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ELIZABETH: I was two going on three
when I started going to McMartin.
FORREST: McMartin Preschool was a premiere preschool
in Manhattan Beach.
WOMAN: The preschool was a trusted
neighborhood business.
I couldn't imagine what was going on over there.
KEVIN: The child said
that Raymond Buckey had molested him.
WOMAN: They take your most prized possession
and try to dement it.
ELIZABETH: I was this three‐year‐old little girl
being made to stand in front of people
and have pictures taken of her when she was naked.
ROBERT: Small animals were actually slaughtered
in the children's presence
in order to frighten them into submission.
REPORTER: Several defendants are accused
of molesting children, including 76‐year‐old
Virginia McMartin, her daughter,
and two grandchildren.
FORREST: Searches were made in every location.
WALTER: They found nothing.
KEE: I'm Pac‐Man
and my job is to get to hear yucky secrets.
These children
are not telling the same story.
DANNY: They had a plan to use this case
to get elected into office.
ROBERT: We may be going back to the grand jury
with additional counts.
WALTER: When you turn on the TV for news,
all of the channels,
the lead story was McMartin.
The number of possible victims have multiplied
to say the least.
FORREST: It was blasted daily.
WALTER: It became totally unwieldy.
We thought there was no end in sight.
MAN: This is much too important a case
to allow it to hang out there
with such a great question mark.
JUDGE: Raymond Buckey, how do you plead?
I'm not guilty, Your Honor.
WALTER: All of them lost everything they had.
WOMAN: Things happened there that were so terrible.
My daughter is still in therapy
and she's 37.
ELIZABETH: I know I was molested
at McMartin Preschool.
[♪♪♪]
[SEAGULLS CAWING]
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: Manhattan Beach in the '80s
was kind of a comfortable beach town.
WALTER: It was a family‐oriented community,
small town feel
despite being in Los Angeles County.
So it was kind of a bubble
or a cocoon.
Back then, we didn't lock our doors.
MAN: The parents that I knew
were highly educated professional people.
Their children got the very, very best.
[♪♪♪]
[CHILDREN CHATTERING]
MARYMAE: I had some friends in the area
that told us "Oh, this is the school to go to."
It sounded like a good place to go.
It was a cute little building and set‐up.
Had a very good reputation in the community.
I was two going on three
when I started going to McMartin.
I always remember
that there was a Valentine's Day party
and I remember the heart‐shaped cookies.
[CHILD LAUGHING]
WOMAN: They had a great reputation.
They had been in town ever since I can remember.
MAN: There was actually a waiting list.
WOMAN: They had colorful toys in the yard,
so the kids were all drawn to that.
[♪♪♪]
WOMAN: And I thought Virginia was cute,
a cute old lady.
KEVIN: Virginia McMartin, I think she started the school
in 1956.
She had gotten a Rose and Scroll Award in 1977,
which is the city's highest honor.
It's like the Woman of the Year Award.
The McMartin Preschool was led by Virginia McMartin,
her daughter, Peggy McMartin Buckey,
along with her grandchildren,
Peggy and Raymond Buckey.
It was a prestigious school
with teachers that had been there dozens of years.
Most of the teachers were older.
FORREST: These teachers
were highly regarded and respected
members of their community.
[CHILDREN CHATTERING]
WOMAN: It's a trusted neighborhood business.
At that point, I couldn't imagine
what was going on over there.
[♪♪♪]
[PHONE RINGING]
OFFICER: Manhattan Beach Police Department.
JUDY: Uh, my name is Judy Johnson
and I want to report a crime.
OFFICER: Yes, ma'am.
JUDY: My two‐year‐old son has been molested
at the McMartin Preschool.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: The Manhattan Beach Police Department
is a small department
and they had a female officer named Jane Hoag
who was kind of a tough old‐school cop,
and so she interviewed the child.
And the child was two and a half years old,
had said that Raymond Buckey had molested him.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: The child was examined by a doctor at UCLA.
And the doctor found
something consistent with molestation.
And based on that examination,
Raymond Buckey was arrested.
So now you have this investigation
of a child‐abuse suspect.
Word of it had gotten out.
They had to explain it somehow.
Judy Johnson mentioned that her child had said
two other kids were abused.
So the Manhattan Beach Police Department wrote up
a very succinct simple letter
which went out to the McMartin parents.
It said, "We don't wish to cause alarm
but if you could talk to your children,
we'd appreciate it and if you have any concerns,
please call us."
[♪♪♪]
DANNY: At the basis of it
was this long warning advisory
for all the parents to go out and talk to their kids,
and their families, and their friends
about molestation that was going on.
It happened to some kids, it may have happened
to your kids too.
WALTER: The letter that went out to the parents,
it was gunpowder set off in the community.
They were saying that your kid,
up until that day the letter arrived,
was to you and your wife, husband, whatever, normal,
just going to school and living a good life.
And all of a sudden,
he or she had been molested for years
and you didn't know about it?
It just scared everybody.
WOMAN: It seemed like at that point there was
a lot of kind of paranoia.
We didn't know if it was just a couple of people
and I was pretty worried about my child.
The letter talked about Ray Buckey
and I didn't know Ray Buckey.
So I asked my daughter, do you know him?
And she said, "Yeah, Mr. Ray."
Yeah, I was just in shock.
MAN: I sat my son down in his bedroom
and had a discussion with him.
At that point, he was in kindergarten
and he said to me,
"Dad, have they been arrested?"
I said, "Yes."
He said, "Are they going to get out?"
And I fibbed to him and said, "No."
And my son was deathly afraid
that they were gonna come and hurt me.
But child abuse is a‐‐ is a hard pill to swallow.
I didn't really think it would happen.
So I remained very calm
and assured him that no one would hurt him.
There was some, uh, pushback
from people who were supportive of the school,
and thought "Geez, you know, we've known Virginia,
we've known the teachers for 20 years.
We've had three, four kids go through their school
and this would not have happened."
When we got the letter, we thought,
well, this‐‐
Elizabeth was not involved.
There was just no way.
WOMAN: I had no clue
that that was something that a human being
would even do.
It was beyond my imagination.
It didn't make sense.
[♪♪♪]
And my job is to get to hear yucky secrets.
WOMAN: Kee McFarlane asked questions
with the puppets.
It got the children to talk.
KEVIN: Kee McFarlane reported to the parents
that, in her opinion,
the children had been abused.
FORREST: The mass hysteria of the moment.
It created the appearance
of utter depravity.
[♪♪♪]
REPORTER: Children from the McMartin School
have reportedly alleged that Ray Buckey
brandished guns in front of them.
PEGGY: I know my son.
And he has not harmed one child.
JOHN: For a three‐, four‐, five‐year‐old
to talk about detailed sexual activity...
Unless they experienced it,
how would they be able to describe it?
MAN: So you think you're just being framed, huh?
VIRGINIA: I don't think it. I know it.
[♪♪♪]
DANNY: The Manhattan Beach Police Department
sent out a letter to all the parents
warning them about molestation that was going on
at the McMartin Preschool.
KEVIN: The response to the police letter
was, uh,
disbelief really.
People just didn't think something like that
would've happened at the McMartin Preschool.
They thought it was a great preschool.
And this goes also true for Ray.
Before the so‐called exposure,
there was nothing to suggest
aberrant, perverse
character on his part.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: Parents are upset that Buckey's gotten out.
