McMartin preschool trial
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[[Image:Virginiamcmartin.jpg|thumb|Virginia McMartin]]
The '''McMartin preschool trial''' was a day care sexual abuse case of the 1980s. Members of the McMartin family, who operated a [[preschool]] in [[California]], were charged with numerous acts of [[sexual abuse]] of children in their care. After six years of criminal trials, no convictions were obtained, and all charges were dropped in 1990. It was the longest and most expensive criminal trial of its time.<ref name=NYT1>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= Los Angeles Presses Inquiry Into Sexual Abuse of Children. ||url=http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F50E1EFC345D0C728CDDAD0894DC484D81 |publisher=[[Associated Press]] n [[New York Times]]|date=[[April 1]], [[1984]] |accessdate=2007-07-29 }}</ref><ref name=Peggy/> Accusations were made in 1983. Arrests and the pretrial investigation ran from 1984 to 1987, and the trial ran from 1987 to 1990.
==Initial allegations==
In 1983, Judy Johnson (1944-1986), mother of one of the [[Manhattan Beach, California|Manhattan Beach]], [[California]] preschool's young students, complained to the police that her son had been [[sodomy|sodomized]] by her estranged husband and by McMartin teacher Ray Buckey, who was the grandson of school founder Virginia McMartin and son of administrator Peggy McMartin Buckey (1926-2001).<ref name=cl/><ref name=Peggy>{{cite news |first=Margaret |last=Talbot |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The Lives They Lived: 01-07-01: Peggy McMartin Buckey, b. 1926; The Devil in The Nursery. |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00EFD8103BF934A35752C0A9679C8B63 |publisher=[[New York Times]] |date=[[January 7]], [[2001]] |accessdate=2008-04-05 }}</ref>
Judy Johnson's belief began when her son had painful [[bowel movements]]. What happened next is still disputed. Some sources state that at that time, he denied her suggestion that his preschool teachers had molested him.<ref name=eberle/><ref name=cl/> One source stated that a hospital exam confirmed he was sodomized, and that he named a teacher at the school as the perpetrator. <ref name="tamarkin">{{cite web | last = Tamarkin | first = Civia | title = Investigative Issues in Ritual Abuse Cases, Part I and Part II | publisher = Treating Abuse Today | date = 1994 | url = http://abusearticles.wordpress.com/2007/12/02/investigative-issues-in-ritual-abuse-cases-part-1-and-2-1994/ | accessdate=2007-12-09 }}</ref>
In addition, she also made several more extravagant accusations, including that people at the daycare had sexual encounters with animals.<ref name=policenotes>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |author= |coauthors= |title =Notes from an Interview with Judy Johnson (archived) |url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcmartin/johnsoninterview.html |format= |work= |publisher=[[University of Missouri–Kansas City]] |id= |pages= |page= |date=[[February 15]], [[1984]] |accessdate=2007-10-31 |language= |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5T6NftvoU |archivedate=2007-10-31 }}</ref> Ray Buckey was questioned, but was not prosecuted due to lack of evidence. The police then sent an [[open letter]] to about 200 parents of students at the McMartin school, stating that their children might have been abused, and asking the parents to question their children:<ref name=cl/>
<blockquote>
[[September 8]], [[1983]]. Dear Parent: This Department is conducting a criminal investigation involving child molestation (288 P.C.) Ray Buckey, an employee of Virginia McMartin's Pre-School, was arrested September 7, 1983 by this Department. The following procedure is obviously an unpleasant one, but to protect the rights of your children as well as the rights of the accused, this inquiry is necessary for a complete investigation. Records indicate that your child has been or is currently a student at the pre-school. We are asking your assistance in this continuing investigation. Please question your child to see if he or she has been a witness to any crime or if he or she has been a victim. Our investigation indicates that possible criminal acts include: oral sex, fondling of genitals, buttock or chest area, and sodomy, possibly committed under the pretense of "taking the child's temperature." Also photos may have been taken of children without their clothing. Any information from your child regarding having ever