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Los Angeles District Attorney Robert Philibosian, whose election campaign was not going well, made the case his own. He presented 18 children to the grand jury, which returned indictments against Raymond, his mother, sister, grandmother and three McMartin teachers. On March 24, 1984, police accompanied by television cameras arrested them at home. Raymond's sister Peggy Ann Buckey was arrested in front of her high school class. Only crippled matriarch ( Virginia McMartin, 82, honored for her community service, was allowed to surrender voluntarily.
In January 1986 charges against five of those originally accused and jailed were abruptly dropped when a new district attorney, Ira Reiner, declared a "complete absence of evidence" against them. That did not stop a determined prosecutor, Lael Rubin, from relentlessly pursuing the case against Peggy Buckey and Raymond. There was little corroborating evidence. Child pornography, which prosecutors had suggested was the Buckeys' motive, was not proved: despite an international search for evidence by five government agencies, including the FBI, no pornographic photos of the McMartin children were ever found.
Although the Buckeys were acquitted, the case is still not closed. District Attorney Reiner must decide whether to pursue the 13 counts against Raymond Buckey on which the jury could not reach a verdict. Peggy McMartin Buckey has filed a $1 million suit against the city, county, CII, and others. In Manhattan Beach, parents of the children are outraged. "The anger is beginning to rise," says parent Mary Mae Cioffi. "Our justice system needs a revamp for kids."
Nationally, the attention generated by the McMartin case set off an explosion in the reported instances of child sexual abuse, to an estimated 350,000 in 1988, vs. 6,000 in 1976. Judicial reforms have been adopted to protect young victims from being brutalized a second time in court. Specially trained professionals question children more carefully now. More than half the states protect children from having to testify in open court, allowing either videotaped or closed-circuit testimony. That protection will be tested by the Supreme Court. Last week the Justices agreed to consider two cases in which defendants argue that they were denied their Sixth Amendment right to confront their accusers. So far, the reforms are working. Although only an estimated 10% to 15% of sex-abuse complaints are prosecuted, about 90% of those end in conviction.
The realization, from the McMartin case and others like it, that trustworthy authority figures can sometimes be child molesters may have created a monster that ensnares innocent people. One day social workers talk about how to get children and parents to report incidents of sexual abuse; the next day Oprah Winfrey and Phil Donahue have a line of people waiting to tell their stories. Some parents, determined to damage each other in a divorce, are throwing abuse charges around. Those bent on destroying a reputation have a surefire weapon.