But the police are saying,
"You know, when we get evidence, we'll arrest him.
When we find the pictures,
we find the corroborating witnesses,
you know, we find medical evidence,
we'll arrest him. We don't have any evidence.
We're not arresting him."
MAN: Policeman at the door saying
the school was under investigation.
REPORTER: Did you decide to leave your kid?
We took her home.
KEVIN: The parents weren't happy with the way
the Manhattan Beach Police
talked to their children.
And the DA suggested
a more appropriate interviewer
might be Kee McFarlane
at Children's Institute International.
[♪♪♪]
KEE: ...get to hear yucky secrets.
And I don't mind hearing them.
WOMAN: Kee MacFarlane had a charisma
and asked questions with the puppets.
It got the children to talk.
[♪♪♪]
ELIZABETH: I remember being interviewed at CII.
And I remember talking about experiences
that had happened.
It's not like I just remembered the bad stuff.
There were good things I remember.
[CHILDREN LAUGHING]
ELIZABETH: You know, I remember playing...
and then I remember some of the classrooms,
and then I have flashes
of some of the not‐so‐nice memories...
when it was just me and Ray Buckey.
MARYMAE: Elizabeth was interviewed at CII.
They came back and told us
that she had been abused.
JOHN: The shock and the emotions
are just overwhelming.
I mean, you‐‐
as a man, you feel a sense of guilt.
You haven't protected your family.
You're in shock, you don't wanna believe it,
but you're faced with evidence
that it happened.
And now what do you do, you know?
[SIGHS]
KEVIN: Kee MacFarlane started reporting to the parents
that in her opinion, the children had been abused.
So, parents withdraw their kids
from the McMartin Preschool.
[♪♪♪]
PEGGY: I am the director at that school.
I do know what is going on.
I know my son,
and he has not harmed one child.
Not one.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: You know, within a, I don't know,
a month, two months,
uh, Virginia had closed the school.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: Manhattan Police continued to investigate
and the children were referred
to CII's doctor, Astrid Heger,
who was a reported expert
in child abuse examinations.
[♪♪♪]
ASTRID: My role in this case
was to be the medical doctor
that examined the children for evidence of abuse.
I got involved in the McMartin case
because I had began to question
the issue of why child sex abuse cases
never went to court, or rarely went to court.
And I'm going, "How are you documenting?"
You're just documenting on a piece of paper.
You're writing down what you see.
And that's not scientific.
Nobody had ever taken pictures before.
I realized we needed to do photo documentation
and then that became evidence.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: At Children Institute,
my son was physically examined
and they said
that he was very likely sexually abused,
that was their words.
I was so angry,
and so hurt, and so sad.
I sat in my car,
wanting to drive it through the McMartin building.
And I wanted to just kick their ass, frankly.
[♪♪♪]
MARYMAE: We had Elizabeth examined by Astrid.
She said there was enough physical evidence
to claim that there was‐‐
something happened.
[♪♪♪]
JOHN: It's‐‐ it's just like somebody
just hit me right in the stomach.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: Dr. Astrid Heger concluded
that most of the children she photographed
showed evidence of blunt force trauma,
consistent with sexual abuse.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: Manhattan Beach Police Department.
[♪♪♪]
WAYNE: It started out here in Manhattan Beach
looking like an isolated incident.
One mother noticed that her young son
was having nightmares and difficulty sitting down,
and a redness on his bottom.
Authorities would later conclude
that her two‐year‐old son
had been sodomized.
That was last summer.
In the months since then,
the number of possible victims have multiplied
to say the least.
KEVIN: Wayne Satz was a highly respected,
Peabody Award‐winning reporter.
I'm sure he kind of thought
the way any reporter would've thought,
this is like a great story.
And he happened to have access to Kee MacFarlane
because he was dating Kee MacFarlane.
FORREST: That reporter
had the inside information
from the beginning of what these children
were saying to the interviews.
And it was blasted daily
on Channel 7,
in the most horrendous fashion.
WAYNE: What's more, children from the McMartin School
have reportedly alleged that Ray Buckey,
one of the indicted suspects in this case,
brandished guns in front of them,
threatening to use them on family members
if secrets were revealed.
A child sexual abuse investigator
should not talk to the media
in advance of the court proceedings.
The form of his story and the‐‐
the manner, it was propaganda.
And it made it appear to be
like this was the truth.
This is happening.
These are horrible people.
Where there's smoke, there's fire.
It was yellow journalism at its worst.
WAYNE: Authorities now believe that at least
60 young children were victimized
and that the ultimate number
could well be much greater.
He, like the rest of the community,
and I have to say myself,
presumed guilt.
That's when the case started to blow up.
[♪♪♪]
WAYNE: One mother would conclude
that her two‐year‐old son
had been sodomized.
DANNY: Wayne Satz
broke a secret investigation.
WALTER: The form of his story
and the‐‐ the manner, it was propaganda.
And it made it appear to be
like this was the truth.
WAYNE: Authorities now believe that at least
60 young children were victimized,
and that the ultimate number
could well be much greater.
MAN: I was so angry,
I was so hurt, so sad.
And I wanted to just kick their ass.
I have flashes of some of the not‐so‐nice memories
when it was just me and Ray Buckey.
[♪♪♪]
I'm not the only puppet lady in this case there,
my co‐therapist, Sandy Krebs,
and our pediatrician, Astrid Heger,
have gotten certainly as much as I have
from these children by using puppets,
even in the medical exam.
Mass‐media attention.
It created a situation
where not only was there a presumption of guilt
but the appearance of utter depravity
on the part of those who were accused.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: There was some pushback
from people who were supportive of the school.
But that sentiment quickly evaporated
when the number of children who allegedly were abused
started going into the hundreds.
I mean, there just weren't many people left
to defend the McMartins.
There's no doubt in my mind,
on the basis of the children that I interviewed,
that approximately 350 children
that we saw described being sexually abused.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: One of the things that caused the case to explode
was Kee MacFarlane,
what she called her "Oh my God" moments.
She'd be interviewing a kid
who described being abused,
but the description would describe a scene
in which there had to be other people witnessing it,
it'd be in the playground
or in one of the classrooms,
not hidden away in a bathroom, for example.
So, she's thinking
it couldn't have just been this one suspect,
Raymond Buckey,
the other teachers are implicated.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: May I say that, as we see it now,
seven people have been named.
Have the children that you've talked to
named all of those seven names?
KEE: Numerous times.
[♪♪♪]
VIRGINIA: I think they were questioned
by the older people
until they finally said yes
‐and agreed to it. ‐REPORTER: So, you think
you're just being framed, huh?
VIRGINIA: You're darn tootin' I think we're being framed.
I don't think it, I know it.
The DA was under pressure from the parents
to have charges filed.
We had medical evidence
and you have children saying they were abused.
So, what's left to question?
And I think about this point,
the politicization of that case took place.
From appearances, they wanted the TV cameras.
MAN: Manhattan Beach Police Department.
[♪♪♪]
DANNY: You know, DA Van de Kamp
had been appointed to Attorney General
and left a vacancy,
Governor Deukmejian
did something to bring Philibosian in
to fill the slot.
He kind of liked the feeling
he thought he'd run for office.
KEVIN: Philibosian was running
against the LA City Attorney Ira Reiner.
His pollsters showed that most people thought
Ira Reiner was already the LA County District Attorney,
and they didn't know who Philibosian was.
His advisors told him
he needed a high‐profile case.
We're talking about such acts as rape,
sodomy, oral copulation,
and fondling.
All the cameras were on him
and he's identified.
That's where the ideas
of child pornography were pronounced,
child prostitution,
satanic cult rituals.
ROBERT: To obtain their silence,
uh, these people have told the children
that their parents would be harmed.
And in order to back up that, uh, threat,
small animals were actually slaughtered,
uh, in the children's presence
in order to frighten them into submission.
DANNY: I'm sitting in my home in, uh, West LA
when I get the call, the Buckey case.
[♪♪♪]
DANNY: I met the family, Virginia,
the parents, Peggy, Chuck,
and the children.
I had no idea
whether they were guilty or not.
The word was out that people are running their campaigns
on molestation cases.
So the first thing I did was I got together with Ray
and I said, "What we're gonna do
is we're gonna go surrender you."
Uh, a symbolic surrender.
The DA just rejected the offer
to have the client surrendered and‐‐
and brought TV cameras with him
to the Buckeys' home.
MAN: We have arrest warrant for Ray Buckey,
we'll enter the house.
DANNY: The DA wanted to do a major perp walk,
surprise the family.
VIRGINIA: Oh, dear. That's my dog just out.
MAN: Okay. We'll take care of the dog, ma'am.
WOMAN: 1549.
DANNY: This is a show
by an interim DA, Philibosian,
on the heels of a campaign for district attorney
to use this case.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: Bail was set at fifty thousand
to a million dollars for seven preschool teachers
accused of molesting children
including seventy‐six‐year‐old Virginia McMartin,
and her daughter, and two grandchildren.
[♪♪♪]
WALTER: My client, Betty Raidor,
taught at the school for some 20, 30 years.
She was arrested and I saw her in the jail,
and then she says, "Why am I here?"
And I said, "Well, basically they're telling you
and the world that you're a pedophile."
We could be interviewing up to 100
more children in that process.
As a result of those interviews, we may be going back
to the grand jury with additional counts.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: My son started telling me stories
of animals being butchered.
They threatened that they would kill my family
and then they would take me away
and I would be with them for the rest of my life.
JUDGE: If there's any case where there is to be no bail
in a non‐capital case, this is that case.
[♪♪♪]
ROBERT: We are alleging that approximately
100 children were sexually molested at the school.
KEVIN: The community and I'd have to say myself
presumed guilt.
Small animals were actually slaughtered.
They had a plan to use this case
and get elected into office.
[♪♪♪]
REPORTER: Tonight, Virginia McMartin is in jail
along with some of her relatives
and former teachers.
[♪♪♪]
WALTER: Generally, you want your client
to be out of jail,
pending a trial so that when you walk down
the hall with that client,
the jurors are walking down the hall,
and you're kind of like he's a‐‐
normalizes that person.
If you're unable to do that for whatever legal reason,
the jurors will realize,
"Well, this person's in custody."
And if he or she is in custody,
there must be something there to the case.
So, it's‐‐ it's not positive at all
that's why we'd prefer to have them on bail.
REPORTER: Several defendants are expected to make bail
and privately many parents are upset
about the possibility of them being back on the streets.
The psychological trauma that will result
from having these people back out on the street,
people who threatened the children's lives,
is immense, as I'm sure you can imagine.
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
LAEL: I think it is abundantly clear
that the horrors of what we have learned today
of what has occurred at that nursery school
has affected an entire generation of children.
The prosecutor, Lael Rubin, and Glenn Stevens,
underneath the interim DA,
Robert Philibosian, along with Ron George
who had political ambitions of his own,
did what the public wanted.
If there's any case where there is to be no bail
in a non‐capital case, this is that case,
and each of those defendants are therefore
remanded without bail.
FORREST: State constitutional amendments
have made it possible to impose lockup,
remand to custody without bail
where there was a fear that the accused
would be dangerous to society.
RONALD: They were physical, aggressive, harmful acts,
and I did see a reference to a large knife
being drawn across the chest of one child,
burying one child in a sandy area
up to the chest, uh, who had to get himself out
by digging himself out with his arms.
FORREST: And this is stories the kids were telling,
about the satanic rituals
reportedly taking place with animals,
and with children being killed.
The kids were saying this and they believed it.
RONALD: The administration of drugs, threats to kill,
generally the placement of sharp foreign objects
into vaginal areas,
and we believe turtles and rabbits
are being observed bleeding and then dying thereafter.
[♪♪♪]
FORREST: When I first met Peggy Ann,
she was alone in the men's lockup.
She was bright, young,
late 20s, articulate.
She knew what was happening
but she couldn't understand it.
She was bewildered,
dazed in a way.
She's a sensitive, community‐serving individual,
she's got a master's in rehabilitative education,
she teaches the handicapped,
more recently the deaf in Orange County.
She's locked up without bail.
How could she be remanded to custody
without bail as were her mother and brother
under fanciful accusations
that were being made in the case?
[♪♪♪]
MAN: My son was quite, uh, articulate about what went on.
He started telling me stories of animals being butchered
and cutting ears off rabbits.
[♪♪♪]
I get how people look at this
and think it's fantastical
because how do hundreds of children get molested
at one school and nobody find out about it?
I mean, it‐‐ it sounds crazy.
Children, uh, they do make up stories,
but it's from something within their realm
that they've experienced,
and for a three‐, four‐, five‐year‐old to talk about,
uh, detailed sexual activity...
Unless they experienced it, how would they
be able to describe it?
And to have a number of kids
all saying the same thing?
ELIZABETH: I never said anything to my parents
that gave them any indication of anything happening
before anything came out
because they threatened that they would kill my family
and then they would take me away,
and I would be with them for the rest of my life.
[♪♪♪]
REPORTER: Authorities believe children were abused
not only at the McMartin Preschool,
but also at other locations.
They charge, school children were allegedly
taken off campus at times to be sexually assaulted.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: My son told me that they did take the children
away from the school to other locations,
and they would tell him that,
"Our car broke down, we need to go into this house,
and, uh, make a phone call,"
and then they would parade the kids into a house
to be sexually abused.
ELIZABETH: I remember being at what felt
like an older, kind of almost Victorian type house.
I remember there being more than one teacher
or adults and I remember there being multiple kids.
[♪♪♪]
And I have memories that‐‐
that this three‐year‐old little girl
was being made to stand in front of people
and have pictures taken of her when she was naked.
[♪♪♪]
WOMAN: I know my daughter was taken around
in the community.
I mean, she showed me places that she was taken to,
that I never took her to.
She didn't have a driver's license.
She was two and a half.
So, it had to be the teachers.
[♪♪♪]
WOMAN: I asked my daughter,
"How did they take you in and out of the school?"
And she said, "Through the tunnels."
Like I'm supposed to know.
[♪♪♪]
WOMAN: The district attorney went to the school
looking for tunnels
and they picked up some tile,
and they, uh, dug a few inches
into the dirt in the side yard,
but I don't think they came up
with barely anything.
[♪♪♪]
MARYMAE: I took Elizabeth to the school
and she walked right into a bathroom
where there was just a little sink
and a little toilet,
and she said, "This is where the tunnel was."