observed Ray Buckey to leave a classroom alone with a child during any nap period, or if they have ever observed Ray Buckey tie up a child, is important. Please complete the enclosed information form and return it to this Department in the enclosed stamped return envelope as soon as possible. We will contact you if circumstances dictate same. We ask you to please keep this investigation strictly confidential because of the nature of the charges and the highly emotional effect it could have on our community. Please do not discuss this investigation with anyone outside your immediate family. Do not contact or discuss the investigation with Raymond Buckey, any member of the accused defendant's family, or employees connected with the McMartin Pre-School.<ref>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Letter to McMartin Preschool Parents from Police Chief Kuhlmeyer, Jr. |url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcmartin/lettertoparents.html |publisher=[[University of Missouri–Kansas City]] |date=[[September 8]], [[1983]] |accessdate=2007-08-21 }}</ref>
</blockquote>
Judy Johnson was diagnosed with acute schizophrenia<ref name=Peggy/><ref name=mh1>{{cite news |last =Wilson | first =Mike |title =A Search For Victims Quest Search For The Truth In California Child Abuse Case Has Cost The Taxpayers Six Years, $15 Million. | pages =1C |publisher =[[Miami Herald]] |date =1989-11-13 |accessdate=2007-08-21}}</ref><ref name=mh2>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Child-Abuse Case Ends In 2 Acquittals Preschool Trial Lasted 32 Months. |publisher=[[Miami Herald]] |date=[[January 19]], [[1990]] |accessdate=2007-08-21 }}</ref> and in 1986 was found dead in her home from complications of [[chronic alcoholism]].<ref>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Sex Case Accuser is Found Dead. |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9A0DE6DF1038F932A15751C1A960948260 |publisher=[[New York Times]] |date=[[December 21]], [[1986]] |accessdate=2007-08-21 }}</ref><ref name=cl/>
==Interviewing and examining the children==
{{weaselwords}}
Several hundred children were then questioned by the Children’s Institute International (CII), a [[Los Angeles]] abuse therapy clinic. By spring of 1984, 360 children had been identified as having been abused. [[Astrid Heppenstall Heger]] performed medical examinations and took photos of minute scarring purportedly caused by anal penetration. Critics have alleged that the questioners asked the children [[leading question]]s, repetitively, which, it is said,{{who?}} always yields positive responses from young children, making it impossible to know what the child actually experienced. Some claim the questioning itself may have led to [[false-memory syndrome]] among the children who were questioned.<ref name=cl/><ref name=eberle/>
==Bizarre allegations==
Some of the accusations were bizarre.<ref name=policenotes/> It was alleged that, in addition to having been sexually abused, they saw witches fly, traveled in a hot-air balloon, and were taken through underground tunnels.<ref name=eberle>{{cite book |last=Eberle |first=Paul |authorlink=Paul Eberle |coauthors= |title=The Abuse of Innocence: The McMartin Preschool Trial |year=1993 |publisher=Prometheus Books |isbn=0879758090 }}</ref> When shown a series of photographs by Danny Davis, the McMartins' lawyer, one child identified actor [[Chuck Norris]] as one of the abusers.<ref name=cl>{{cite news |first=Katherine |last=Ramsland |authorlink=Katherine Ramsland |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/mcmartin_daycare/5.html |title=McMartin Daycare Case |accessdate=2007-08-26 |publisher=[[Crime Library]] }}</ref> There were claims of orgies at car washes and airports, and of children being flushed down toilets to secret rooms where they would be abused, then cleaned up and presented back to their unsuspecting parents. Some children said they were made to play a game called "Naked Movie Star" in which they were photographed nude.<ref name=NYT1/><ref name=eberle/><blockquote>"What surprised me as an investigative journalist was that nobody looked beyond the seemingly fanciful nature of the disclosures. Nobody tried to interpret what the disclosures might mean through a child's frame of reference and perception. Nobody searched for plausible explanation....children talked about...improbable events like jumping out of airplanes and seeing a horse killed. Yet, investigators did not track reports that Raymond Buckey had a friend who ran a special effects studio or that Virginia McMartin's sister owned a horse ranch."<ref name="tamarkin">{{cite web | last = Tamarkin | first = Civia | title = Investigative Issues in Ritual Abuse Cases, Part I and Part II | publisher = Treating Abuse Today | date = 1994 | url = http://abusearticles.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/ra_cases1_19.jpg | accessdate=2007-12-09 }}</ref></blockquote>
