McMartin Case Father Is Sure Daughter Was Molested

A father of one of the children involved in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case testified Thursday that he does not believe that his daughter was induced or pressured into inventing tales of sexual abuse.

He said the girl denied for months that anything had happened to her at the school, but she finally described abuse in a session with a therapist using anatomically correct dolls.

“Being told she was molested was not what made me believe she had been molested,� the father said. “Seeing her on the (video) tape doing things that were physiologically abnormal with puppets . . . convinced me.�

Leading Questions

Attorneys defending school workers Peggy McMartin Buckey, and her son, Raymond Buckey, maintain that parents and therapists at Children’s Institute International suggested the children’s tales of molestation, satanism and animal mutilation at the preschool.

Buckey, 29, faces 79 counts of child molestation and one count of conspiracy. His 60-year-old mother is charged with 20 counts of molestation and one of conspiracy involving the alleged abuse of 14 toddlers over several years.

Five others at the now-defunct school originally were charged in the case, which helped focus national attention on child abuse. Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner dismissed all charges against the five, although they had been upheld by the judge in a 17-month preliminary hearing that cost the government $6 million.

The father’s name was withheld because of a directive from Superior Court Judge William Pounders to avoid publishing information that might identify the children. His daughter is tentatively scheduled to testify Monday.

Resisted Idea

The father testified that he at first resisted the idea that his daughter had been molested, even as other parents and then the news media circulated tales of abuse.

He defended the therapist’s methods, which include what the defense has called leading questions.

“We’re talking about children here,� the father told defense attorney Daniel Davis. “The questions that they asked were certainly leading. However, that’s the only way you could get kids to admit anything had happened to them.�

The father, the first parent to take the stand in the case, said he visited the school a number of times and never saw anything to suggest that teachers were abusing the children.

“I never had a clue,� he said. “Believe me, if I’d ever had a clue I wouldn’t have sent her there.�

Concerned With Family

Asked if he ever thought to confirm the therapist’s findings or seek a second opinion on a doctor’s finding that there was physical evidence of abuse, he said he was more concerned with his family than any eventual criminal case.

“We were basically trying to deal with something that fell like an atomic bomb on our house,� the father said.

At one point, he volunteered to Davis his reaction to the defense contention that the case has been influenced by the parents’ ardor for prosecution.

“Believe me, if it were my doing I wouldn’t be here today,� the father said, adding the decision to testify was reached after long talks with his wife and daughter. “It’s not something that we all wanted to do, it’s something that we decided was the right thing to do. Not what was best for us, but the right thing to do.