There was no tunnel there.
I didn't see a break in the wall,
I didn't see anything, but she said,
"This is where we went through the tunnel."
If you say so, okay.
ELIZABETH: I remember being at what felt like a tunnel,
and having pictures of what, to me,
I thought was the devil,
and there being, like, candles off the side
like a light, you know, off the wall,
and it was dark,
and I remember going downstairs
to get into it.
MARYMAE: So I went a couple of days later
with my friend and her daughter,
and the daughter said,
"Oh, I wanna show you.
This is where we went into the tunnel."
[♪♪♪]
MARYMAE: How could two different kids
from separate years
go and show me
the exact same place?
Oh, I still get goosebumps.
[♪♪♪]
FORREST: How could these teachers be remanded
to custody without bail on the fanciful accusations
that were being made in the case?
REPORTER: Authorities believe children were taken off campus
at times to be sexually assaulted.
MAN: My son started telling me stories
about animals being butchered.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: Police took action today in the ever‐growing
McMartin child molestation case.
Manhattan Beach Police, together with investigators
from the DA's Office, conducted searches
at nine different locations early this morning.
[♪♪♪]
WALTER: Manhattan Beach Police Department
tried to find out where these offenses
may or may not have occurred.
Churches where animals were slaughtered,
they checked the altar for blood,
there was no blood of course.
RUEBEN: Based on the continuing investigation,
it would now appear that there are aspects
of child pornography.
Uh, many of the children are now telling us that,
uh, during, uh, the course of molestations
that there were lights and cameras,
which would of course then lead to,
uh, um,
distributing pornography for profit.
[♪♪♪]
REPORTER: One aspect of the expanding investigation
involves this woman, Catherine Wilson,
the so‐called Queen of Kiddie Porn.
Authorities want to find out whether any of the suspects
in the McMartin Preschool case
are linked to her operation.
There was an attempt to describe how it was
that these teachers
at a very prestigious preschool
could ever get involved in this kind of activity.
These were substantially decent people.
Well, this was part of a big child pornography ring.
Moneymaking,
well, follow the money trail.
REPORTER: Photos used as evidence
in the Wilson Kiddie Porn Case
are being compared to photos of children
who complained about sexual abuse
at the McMartin Preschool.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: The sheriff's departments assigned
20 investigators,
you got the Manhattan Beach investigators,
you got half a dozen DA investigators,
and you got the FBI,
and the assumption was we've got a hundred kids
that are molested,
we got seven suspects,
we're gonna find photographs,
we're gonna find the mailman
who walked in on them,
we're gonna find some sort
of corroborating evidence.
MAN: Have you actually found any pornography printed
or film material?
RUEBEN: That is something I can't get into
at this particular point, at this particular point
of the investigation.
MAN: Okay.
KEVIN: No corroborating evidence ever surfaced.
FORREST: So there was absolutely no corroboration
for anything the children said.
It didn't matter.
The case took on a life of its own.
[♪♪♪]
DANNY: The message was pervasive and unending,
that was never gonna stop.
That was a snowball.
That was a witch hunt.
I mean I can understand when they say a witch hunt
if you have a teenager
who might have a gripe against somebody
or is afraid of the truth coming out
making up a story.
We believe the children and to this day
I do not at all discount
anything that they said.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: Danny Davis, in an effort to get the trial
moved out of LA, did a poll,
it was a countywide poll because he was polling
potential jurors,
and 90% of the people
thought these people are guilty.
BABETTE: I feel like I've been already convicted,
and how I go about proving to you or to anybody else
that I'm innocent, I don't know.
And it frightens me.
[♪♪♪]
WALTER: The press was so bad
that I personally had confrontations from parents
when they learned that I was one of the lawyers
defending the McMartin Preschool case.
Some people screamed at me in a supermarket,
chased me once when I was riding my bicycle.
We had to do something from the defense side.
So, we formed the Friends
of the McMartin Preschool Defendants.
We put ads in the local newspaper.
And we compared the McMartin case
to the Salem witch hunts.
We were trying to alert people,
you remember Salem witch hunt.
You remember what they did then.
And then of course later they said,
"Oh, we were all wrong."
Well, that's what we got going here, too.
FORREST: In the 1600s, they burned witches
at the stake.
Of course it was wrong
because there's no such thing as witches.
Well,
perhaps in the minds of some there are.
[♪♪♪]
KEE: We have heard it
a hundred and‐‐ hundred times or more
from children,
the same things, the same games,
the same descriptions.
[INDISTINCT]
FORREST: We're lucky that Kee McFarlane,
the prosecution's expert in child abuse matters,
thought her technique and method
was so wonderful it should be videotaped.
[♪♪♪]
DANNY: We wanted to see these videotapes.
We had to fight to get access to the tapes.
WILLIAM: The court knows
that the case is now held uniformly,
that the defense shall have complete access,
equal access, to the evidence
that is being used against the defendants.
WALTER: Children's Institute never thought ahead that,
hey, one day, the tapes are gonna be revealed
and everything that took place in this room
with a child is gonna be part of the criminal record.
I don't think they anticipated that.
And once they learned that it was gonna happen,
all hell broke loose, they did not want the defense
to see what was going on at‐‐
during those interviews, that was real clear.
[♪♪♪]
A marvelous arrangement was reached
that Ray would be transported
to Beverly Hills Courthouse
and given an office room
in which we set up video equipment
and that's how we saw the tapes...
one after another.
Not a one helping the prosecution at all.
[♪♪♪]
WALTER: We were stunned by what we saw.
That's it? That's what they did?
DANNY: The tapes for me were a large collection
of evidence that proved literally
this didn't happen.
These videotapes show it.
[♪♪♪]
FORREST: You have to see the videotapes to understand
what they led to.
It was poppycock.
[♪♪♪]
MICHAEL: The first time I went to look at the tapes,
I was blown away.
[♪♪♪]
The kids had taken pieces of stories
and stringing them together.
I doubt that anything ever happened at the school,
based on the evidence that I've seen.
JOHN: I believe what our children told us,
that they were molested at the school,
and I can't believe this was made up.
[♪♪♪]
Those children had no protection
once they were witnesses in the case.
WOMAN: Some children fear Buckey will kill them
if they show up in court.
MAN: And those Defense Attorneys,
they were bastards.
They ate the kids up and spit them out.
They stood there and pointed at Ray Buckey
and said, "He's the guy that did this to me."
I'm ready. I've been ready for five years.
I'm ready for it to end.
DANNY: This case was clearly imbued
with political campaigns.
We are firmly convinced
that the children were indeed molested.
My son is three.
I was younger than him when this stuff was happening,
so we didn't have a chance to fight back.
[♪♪♪]
They were a lot bigger than us.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: We, the jury,
in the above entitled action,
find the defendant...
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: Judy Johnson and the child,
who was two and a half years old,
had said that Raymond Buckey had molested him.
DANNY: The Manhattan Beach Police Department
sent out a letter
to all the parents at the McMartin Preschool.
WOMAN: The letter talked about Ray Buckey.
You know, I was just in shock.
My job is to get to hear yucky secrets.
WOMAN: Kee McFarlane
got the children to talk.
ROBERT: We are alleging
that approximately 100 children
were sexually molested at the school
over the past 10 years.