==Trial==
In March 1984, Virginia McMartin, Peggy McMartin Buckey, Ray Buckey, Ray's sister Peggy Ann Buckey and teachers Mary Ann Jackson, Bette Raidor, and Babette Spitler were charged with 208 counts of child abuse. In the 20 months of preliminary hearings, the prosecution, led by attorney Lael Rubin, presented their theory of [[sexual abuse]]. The children's testimony during the preliminary hearings was inconsistent.<ref>{{cite news |last=Lindsay |first=Robert |date=[[January 27]], [[1985]] |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40D13FA395F0C748EDDA80894DD484D81 |title=Boy's Responses At Sex Abuse Trial Underscore Legal Conflict.| publisher = [[New York Times]]}}</ref> [[Michelle Smith (author)|Michelle Smith]], co-author of ''[[Michelle Remembers]]'', met with the parents and children involved in the trial, and was believed by the initial prosecutor Glenn Stevens to have influenced the children's testimony.<ref name = Victor>{{cite book|title=Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend|author=Victor, Jeffery S.|publisher= [[Open Court Publishing Company]]|date=1993|isbn=081269192X | pages = 15}}</ref> In 1986, a new district attorney called the evidence "incredibly weak," and dropped all charges against Virginia McMartin, Peggy Ann Buckey, Mary Ann Jackson, Bette Raidor and Babette Spitler. Peggy McMartin Buckey and Ray Buckey remained in custody awaiting trial; Peggy McMartin's bail had been set at $1 million and Ray Buckey had been denied bail. The cases went to trial, and in 1990, after three years of testimony and nine weeks of deliberation by the jury, Peggy McMartin Buckey was acquitted on all counts.<ref name=mh2/> Ray Buckey was cleared on 39 of 52 counts, and freed on bail after more than five years in jail. He was retried later on six of the 13 counts, which produced another [[hung jury]]. The prosecution then gave up trying to obtain a conviction, and the case was closed with all charges against Ray Buckey dismissed. He had been jailed for 5 years without ever being convicted of any wrongdoing.<ref name=NYT1><ref name=cl/><ref>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=McMartin preschool |url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/fuster/lessons/outcomes.html |publisher=[[Frontline]] |date= |accessdate=2007-08-21 }}</ref> Nine of 11 jurors at a press conference following the trial stated that they believed the children had been molested. These same jurors stated that they believed that the evidence did not allow them to state who had committed the abuse beyond a reasonable doubt. <ref>{{cite news | coauthors = Tracy Wilkinson and James Rainey | title = Tapes of Children Decided the Case for Most Jurors. | publisher= [[Los Angeles Times]]| url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/59948995.html?dids=59948995:59948995&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jan+19%2C+1990&author=TRACY+WILKINSON%3BJAMES+RAINEY&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=1&desc=Tapes+of+Children+Decided+the+Case+for+Most+Jurors | pages = A1 and A2 | date = Friday, January 19, 1990}}</ref>
==Media coverage==
[[Wayne Satz]], at the time a reporter for the Los Angeles ABC affiliate television station [[KABC-TV|KABC]], reported on the case and the children's allegations. He presented an unchallenged view of the children's and parents' claims.<ref name=shaw>{{cite news |first=David |last=Shaw |authorlink=David Shaw (writer) |coauthors= |title=Reporter's Early Exclusives Triggered a Media Frenzy |url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/2031662.html?dids=2031662&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS&type=current&date=Jan+20%2C+1990&author=Shaw%2C+David&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=A1&desc=Reporter%27s+Early+Exclusives+Triggered+a+Media+Frenzy | publisher=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=[[January 20]], [[1990]] |accessdate=2007-07-21 }}</ref> Satz later entered into a romantic relationship with Kee MacFarlane, the social worker at the Children's Institute International, who was interviewing the children. Another instance of media conflict of interest occurred when David Rosenzweig, the editor at the [[Los Angeles Times]] overseeing the coverage, became engaged to marry Lael Rubin, the prosecutor.<ref name=macfarlane>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= The Longest Trial - A Post-Mortem; Collapse of Child-Abuse Case: So Much Agony for So Little. |url=http://holysmoke.org/sdhok/sat17.htm |publisher=[[New York Times]] |date=[[January 24]], [[1990]] |accessdate=2007-08-21 }}</ref>
