Word: mcmartins
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...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...
...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...
...McMartin children were not robbed of their innocence by sexual abuse, it was stolen from them by a legal system that took more than six years to bring this case to a conclusion. One child witness was four when the abuse allegedly occurred, seven when she first told a social worker about it, eight when she told her story to a grand jury, ten when she told it to a judge, and eleven when she finally told it to the jury that rendered its verdict last Thursday. Perhaps the only thing of value that has come out of this case...