MAN: Bail was set at fifty thousand
to a million dollars for seven preschool teachers
accused of molesting children.
Three hundred and fifty children
that we saw described being sexually abused.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: Manhattan Beach Police Department.
FORREST: Kee McFarlane
who's an expert in child abuse matters
thought her technique should be videotaped.
[♪♪♪]
FORREST: And what we discovered,
these children were not telling the same story
during each interview.
DANNY: When the child said, "No" referring to Ray,
"he wasn't even there when I went there,"
they'd say, "Well, how about your sister,
your brother?" And they'd have their names
and they'd work on maybe it happened
to your brother and your sister,
maybe you don't know.
Confronting these children with sexually explicit dolls.
They were three and four when they were in preschool.
Their memories weren't accurate.
If you watch the videos, you'll see
they didn't know who their fellow classmates were.
But then when they were asked about supposed games
played at the school,
well, they remembered, goose‐goose,
ducky‐duck.
But that's not what Kee wanted to hear about,
she wanted to hear about yucky games.
[♪♪♪]
FORREST: Games where the kids were supposedly nude.
[♪♪♪]
"No, we didn't play any yucky games."
The interviewer, typically Kee,
would say, "Well, you remember Suzie and Jimmy, your friends?
They told us you all played these naked games.
Aren't you as smart as they are?"
What do you expect the child to say?
"No, I'm dumber than them"?
When I saw some of the tapes, I said,
"That's it?
That's what they did? Are you kidding me?"
[♪♪♪]
Experts began to look at them.
And the experts said,
"These leading questions
in this context is not wrong,
it's almost criminal."
[♪♪♪]
The first time I went to look at the tapes,
I was blown away.
When you evaluate, uh, little children,
your goal is to get a spontaneous report
from the child.
These were not spontaneous interviews.
They were scripted.
WALTER: Each child had a series of questions to be asked,
and they would answer that.
And then we looked at the scripts,
they're all the same.
The kids would say no,
we didn't do that.
And then they'd keep plodding on
with the rest of the questions.
The interviewers of the children
clearly had an agenda
so that it really wasn't a search for truth.
MICHAEL: When I evaluated those tapes,
I never saw any spontaneous comment
from a child
that something untoward happened.
In fact, some of them could even identify
the major suspect, Ray Buckey.
[♪♪♪]
DANNY: If you wanna convict somebody,
don't videotape it,
keep secret how many times it took you
to get them to say the right words
that you can write down and report.
CHILD: ...no, because he had pointy thing.
ELIZABETH: You're talking to a three‐year‐old,
you have to lead them.
They‐‐ they're not gonna just say,
"Oh, I was molested.
And we had to do this and we had to do that."
My daughter doesn't just tell me
what happened at school when I ask her
what happened at school today.
I have to kind of prod her
and encourage her.
It's not easy to interview a three‐year‐old
and expect them to be able to just spit out what happened.
So, you have to lead them when you ask them questions.
You know,
I‐‐ from my perspective,
it happened. It's a no‐brainer.
I know I was molested.
[♪♪♪]
The first prosecutor on the case
called Kee MacFarlane
essentially the savior of the children.
This highly regarded, respected therapist.
Anything she said
was taken as gospel.
It turns out Kee MacFarlane
wasn't an expert at all.
She had a bachelor's degree in sociology.
She had no certifications or licenses.
She was clearly not a therapist.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: I interviewed Kee MacFarlane
and she talked about the fact that she's not
a police investigator.
And she wasn't the expert on whether this was evidence
of a crime.
That is the responsibility of the DA's office.
And she's correct in that.
It was really the responsibility of the DA's office
to look at those tapes and say,
"Is there evidence of a crime here?"
WALTER: The referral to them to do the investigation
was dead wrong.
I don't know why the police
or why the DA agreed to that.
It never made any sense.
In a typical sex case,
you get interviews conducted
by professional investigators.
If you're gonna bring 60 felony charges
against somebody, you better have
a good, solid case, you better spend the time.
They didn't do that.
It was hard for us as lawyers to sit there
and watch the prosecution stand up
and argue these points about this evidence.
It was ridiculous.
But they're following orders.
We've asked the DAs against us in court,
"Have you seen these tapes?"
You would think that
if they would've looked at those,
they'd stand up and say, "No.
We‐‐ we didn't realize we had these issues,
these problems.
It's called no case."
[♪♪♪]
FORREST: They had accepted
Kee's explanation and version
but they never reviewed the videotapes.
MAN: When these games were going on,
how many children were present
when the naked games were going on?
Uh, you're asking me about something that, um,
has not yet been testified to.
And so, according to the court's order,
it's not appropriate for me to say that. Thank you.
I don't know if Lael Rubin ever went,
"Oh, my gosh. I should've at least
looked at the tapes before Philibosian
threw his hat in the ring
prematurely on this case."
[♪♪♪]
Something very unusual occurred
during the course of the hearing.
There at counsel table
was the incumbent district attorney
sitting closest to the jury box.
And in the jury box were the cameras.
And as they'd sweep down the counsel table,
the first person you would see
was the incumbent district attorney.
That was free publicity
that would be worth millions
in a campaign.
I plainly asked,
"Why is he here?"
DANNY: Mr. Philibosian acted as district attorney
while running for a campaign
using this case
to gain greater name identity.
It's absolutely not true at all.
Mr. Philibosian has not in any way
put any pressure on us.
After the court sessions,
went into the hallway
where he was surrounded by television cameras,
and held forth.
DANNY: This was a great opportunity
for Robert Philibosian
to take advantage of the media
and hook his name on that star.
[♪♪♪]
Mr. Philibosian has not in any way
put any pressure on us.
This was a great opportunity
for Robert Philibosian
to hook his name on that star.
FORREST: That was free publicity
that would be worth millions.
[♪♪♪]
FORREST: It turns out,
it didn't help his campaign sufficiently.
[♪♪♪]
DANNY: Preliminary hearing
is designed, in a serious felony case,
to show enough evidence
that there was a crime.
How do you feel about it?
Would any reasonable man think he did it?
A very light standard.
[♪♪♪]
WILLIAM: There are attorneys
that are called obstructionists.
They try to obstruct the process,
slow it down, make it difficult,
um, and I think Danny enjoyed doing that.
DANNY: The preliminary hearing
and the length that it took
is almost entirely my responsibility and fault.
My study back to 16th‐century Europe
of social contagion
taught me that once you have a scandal,
let's call it molestation,
and it conflicts dramatically
with people in that community,
they will inevitably, in that contagion,
grab, enslave,
and kill a scapegoat.
My plan was to take the scandal
and the scapegoat
and spread the time.
A long time passes
and then we all look back
with shameful retrospect
what we did to those poor people.
That's why we had a very,
very long preliminary hearing.
The longest in the history of American jurisprudence.
[♪♪♪]
WOMAN: Ray Buckey is charged with 97 counts
of child molestation in the McMartin Preschool case.
Prosecutors need the children to testify
against him but there's a problem.
CII's Kee MacFarlane claims that some children
fear Buckey will kill them
if they show up in court.
As an overall best statement,
I would say they're terrified.
FORREST: It was a sense urged by the district attorney
and favored by the preliminary‐hearing judge
to create what was known as a kiddie comfort setting.