==Legacy==
The McMartin preschool itself was closed and leveled. Three of the accused have died since the trial concluded. In 2005, newspapers reported that a child had retracted his story and said he lied, believing he was protecting his younger siblings, and pleasing his parents.<ref>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=McMartin Preschool Accuser Recants. |url=http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/1931362.html |publisher=[[Daily Breeze]] |date=[[October 30]], [[2005]] |accessdate=2007-08-21 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=I'm Sorry; A long-delayed apology from one of the accusers in the notorious McMartin Pre-School molestation case. |url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/918692601.html?dids=918692601:918692601&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Oct+30%2C+2005&author=Kyle+Zirpolo%2C+as+told+to+Debbie+Nathan&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=I.10&desc=I%27m+Sorry%3B+A+long-delayed+apology+from+one+of+the+accusers+in+the+notorious+McMartin+Pre-School+molestation+case |publisher=[[Los Angeles Times Magazine]] |date=[[October 30]], [[2005]] |accessdate=2007-08-21 }}</ref>
David Hechler, author of ''The Battle and the Backlash - The Child Sexual Abuse War,'' states:
<blockquote>
What happened at the McMartin Preschool will be debated for a long time. Few aspects of the case are clear, but it requires no strain of credulity to believe that the children could have been abused at the facility without being diagnosed by a pediatrician.
<ref>{{cite book |last= Hechler | first = David |title= The Battle and the Backlash - The Child Sexual Abuse War |year= 1988 |publisher= Lexington Books |location= Lexington, MA |isbn= 0-669-14097-x}}</ref> </blockquote>
In ''The Devil in The Nursery'', Margaret Talbot for the [[New York Times]] summarized the case:
<blockquote> When you once believed something that now strikes you as absurd, even unhinged, it can be almost impossible to summon that feeling of credulity again. Maybe that is why it is easier for most of us to forget, rather than to try and explain, the Satanic-abuse scare that gripped this country in the early 80's -- the myth that Devil-worshipers had set up shop in our day-care centers, where their clever adepts were raping and sodomizing children, practicing ritual sacrifice, shedding their clothes, drinking blood and eating feces, all unnoticed by parents, neighbors and the authorities. <ref name=Peggy/> </blockquote>
Jane McCord in the book ''Behind the Playground Walls - Sexual Abuse in Preschools'' in her chapter "A Tale of Two Communities" states that in the McMartin case:
<blockquote>
There appear to be no winners and many, many losers ... it certainly raised more questions than it ever answered.<ref>{{cite book | coauthors = Jill Waterman, Robert J. Kelly, Mary Kay Oliveri and Jane McCord | title = Behind the Playground Walls - Sexual Abuse in Preschools | publisher = The Guilford Press | date = 1993 | location = New York, London | isbn = 0-89862-523-8}}</ref>
</blockquote>
===Legal===
In many states, laws were passed allowing children to testify on closed-circuit TV so the children would not be traumatized by facing the accused. In 1988 case of ''Coy v. Iowa'' these laws were held to violate the [[Confrontation Clause]] of the [[Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], which guarantees the right of the accused to confront witnesses against them. However, this doctrine is limited; in the 1990 case ''[[Maryland v. Craig]]'', the [[United States Supreme Court]] ruled that closed circuit testimony was permissible where it was limited to circumstances in which the judge found likelihood of harm to the minor from testifying in open court. One lasting legacy of the trial is an increased understanding of how to question very young children for evidence, with an eye toward their capacity for suggestibility and [[false memories]].
