
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 3, 1990                   TAG: 9006030079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Short

CHILD-ABUSE TRIAL'S BREVITY SHOCKS EX-PUPILS' PARENTS

After less than three weeks of testimony, prosecutors in the retrial of McMartin Pre-School defendant Ray Buckey rested their case Friday.

The abrupt halt to the case, which heard testimony from only three alleged child-molestation victims, brought expressions of surprise and shock from some parents of former students at the Manhattan Beach nursery school.

The parents said they had expected a more extensive case and promptly labeled the proceedings "a sham trial for political purposes, an appeasement trial."

They were referring to District Attorney Ira Reiner's decision to retry Buckey, 32, on eight of the 13 charges unresolved at his first trial. Reiner, a candidate for state attorney general, announced that he would proceed against Buckey after intense lobbying from parents.

Prosecutors maintain that they merely have streamlined a case already reduced in scope. In the original trial, which broke records for length and cost, Buckey was found not guilty of 40 charges, and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, was acquitted on all 12 charges lodged against her.

by CNB