[♪♪♪]
FORREST: The children were so afraid
of the teachers, it was alleged,
they wouldn't be able to testify in the courtroom.
It's always difficult for children
to testify in court.
That's a very frightening process.
We actually build the courtroom
to intimidate people so they follow the rules
that the judge lays down.
It's very difficult to be a witness anyway.
And if you're the alleged victim in the case,
it's even harder.
[♪♪♪]
It's putting your child
through an abusive situation
all over again.
And as far as I'm concerned, you know,
once was more than enough.
There was talk about having the kids,
I think, have their testimony videotaped
and then they're gonna have the kids in a different room
from the defense attorneys.
Closed‐circuit television
should not be used in any criminal trial.
The Constitution requires, in a criminal case,
the right to cross‐examine, in person, the accuser.
When you have someone in the room
like we are right now, you look at me,
you look at my body movements, my body language, so to speak,
that's what you see in a witness.
When you have someone on a television screen,
you‐‐ you miss all that.
Eventually,
when we were allowed to have live witnesses,
I think children were freely able to testify.
[♪♪♪]
WOMAN: You're sitting in a big chair with a bunch of adults
talking about sex
and your feet don't even touch the ground,
and, uh, half the time,
they probably didn't understand what was going on.
It was horrendous.
Today, we have grown women
who were abused as adult women
who never told anyone
because they didn't wanna have to tell their story.
And to have a child have to do it over,
and over, and over,
I mean, just kind of puts things in perspective.
What are we expecting from these kids?
Those children had no protection
once they were witnesses in the case
and they testified in front of him,
they stood there and pointed at Ray Buckey
and said, "He's the guy that did this to me."
Which I give them a lot of credit for.
One little boy
was having to tell about oral sex with Ray Buckey
and defense attorney said,
"Well, what color was his belt buckle?"
WOMAN: From the beginning,
the allegations heard in court have been horrific.
The first child to testify, a seven‐year‐old boy
told of being sodomized
and forced to play naked games.
At the preliminary hearing,
I believe, uh, there were 10 children
were asked by the prosecutor
about the supposed naked movie star game.
My memory of the naked movie star game now
is just us the kids
being naked on a stage
and them taking pictures of us.
I remember there being more than one teacher or adults
and I remember there being multiple kids.
FORREST: One of them let out that,
"I don't remember that at all.
Never heard of it,
never played it, never saw it."
The other nine knew about it.
But not one of the nine
played it the same way the other eight did.
Well, if this game was played,
why wouldn't they all describe it the same?
To try to remember specific events
that were happening when we were so little,
it's not really realistic.
WOMAN: A lawyer led the seven‐year‐old boy
to admit the therapist had suggested
his allegations to him.
"You're telling the story everybody who talks to you
about this case wants you to tell, right?"
the lawyer asks. "Yes," said the boy.
It's easy to discredit stories
from a five‐year‐old.
MAN: And those defense attorneys,
they were bastards.
They just‐‐they ate the kids up and spit them out.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: About this point,
one of the prosecutors, Glenn Stevens,
viewed the CII videotapes
from start to finish.
And he's thinking,
"They're in a world of hurt,"
because the kids, and to use his word,
are confabulating.
Taking pieces of stories and stringing them together.
I believe that, uh,
the evidence is very flawed,
whether or not they're factually innocent
is something that is always going to be open to speculation.
I doubt that anything ever happened at the school,
based on the evidence that I've seen.
[♪♪♪]
IRA: What we're left with at this point
is that for five of the seven defendants
in the McMartin case, the evidence is so slim
that it does not go beyond, uh, the mere accusation.
MAN: Come on, Babie. Excuse us folks, please.
MAN: How does it feel to be out?
BABETTE: [Laughs] Oh, I haven't had a chance to tell.
I think Ira Reiner's chicken.
MAN: Right.
The message that's being sent to child molesters
is that if there are‐‐ if there are children
that are two, three, four, or five years old,
that there's absolutely no reprisals
that will be brought against those pedophiles
or child molesters. Those kids are fair game.
[♪♪♪]
WALTER: These were upstanding women in the community.
All of them lost everything they had
for no reason.
It's all so horrible,
and so frightening, and so degrading,
and‐‐ and insulting.
Two years out of my life has been taken from me,
time I should be spending with my husband,
with my children and my grandchildren.
I can't get the years lost
that I lost with my kids.
There were two years that were completely taken away
and I can never get them back.
They did nothing wrong,
the system decided to toy with them for a while
and then spit them out once they're done.
BETTY: Here I sit with a cloud over my head.
They haven't said I'm innocent.
Their lives were ruined.
They weren't acquitted.
They just had charges dismissed.
I can't explain why
the charges weren't dropped against all seven
because it was the same evidence
that was considered insufficient
to take five to trial
was being relied on to take the other two to trial.
[♪♪♪]
IRA: For five of the seven defendants
in the McMartin case,
the evidence is so slim
that it does not go beyond the mere accusation.
There were two years that were completely taken away
and I can never get them back.
[♪♪♪]
WILLIAM: I was actually next door to the case
during the preliminary hearing.
And with all the publicity that followed this case,
I realized that,
uh, it would be a very difficult trial for a judge.
So when I got the case,
it was like going to war and saying,
"I'm not gonna live through this,
so I'm gonna do my very best all the way through it."
[♪♪♪]
LAEL: The charges in this case
contains 100 felony counts,
99 counts of lewd and lascivious acts
against children under the age of 14.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: Manhattan Beach Police Department.
JUDY: My name is Judy Johnson
and I wanna report a crime.
WILLIAM: Judy Johnson was the first person
who had reported any kind of problem
at the McMartin Preschool.
Judy Johnson was suspected of being an alcoholic.
I had my investigator spend time with her
and he came back, and told me
what she talks about from moment to moment makes no sense.
DANNY: She never became a real part of my defense
because I didn't know she had,
you know, perhaps schizophrenia
and, uh, drinking problems
because they hid it.
So the idea came about
and I generated as much as I can,
I think we need to see this witness.
She called me the day before she was to testify
saying she did not want to come into court.
Uh, I had tried to assure her
we would protect her,
we would make sure she was comfortable.
Uh, I tried to do everything I could
because we needed to have her come in.
And that night, she drank herself to death.
[♪♪♪]
WALTER: I never understood
why Manhattan Beach Police Department
didn't deeply investigate her.
Okay. It was‐‐ it was not done.
Had it been done then,
I wouldn't be talking about the case.
It would never have been filed.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: At its bare bones, the case rested on
the medical evidence, the children's interviews,
and Raymond Buckey's confession to a jailhouse informant.
DANNY: George Freeman was a informant
brought by Lael Rubin
to say to the jury,
"Ray Buckey told me he did it all
in spades and more."
GEORGE: It's been going on for a long time.
MAN: Did he say how long?
GEORGE: Since he was about 14.
MAN: They've been doing kids since he was 14?
GEORGE: They've been doing movies.
MAN: Kiddie porn?
"And I'm not doing this
because I want a break of any kind,
I'm doing this because molestation bothers me
and this guy should be punished
for what he told me he did."
The jury have to look at the fact that,
uh, he has very strong
and damaging information
and testimony against Raymond Buckey.
Actually, there ended up being a grand jury investigation
as a consequence of this case
of the DA and the sheriff's cooperating
to put snitches in cells with suspects
who they're having trouble getting evidence from.