===Continued allegations of secret tunnels===
An excavation undertaken in May 1990 claimed to reveal tunnels under the McMartin Preschool.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tesserae.org/tess/prose/tunnels2.html |title=Archaeological Investigations of the McMartin Preschool |accessdate=2007-10-31 |publisher=Terrerae |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5T6SrSIn1 |archivedate=2007-10-31 }}</ref> Relevant quotes from the summation are written as follows:
<blockquote>"The results of the survey by Ground penetrating Radar proved consistent with discoveries of the subsequent excavations, all of which confirmed not only the basic descriptions of children but also specific details of location, interior features and putative function." [...] "If the stories of the children were bogus fantasies, there is no excuse for the tunnels discovered under the school. If there really were tunnels, there is no excuse for the glib dismissal of any and all of the complaints of the children and their parents."</blockquote>
A 1995 article by freelance journalist John Earl published by the [[Institute for Psychological Therapies]] found that the concrete slab floor was undisturbed except for a small patch where the sewer line was tapped into. Once the slab was removed, there was no sign of any materials to line or hold up any tunnels, and there would have been no way for the defendants to fill in any possible tunnels once the investigation began. The report concluded that any disturbed soil under the slab was from the sewer line, and from construction fill buried under the slab, before it was poured. Some dated fill material under the slab was from the year 1940. Earl concludes that there were no tunnels at the preschool below ground.<ref>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The Dark Truth About the "Dark Tunnels of McMartin" |url=http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume7/j7_2_1_31.htm |publisher=IPT |date= |accessdate=2007-08-21 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5T6TIay56 |archivedate=2007-08-26 }}</ref>
Joseph Wyatt, professor of psychology at Marshall University, presented a different conclusion to the findings of Gary Stickel. After having read the report he asserted that a far likelier explanation for the findings was that they represented a trash pit, dug by the former owner of the lot prior to the construction of the pre-school. This was based on the finding of numerous bottles, tin cans, plywood as well as the former owner's old mail box. Only three small items were dated after 1966, which was the year the pre-school was built, and they were found near the edge of the concrete slab. Wyatt further speculates that Stickel's conclusions were colored by his collaboration with the parents of the McMartin children.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wyatt |first=W. Joseph |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2002 |month=Fall/winter |title=What Was Under the McMartin Preschool? A Review and Behavioral Analysis of the "Tunnels" Find |journal=Behaviour and Social Issues |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=29–39 |id= |url=http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/bsi/article/viewFile/77/96 |accessdate= 2008-04-10}}</ref>
==See also==
*[[Day care sexual abuse hysteria]]
*[[Satanic ritual abuse]]
*[[False memories]]
*''[[Indictment: The McMartin Trial]]'' - HBO film
*[[Kern county child abuse cases]]
*[[Moral panic]]
*[[Pedophilia and child sexual abuse in films]]
*[[Wee Care Nursery School]]
*[[Wenatchee sex ring]]
*[[Witch-hunt #modern usage|Witch-hunt]]
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==External links==
*[http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume7/j7_2_1.htm The Dark Truth About The "Dark Tunnels of McMartin" (John Earl, 1995)] - A 33-part comprehensive article by a freelance journalist
*[http://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_mcmar.htm McMartin preschool trial] at Religious Tolerance
*[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcmartin/mcmartin.html McMartin preschool trial] at [[University of Missouri]]
*[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/fuster/lessons/outcomes.html McMartin preschool trial] at [[Frontline]]
[[Category:History of Los Angeles, California]]
[[Category:Mass hysteria]]
[[Category:Day care sexual abuse hysteria]]
[[Category:1984 controversies]]
[[it:Caso McMartin]]
[[ja:マクマーティン幼稚園裁判]]