a winner.

“I think everybody was a victim. I don’t think anybody came out of this case better off than they were before,” Peters said.

“I think they’ve lost reputations. . . . Obviously, they lost business. It’s sad,” she said.