DANNY: They would show that informant police reports,
details of which were unique to that case,
so with that signature information,
sheriff's deputies would put them in a cell
with a high‐publicity defendant,
like my client,
and make up a confession,
and then Lael would call them
and get her conviction.
He confessed.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: He showed up in court for one day
and on the second day, he just disappeared.
They found him at a house.
They had to break down the door, bring him in.
The prosecutor said,
"You know, we would like to recess to give
Mr. Freeman a chance to clean up."
DANNY: This guy had his hair back,
he had a rack of menacing tattoos on his arms,
shackled with sheriff's deputies standing next to him.
WILLIAM: He, um, did not look the greatest,
but I was not gonna take time out of the trial
for him to be cleaned up and brought in.
The fact that he was, uh, difficult, obstreperous,
and had to be granted immunity
was enough for the jurors to understand
what kind of a person he was.
KEVIN: Davis' cross‐examination was uncharacteristically short
but it was pretty much,
you know, "Mr. Freeman,
you have no credibility whatsoever."
And‐‐ and Freeman said,
"No, I have no credibility."
I think what happened was, uh,
Lael Rubin has just used her last informant,
only he ran out of informant gas.
So that‐‐ that's leg number one
of the prosecution's case.
ASTRID: It was so much easier
to never take a picture and just say,
"I saw all this damage," right?
That's why I started doing photo documentation.
Because I wanted to be held accountable.
I wanted it to be science.
I wanted it to be right.
KEVIN: Dr. Heger, she was a very compelling witness.
She introduced this practice,
referred to as colposcopic slides,
which is basically photographing the genitalia of the children
who were allegedly abused.
And these slides were shown in court
and she identified on the slides scars, which,
you know, if you look at the palm on your hand,
it'd be sort of like a little scar down the palm of your hand.
And she said, "That's blunt force trauma."
Prosecution put on two more medical doctors
who concurred with Dr. Heger's assessment.
But the defense attorneys, Danny Davis and Dean Gits,
asked Dr. Heger to identify the area of trauma.
She points with the little pointer
and they put a little circle around the area
on the slide that's blunt force trauma.
And then when the other two doctors testified,
none of them lined up.
The three doctors could not agree
what on the slides indicated blunt force trauma.
[♪♪♪]
ASTRID: The science of child abuse
and child sex abuse, particularly,
was in a very embryonic stage at that point.
But I do think that not only was there evidence
that in following these kids later
when they went through puberty,
uh, and had some problems,
that the medical diagnosis was‐‐ was valid.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: Manhattan Beach Police Department.
We, the jury, in the above entitled action
find the very defendants not guilty [INDISTINCT]
It was devastating.
You're speechless.
How‐‐ how could that happen?
I was just‐‐ I just couldn't believe it
when they said "not guilty."
It just was such a shock to hear
that‐‐ that they were gonna go free and...
terrified.
I couldn't understand, as a kid,
how they could not believe us.
How they could think he was innocent.
And as a kid, not guilty felt like innocent.
ASTRID: To be honest with you, I don't see the legal system
as determining whether something happened or not.
And we all know some very famous cases
in this country where we're all pretty convinced
that the, uh, accused was guilty,
and they were found not guilty.
[♪♪♪]
It's possible that these children were molested,
and it may not have been proven
that‐‐ that the defendants were the cause
or if someone else was.
Whether I believe he did it and whether it was proven
are‐‐ are very different.
The parents have to live with this.
And there's nothing that I can say
or anyone else can say to make them feel better.
We did the best job we could do
with the information that was given to us.
One child sat on the stand for 15 days
being wracked and abused by a defense attorney.
And what did he get?
Not guilty.
So why should you tell?
[♪♪♪]
We the jury in the above entitled action,
find the very defendants not guilty [INDISTINCT]
I couldn't understand, as a kid,
how they could not believe us.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: After the trial, people are split
and there's people marching, and they're protesting
based on what?
There were no evidence.
We will not take no for an answer.
And, uh, even though we may not be getting answers tonight
from the district attorney's office,
we will be looking for them in the future.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: To tell you how crazy it could get,
a group of parents hired a tunnel expert.
Because the kids had talked about there being tunnels
under the vacant lot that was next to the preschool.
[♪♪♪]
WOMAN: I wanted to get someone who knew what to look for.
So the first thing I did was I went and got
a archaeologist.
I consider myself an objective scientist
and I use scientific method.
The children said that they were taken
into a tunnel underneath the school,
and into a room, and there is
where they were molested
as part of what came out to be satanic rituals.
And so, my job was to see if I could find
any objective evidence of any of that.
When you're searching for a tunnel or an opening,
where the tunnel is, the soil would be looser
and usually a different color
because of things mixed into the soil that would happen
when they backfill, so to speak.
There was, uh, bottles, there was cans,
there was, I believe, cardboard,
there was wood fragments, there's plastic.
So there's a lot of trash and debris
that was part of the fill.
WOMAN: One of the things we found right away
was a plastic bag sticking out of the disturbed area.
It had a date on it, 1982‐83.
[♪♪♪]
WOMAN: The school had been built decades before,
so the fact that there was something
in there with that date on it
was a good indicator that someone had been
under the floor during that time.
What was particularly notable to me
and, uh, relevant to the cult aspect of this thing
was when my crew dug down less than a foot.
They found this plate.
And when I saw the plate, you know, my blood ran cold
because on it was this perfect pentagram.
I could see that each arm of the pentagram
was very precisely engraved.
So obviously, it was done by an adult.
[♪♪♪]
GARY: And then we hatoto cut through the floors
to excavate underneath the school structure.
We did find the tunnel that went underneath
the foundation between two of the rooms.
And underneath about a two‐foot concrete foundation
underneath the floor,
they had carved out the bottom of the foundation,
so it's actually slightly curved,
which perfectly matched the width of the tunnel
to facilitate walking through there.
You know, as a scientist, I talk in probabilistic terms.
You never talk in absolutes
if you're a good scientist, you know?
But probabilistically, yes, I found a tunnel
and that backs up the children's,
um, statements.
WOMAN: It confirmed what we were looking for.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: A tunnel expert digs up the lot.
Digs tunnels into the lot.
Then there's press out there.
And he's talking as if these tunnels were there.
Uh, actually, I remember picking up the LA Times
and the headline says something like,
"Tunnel expert examines McMartin Preschool site."
I mean, anyone looking at that story thinks,
"Oh, my God. There's tunnels at the McMartin preschool."
I mean, what else would you think?
But he just dug the tunnels.
There wasn't anything there.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: Manhattan Beach Police Department.
IRA: This is much too important a case,
far too much has gone into it, for far too long,
and the charges are much too serious
to allow it to hang out there with such a great question mark.
KEVIN: Reiner is a political machine
and he wasn't gonna back down.
And he sends them to trial a second time.
With no new evidence.
He was gonna try with the same evidence
that failed, and failed miserably.
[♪♪♪]
DANNY: Go a second time, so he can be attorney general?
That decision debases anything we've learned
what happened to these children.
That's when I started saying,
"I will end Ira Reiner's career."
[♪♪♪]
PAMELA: Ira Reiner decided to retry the case.
I agreed to do it because I figured,
"What have we got to lose?"
I mean, the case is already a mess.
