The Longest Trial - A Post-Mortem; Collapse of Child-Abuse Case: So Much Agony for So Little

By ROBERT REINHOLD, Special to The New York Times

Published: January 24, 1990

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 23—
The case of the Virginia McMartin Preschool began six years ago with lurid news reports of children being raped and sodomized, of dead rabbits, mutilated corpses and a horse killing, and of blood drinking, satanic rituals and the sacrifice of a live baby in a church.

In the end, it was all swept away by a Los Angeles County jury that with the patience of Job and an almost majestic disregard for the controversy swirling around them, rejected nearly all the child-molesting counts against the two defendants, Raymond Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, after a 30-month trial.

Correct or not, the verdict left open the question of how such a case could have gone so far, costing the taxpayers an estimated $15 million, and produced so little. Lael Rubin, the co-prosecutor, said after the verdict for the defendants on Thursday: ''The system worked well for them. They were lucky.''

Second-Guessing Mounts

But an examination of the tortuous history of the McMartin case, which produced the longest trial in American criminal history, suggests it was more than just bad luck that doomed the prosecution's case.

Those involved say that much of the evidence was unconvincing from the outset; that there were also mistakes by the prosecution, too many charges, questionable techniques to elicit accusations from the children, inordinate delays by Mr. Buckey's lawyer, Danny Davis, political pressures and public hysteria fanned by gullible initial news reports.

The verdict - not guilty on 52 counts, deadlocks on 13 others - enraged many, particularly the children's parents. Even some jurors said that they were not fully convinced of Mr. Buckey's innocence, but that the prosecution had failed to mount sufficient evidence. Others saw a grave miscarriage of justice for Mr. Buckey, who spent five years in jail before raising bail, and his mother, who spent nearly two years in jail and lost the family-owned school in suburban Manhattan Beach.

The verdict represented something of an embarrassment not only for the prosecution but also for some in the news media, particularly KABC-TV, the local ABC station, which first reported the accusations; ''20/20,'' the national ABC News program, as well as The Los Angeles Times and other newspapers that gave full credibility to the police in trumpeting the charges in 1984.

The verdict has produced a self-examination by the media, most notably a four-part series in The Los Angeles Times in which David Shaw, who covers the news media for the newspaper, asserted that his own newspaper consistently favored the prosecution and failed to give critical scrutiny to its charges.

Moreover, complex liaisons developed between the accusers and the news media that may or may not have influenced the coverage. The KABC reporter who first disclosed the McMartin accusations, Wayne Satz, later entered into a romantic relationship with Kee MacFarlane, the social worker at the Children's Institute International, a Los Angeles child therapy center, who interviewed scores of the children and elicited the charges of child molesting from them.

More recently, David Rosenzweig, the former metropolitan editor of The Los Angeles Times who supervised the coverage of the case for some time, has become engaged to marry Ms. Rubin, the prosecutor. All involved deny any conflict of interest or improprieties.

Mr. Satz said he would not comment on his relationship with Ms. MacFarlane except to say: ''I am satisfied I never had a conflict of interest. Everything that might influence our coverage was reported dutifully to management and ABC counsel. They saw no impropriety.''

According to The Los Angeles Times, Mr. Rosenzweig did not meet Ms. Rubin until July 1988, more than four years after the case begane, and then removed himself from any role in the coverage soon after.

The McMartin case was one of the earliest and perhaps most sensational of the child-molesting cases that have arisen in recent years with new public awareness and concern about child abuse generally. While this prosecution failed, experts say better forensic and prosecutorial techniques have resulted in convictions and many other cases.

The Beginning

A Complaint, And Then Panic

The case began in August 1983 with a call to the Manhattan Beach police from Judy Johnson, asserting that her son had been molested by Raymond Buckey at the school. Mr. Buckey was arrested but quickly released for lack of evidence. Mrs. Johnson later wrote a letter to the district attorney saying her son went to an armory behind her house and went with Peggy Buckey. ''The goatman was there,'' she wrote, ''At the armory it was a ritual-type atmosphere.'' She went on to write that her child was then taken to a church where ''Peggy drilled a child under the arms'' and ''Ray flew in the air.''

In an effort to gain evidence, the police department sent a letter to 200 parents of current and former children at the school. The letter said investigators suspected ''possible criminal acts'' at the school, including oral sex, handling of genitals, and sodomy. ''Any information from your child,'' the letter said, ''regarding having ever observed Ray Buckey to leave a classroom alone with a child during any nap period, or if they ever observed Ray Buckey tie up a child, is important.''