"Railroading" McMartin Prosecutor (Lael Rubin) Appointed by New LA County DA Steve Cooley
Jim Morris
http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/cases/mcmartin.htm
Cooley Announces Staff Changes on 1st Day in Office
Courts: He retains some Garcetti appointees and vows to release a plan on
handling three-strikes cases.
By TWILA DECKER, Times Staff Writer
On his first full day on the job Tuesday, Los Angeles County Dist.
Atty. Steve Cooley announced highly anticipated changes in his executive
management staff.
The appointees include two holdovers from the administration of former
Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, career prosecutors, former ranking members of the
district attorney's office and a former Municipal Court judge.
The job of second-in-command went to Curt Livesay, who will be interim
chief deputy. Livesay, who has 35 years experience as a prosecutor and
defense attorney, also served as chief deputy under former Dist. Atty. John
Van de Kamp.
The appointment that drew the most questions at the news conference was
that of Senior Trial Deputy Lael Rubin as special counsel.
Rubin will oversee Cooley's promised changes in the enforcement of
California's three-strikes law.
Rubin prosecuted the McMartin Pre-School case, an unsuccessful
three-year prosecution that was the most costly in county history. The
highly publicized case changed the way law enforcement officers across the
country question children who may have been sexually abused.
But Rubin said her entire career should not be summed up by one case.
"I concluded my work on the McMartin case more than 10 years ago," she
said. She noted that she had won a murder conviction just a few weeks ago.
The district attorney said he and Rubin will present a three-strikes
plan in 10 days.
Cooley named retired Montebello Police Chief George Stephen Simonian as
chief of the district attorney's bureau of investigation.
He appointed three assistant district attorneys:
* Former Inglewood Municipal Judge Lawrence E. Mason will be in charge
of line operations. Mason was a deputy district attorney from 1975 to 1997
and legal advisor to the Los Angeles County Grand Jury from 1989 to 1991.
* Head Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Bozanich will direct special
operations. Bozanich, who joined the office in 1971, most recently ran the
south juvenile division.
* Assistant Dist. Atty. Sharon Matsumoto will keep her job as head of
administration. She began the job in 1998.
Cooley also named eight bureau directors:
* Jacquelyn Lacey will be in charge of central operations. Lacey joined
the office in 1986. She has been part of the hate crimes suppression unit
for the past year.
* Head Deputy Dist. Atty. Curt Hazell will direct special operations.
Hazell has been with the office since 1976.
* David Guthman will oversee fraud and prosecutions. He has been with
the office since 1977. During the past two years, Guthman has served as
director of the bureau of management and budget.
* Deputy Dist. Atty. Janice Maurizi will direct Region I of branch and
area operations. She has been with the office since 1984.
* Deputy Dist. Atty. John Allen will remain as head of Region II of
branch and area operations. Allen has been with the district attorney's
office since 1983.
* Former journalist Joseph Scott, who helped run Cooley's campaign,
will serve as director of communications.
* William R. Mangan, a commander in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department, will direct the Bureau of Management and Budget.
* Former journalist Carol Baker will remain as acting director of crime
prevention and youth services. She has served in that job since 1998.
AP 18 Dec 95 20:02 EST V0140
Virginia McMartin Dead At 88
TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) -- Virginia McMartin, the grandmother acquitted of
molesting children at her pre-school in the nation's longest and costliest
criminal case, has died. She was 88.
McMartin, who bitterly denied the charges leveled against her, her
daughter, her grandson and pre-school staff, was pronounced dead Sunday in
the emergency room at Little Company of Mary Hospital.
"It was natural causes. She apparently had a series of strokes lately,"
said police Lt. David Marsden.
McMartin founded the now-defunct McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach,
which became the focus of a child abuse investigation in 1983 when a mother
later diagnosed as mentally ill told police she suspected her 2 1/2-year-old
son had been molested.
McMartin was arrested in 1984 with her daughter, Peggy McMartin Buckey,
and grandchildren, Ray and Peggy Ann Buckey, and three teachers.
In the months that followed, allegations were made that teachers at the
school had molested dozens of children, often during bizarre rituals.
McMartin became a familiar figure in the heavily-publicized case as she went
to court in her wheelchair.
In 1986, felony child molestation charges were dismissed against all but
Peggy McMartin Buckey and her son. They were charged with molesting 11
children over a five-year period.
Mrs. