Charges Against Buckey Dismissed : McMartin case: After seven years and two trials, all molestation counts are dropped. Buckey says he is filing a lawsuit.

In a low-key, anticlimactic court hearing Wednesday, a judge finally spoke the words McMartin Pre-School molestation defendant Ray Buckey had waited seven years to hear:

“The case of the People vs. Raymond Buckey is hereby dismissed and the defendant is discharged,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg said. “All right, that’s it. That completes this case.”

Afterward, the 32-year-old former Manhattan Beach nursery school teacher, once the focus of the largest, longest and costliest criminal case in U.S. history, said he feels “scarred, but not marked” and welcomes making his own decisions about the direction of his life.

“I have to reflect; I don’t know where I’m going,” Buckey said when asked about his plans. He wants to make money, he said, but has ruled out preschool employment.

Buckey was acquitted in January of 40 counts of molestation; he was retried on eight of 13 counts left unresolved, and a second jury deadlocked on those counts last week. Weisberg declared a mistrial Friday, paving the way for the formal dismissal motion Wednesday.

Buckey said he hopes that McMartin parents will “heal” from the ordeal, as he said he is trying to do as well.

However, as proof that he does not intend to put the case behind him any more than parents who remain convinced that he sexually abused their children, Buckey later in the day announced the filing of a multimillion-dollar wrongful prosecution lawsuit.

Buckey’s suit, which alleges malicious prosecution, conspiracy, defamation and violation of his civil rights, seeks damages from Los Angeles County, the city of Manhattan Beach, former Dist. Atty. Robert Philibosian, Children’s Institute International and social worker Kee MacFarlane, ABC-TV and television newsman Wayne Satz.

Buckey said he wants to recoup some of the money his family lost fighting the case.

“What else can I do?” Buckey asked. “Do we just walk out of the criminal system and they’re not even going to say they’re sorry? Money is something that hopefully can get my family back together.”

His attorney in the lawsuit, Scott Bernstein, said the case has been placed on the Superior Court’s “fast-track” calendar and could be ready for trial within 18 months.

“All that ABC and I did was report with 100% accuracy what transpired--namely that kids made allegations, that Ray Buckey was indicted, charged by two district attorneys, bound over to trial after a long preliminary hearing,” Satz said of the lawsuit.

“All we reported was those allegations, the response of authorities and comments of suspects and defendants. Buckey is going after the messengers.”

Earlier in the day, an official request that Weisberg close the criminal case on Buckey was made by Deputy Dist. Atty. Joe Martinez, one of two prosecutors assigned to the retrial.

“I’ve been asked by the district attorney to ask this court to dismiss all counts,” he told the judge.

“Did the district attorney wish to say anything else?” asked Weisberg, a touch of sarcasm in his voice.

It was Weisberg who earlier revealed that Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner had attempted to contact him during the final stages of the retrial, apparently to express concerns it was headed for mistrial. The attempted telephone contact was seized on by Reiner’s opponent in the Democratic primary for state attorney general. Reiner lost the election.

The judge said he would “not succumb” to the temptation to quote Shakespeare or render profound thoughts as he ended the final chapter of the historic trial.

“I’ll grant the motion,” he said simply.

Outside the courtroom, Martinez said the end was “hard to swallow.” But he said he believed that it was “for the best” to end a case that shattered lives on both sides and strained the legal system over the last seven years.

“We can’t change the evidence,” Martinez said. “There were two juries who didn’t feel there was enough evidence to convict.”

Martinez said he has no regrets about the way he and Deputy Dist. Atty. Pam Ferrero presented their case.

“We lost it because of time,” he said, referring to the decade that separated the alleged acts of molestation and court testimony by alleged victims. “Regardless of the tapes (controversial videotaped interviews of children singled out by both juries as the biggest factor in their inability to accept the children’s accounts), if we had had a kid who could testify in detail, we could have won. Jurors are reluctant to convict when witnesses are so easily impeached” by past statements.

In the end, the jury said it leaned toward conviction on only one count, was split on one, and favored acquittal on six.

Buckey’s attorney, Danny Davis, urged reporters and the public to “please treat my client not only as a free man but as an innocent man.”

He likened his client to Rocky Balboa, the hero of the “Rocky” movies.

“He’s a young man who went through a test and came out a hero at the end,” Davis said. “He slayed his dragon.”