All we can do is make it better.
Plus, I went to McMartin.
So it was my old‐‐ my old preschool.
We've looked at the evidence very carefully.
And we are firmly convinced that the children
were indeed molested.
I went to my client and I said,
"I'm gonna get them engaged in a plea bargain discussion.
But we're not gonna take anything.
Not even disturbing the peace or speeding.
Nothing."
PAMELA: Before the trial started,
Danny Davis walked up to me in the courtroom
and said, "Uh, let's try to settle this case."
I thought, "Yippee."
Ray Buckey, you know,
he'd already done four or five years in jail.
I figure we could plead him for a couple of counts
of child molest and give him time served,
at least we'd have a conviction.
But we found out later Danny Davis
had secretly tape‐recorded us.
[♪♪♪]
DANNY: A well‐known political journalist confronted Reiner.
"Well, isn't it true that your office offered
a plea bargain to Ray Buckey?"
"We'd never offer him anything.
That guy is guilty.
We're gonna put him away.
The children will be vindicated."
"Well, we understand that the entire thing
was tape‐recorded."
The press came and said,
"Hey, we heard you had a plea bargain talk."
And I couldn't say "no comment"
'cause that's the same as saying yes.
Danny Davis, being the idiot that he was,
he didn't understand.
We weren't lying about it for any other reason
than to protect his client's presumption of innocence.
But no good deed goes unpunished.
DANNY: Reiner panicked.
And his response later on to the media was,
"Well, we never formally made an offer."
And my answer was, "Well, it wasn't a formal offer,
but I was in a coat and tie.
Can we call it a semiformal offer?"
And I never heard from Reiner after that.
I don't think anybody else did.
[♪♪♪]
My feelings about Mr. Davis
are on the verge of homicidal.
[♪♪♪]
PAMELA: My main focus going in was to finish the case
with some shred of dignity left.
We took it down to the bare minimum
and put on basically three victims,
three mothers, and a couple experts.
So many years had passed since the incident by then.
And so much had come to bear on these children.
There was so much publicity. There was so much parental
and society pressure that the kids
had been all turned around.
It was an impossible task.
I felt very much, like, um,
I was on a suicide mission.
I'm ready. I've been ready for five years.
I'm ready for it to end.
PAMELA: Danny Davis wanted me to shake
Ray Buckey's hand the first day.
And I thought, "I know where that hand has been.
I'm not shaking it."
‐Mainly reserved‐‐ ‐PAMELA: I cross‐examined
Ray Buckey for three days.
The first question I asked was,
"Why do you like children?" And he said,
"Because they're so honest."
In retrospect, I probably should have just sat down
and said, "I'm done." That to me
was him telling everybody, "I did it."
That was Ray Buckey's admission
that the kids who testified against it
were telling the truth.
[♪♪♪]
PAMELA: It turns out that some of the stuff
that had happened before could have helped us
win the case because it's a high‐profile case.
I knew that if the jurors were watching TV
and heard that Ray Buckey had had a conversation
about a plea deal,
they're gonna assume he's guilty.
And we could end up being able to convict him.
[♪♪♪]
PAMELA: My main focus going to the second trial
was to finish the case
with some shred of dignity left.
We took it down to the bare minimum
and put on basically three victims,
three mothers, and a couple experts.
But it was an impossible task.
I felt very much, like,
um, I was on a suicide mission.
[♪♪♪]
PAMELA: This is a case where the kids
are either believed or not.
And we hung the jury again, of which I consider
to be a small victory because we knew we couldn't win.
It wasn't realistic.
It was clear to me that the, uh, jury
will not reach a verdict in this case
on any of the, uh, counts.
Therefore, there is a legal necessity
to declare a mistrial.
I understood why they wanted it retried.
But it should not have been retried.
It was just a mess.
The case was a mess.
[♪♪♪]
RAY: I've learned to endure a lot of things
in my life for seven years. I'll just go on
just like everybody else does when they have a hardship,
they get through it.
I'm sure there'll be some adjustment,
but basically, I have to get a real job now.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: We, the jury, in the above entitled action,
find the very defendants not guilty [INDISTINCT]
I think it had to be devastating
to the children‐‐ I mean,
here, they went through all of this
and they told the truth
and nobody believed them.
And these people got off.
[♪♪♪]
BOY: We were so sure of ourselves.
It's really hard, you know, just to accept the fact
that we weren't able to prove in a court of law our point.
PAMELA: There was so much publicity.
There was so much parental and society pressure.
The public's perception, the commentary, the cameras,
it was impossible for them
not to be known in their communities.
And so much had come to bear on these children.
It was relentless.
They became McMartin victims.
I mean, that was their whole identity.
It's‐‐ it's so awful.
[♪♪♪]
The thing that bothered me the most
is that it felt to me
that the kids were expendable.
As long as we got their testimony,
that was enough.
We as adults, in this case,
should have done a lot more
to protect them.
They're the heroes.
They bore the weight of it.
And they went, took the stand,
those little kids,
and made it easier for every other child
who ever has to come forward
forever.
[♪♪♪]
PARENT: I know something horrible happened there.
I know things happened there that were so terrible,
it kept my daughter awake at night.
It was horrific.
I know some kids who had
a really terrible time
because of what happened.
My daughter's still in therapy.
She's 37.
MAN: I'm sure my son wasn't the only one
that turned to alcohol.
I'm sure there were other children.
My son is three.
And I was younger than him
when this stuff was happening. So...
we didn't have a chance to fight back.
They were a lot bigger than us.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: I'm sorry I sent him to that school.
[♪♪♪]
‐WOMAN: Hi, Ray. ‐RAY: Hi.
ELIZABETH: Ray Buckey took away my childhood.
He took away
my trust in other people.
I never doubted anything
either my children said
about what happened to them at the preschool.
I have absolutely no doubt
that Ray Buckey molested those kids.
I will go to my grave thinking it and...
I hope there's a special place in hell for him.
[♪♪♪]
KEVIN: There are so many people hurt.
I mean, families that are involved.
Their lives are just destroyed.
They take your trust and they suck you in.
And then they take your most prized possession
and try to dement it.
KEVIN: If you're a McMartin parent now,
you have to accept not being able to know
certain things.
A lot of people may feel, "Well,
they couldn't prove the case.
You know, maybe next time we'll get them."
We hear that a lot in criminal law.
In this case, there was no case.
Factually innocent is different
than being dismissed or acquitted.
Factually innocent means just that, they didn't do
anything wrong with those children.
This is a system out of control,
who damaged this family for no reason.
Just‐‐ it's a shame. It's a real shame.
Well, the only thing I can say to all of you
is if it could happen to seven innocent people,
it can happen to any of you.
And if it had not been for my faith in God,
I would not be here today.
[♪♪♪]
FORREST: It was a disaster for everyone.
The parents of the children suffered.
I can imagine the children suffered.
The defendants suffered.
These are substantially
decent people
and there they are in jail.
They lost the school.
They lost their homes.
They lost their reputations.
It was a witch hunt
and there are no witches.
Really, there are no witches.
McMartin is like learning a life's lesson
you never want your child to learn.
I‐‐ I think it's akin to having a puppy
that gets run over on the street in front of your house
and then having your children go look at it
so they know what life's about.
[♪♪♪]
MAN: For more information, go to oxygen.com.