Some children said they never went to the McMartin School, even though they did.. Please try again later. A judge later ruled in her favor, according to the Los Angeles Times, and she resumed her teaching career. Satz, who is no longer with the television station, sat in the courtroom while Ms. MacFarlane was questioned. One of the strangest testimonies came from one boy who claimed that the McMartin teachers had forced the children to use shovels and pickaxes in order to dig up coffins. I dont see from whats been presented that theres a substantial issue for the jury, Pounders said after hearing Ms. MacFarlane testify about the relationship outside the presence of the jury. Like most people, MacFarlane genuinely believed these children were abused. Direct Examination by Prosecutor Roger Gunson: . In the spring of 1983, Judy Johnson tried to enroll her 2-year-old son at the Virginia McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, but she was told that unfortunately, the school was full and they weren't accepting new applicants. Concern in the 80s that children would be similarly re-traumatized led the state of California to pass a law allowing children under 14 to testify outside the courtroom via closed-circuit televisions. MacFarlanes findings and techniques were later criticized, as was her relationship with reporter Wayne Satz, who extensively covered the McMartin Preschool story for Los Angeles KABC, according to the Associated Press. On Dec. 19, 1986, she was found dead in her home, and the coroners office listed her cause of death as fatty metamorphosis of the liver associated with alcoholism, according to, . The testimonies of the children were also repeatedly contradictory and inconsistent. According to, reported the case had come to its final end, as, Virginia McMartin died in 1995 at age 88, and her daughter Peggy died in 2000, at 74. She began going to therapy shortly afterward and tells Beck that was where all the trauma happened.. She was the Director of Children's Institute International. [2], As part of her job at CII, MacFarlane interviewed 400 children for the McMartin preschool trial using anatomically correct dolls and hand puppets. Neither Ray nor Peggy were ultimately convicted of any crime. Two months later, in January 1990, they rendered their judgement. The jury found the mother and son not guilty on 52 counts of child molestation, but remained deadlocked on 12 molestation charges against Ray Buckey and a single count of conspiracy against Ray and Peggy, according to the Associated Press. By 1989, the number of charges had been reduced to 64, and the trial dragged on, according to the, In November 1989, after two and half years and testimony from 124 witnesses, a weary jury began deliberating the fates of Ray Buckey and Peggy McMartin Buckey. The defense had suggested that Wayne Satz, a former KABC reporter, influenced the interviews that Kee MacFarlane conducted with children from the preschool as part of her job at Childrens Institute International. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. But no evidenceno pornography, no semen, no corpseswas ever recovered. On March 22, 1984, seven employees of the McMartin Preschool were indicted, including Virginia McMartin, then 76, Peggy McMartin Buckey, Peggy Ann Buckey, Ray Buckey, and employees Mary Ann Jackson, Babette Spitler and Betty Raidor. After the McMartin trial wrapped, MacFarlane admitted in a 1990 interview with The New York Times that she was naive in never having been part of a case like this, but defended her controversial interviewing techniques. Beck argues, convincingly, that the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s provoked a conservative backlash in the 80s, fueling parental paranoia. Dr. Astrid Heger also concluded that 80 percentof the children had been abused, though this conclusion wasn't based on physical evidence. Parents of McMartin Preschool children panicked. In the end, Ray Buckey and Peggy Buckey were acquitted. She was then released on almost $300,000 bail, according to, . Kee MacFarlane, Childrens Institute International, Los Angeles CA. She had noticed an irritation on her two-and-a-half-year-old sons bottom, and claimed it was the result of sexual abuse by Ray Buckey, according to local newspaper The Beach Reporter. In the end, more than 350 children described horrific accounts of abuse, which inflamed public speculation and turned the case into a national sensation. On March 22nd, 1984, three McMartin teachers, Mary Ann Jackson, Bette Raidor, and Babette Spitler, were indicted along with Ray Buckey, Peggy Buckey, Ray's sister Peggy Ann Buckey, and Virginia McMartin (pictured), who founded the preschool 30 years earlier. In the end, charges were dropped against five, and the remaining two went to trial, but they were ultimately acquitted. "What did you say to the families of the children? But in the summer of 1983, Johnson took her son to the doctor multiple times and although the doctors didn't find cause for concern, by August, Johnson was convinced that her son had been subject to sexual abuse. Otherwise, there was nothing to suggest the veracity of the alleged tunnels and secret rooms. Woodling hired an inexperienced assistant, Astrid Heger, to examine young girls hymens for microscopic abrasions and variations which, according to Woodlings (now-discredited) findings, often indicated sexual trauma. To say that these allegations were coerced is an understatement. The photographic method she developed has been successfully used in hundreds of molestation cases. Indeed, the day-care investigations in the 80s echoed several specific aspects of the 1692 witch hunts. Kathleen 'Kee' MacFarlane[1] (born 1947)[2] is an American social worker known for involvement in the high-profile McMartin preschool trial in the 1980s. In 1990, she was found not guilty of all charges, saying, Ive gone through hell, and now we've lost everything, according to The Washington Post. But the hysteria ultimately obscured whether or not Arnold was guilty of abuse. Kathleen 'Kee' MacFarlane [1] (born 1947) [2] is an American social worker known for involvement in the high-profile McMartin preschool trial in the 1980s. And on September 7th, the police arrested Buckey under suspicion of child abuse. By the time the Buckeys trial began in the spring 1987, the case against them had been reduced to 99 charges of molestation and one of conspiracy involving 14 children. 'Yes.' But Pounders ruled he was protected from testifying by Californias news reporter shield law. "The children are doing great," Cody said. Peggy McMartin Buckey was eventually released from custody on an almost $300,000 bail, while Ray would spend five years in jail before being released in 1989 on $1.5 million bail, reported. According to The New York Times, Johnson even wrote a letter to the district attorney claiming Peggy and Ray Buckey had taken her son to an armory to a "ritual-type atmosphere" where a "goatman" was also present. Peggy Ann Buckey, Ray Buckeys sister, was a high school special education teacher who occasionally helped out at her grandmothers preschool. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. In 1986, one month before the trial began, a taped interview with Glenn Stevens, a McMartin prosecutor, was given to the defense attorneys and the California Attorney General's office. The trial dragged on for nearly three years. In light of the tape, defense attorneys tried to get the charges against Ray and Peggy Buckey dropped, but the motion was denied by Judge Pounders. Although Johnson's son wasn't able to identify Buckey from a series of photos, the police searched Buckey's home and confiscated a graduation robe, a rubber duck, and Playboy magazines as "evidence." He was later indicted and arrested in March 1984, along with his grandmother, Virginia McMartin. MacFarlane has been criticized for her methods of interrogating small children. Two of MacFarlane's primary tasks at CII were to build a child sex . Superior Court Judge William Pounders said the defense had not shown that it was relevant to the trial. Crime News is your destination for true crime stories from around the world, breaking crime news, and information about Oxygen's original true crime shows and documentaries. In late 1983, before stories about the case broke, Ms. MacFarlane said she received a phone message from Satz saying he wanted to discuss Raymond Buckey, who would later become a defendant. Although few children corroborated the allegations of abuse, those who did embellished Judy Johnson's stories. She and her granddaughter successfully sued the parent of one child for slander in 1991, but the plaintiffs were only awarded $1 each, according to the Los Angeles Times. He even acknowledged the leading nature of the questions asked of the children, stating, "They were all contaminated.". As the investigation got under way, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office referred parents to the Childrens Institute International, a local non-profit that provides social services to children in need. Soon after, other parents of children under Buckeys care at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach alerted police that their children had confessed to being fondled, sodomized, and forced to participate in pornographic films. I remember them almost giggling and laughing, saying, Oh, we know these things happened to you. However, the prosecutors often tried to use the lack of evidence as proof of the profound deviousness of the defendants, who were so thorough as to leave absolutely no trace of their horrific activities. [4] Charges against the defendants eventually were dropped. ". She developed the concept of the anatomically correct doll for children to use during interviews concerning abuse and played a significant role in the McMartin trial. He was retried later that year, resulting in a mistrial and all charges being dismissed, according to the, . There were also several other day care providers that were accused of abuse, but many were proven to be "unsubstantiated.". Ms. MacFarlane did not say when the relationship ended. Kee MacFarlane, a social worker at the Children's Institute International, conducted interviews with hundreds of McMartin Preschool students, using sock puppets and anatomically correct dolls to help children disclose "yucky secrets." Many children initially denied being abused, according to The New York Times. Johnson's claims became "increasingly bizarre," ranging from blood drinking to baby beheadings, but the satanic elements captured the attention of a public immersed in the satanic moral panic. According to The Day Care Ritual Abuse Moral Panic, Johnson claimed that her son had come home with "a reddened anus and spent the night restless and whiny, finally responding to his mother's relentless questioning by saying the Buckey had taken his temperature recently." They were pretty distraught," Rubin replied. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. Ray Buckey went to law school, according to the Los Angeles Times, and since the trial has refused to talk about the case. She said she turned to a co-worker, Sandra Krebbs, and said, My God, Sandy, hes gotten wind of the case., He knew a lot of things about this case, she said. Ultimately only 41 of the original 360 children testified during the grand jury and pretrial hearings, and fewer than a dozen testified during the actual trial. , prosecutors determined there was insufficient evidence to prove them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. "I never did anything. (Predictably, these led to false confessions.). A jury found the mother and son not guilty of 52 counts of child molestation, but remained deadlocked on 12 molestation charges against Ray Buckey, as well as a single count of conspiracy against Ray and Peggy, according to AP News. The show is set in the fictional city of Quahog, Rhode Island and exhibits much of its . "I've been working with sexually abused children for 13 years,. Although Ray Buckey was released the same day he was arrested based on lack of evidence, since Judy Johnson claimed that her son had provided the names of two other children at the school who were being abused, the police decided to reach out to parents for further evidence. He was later indicted and arrested in March 1984, along with his grandmother, Virginia McMartin. 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