Original subtitles

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.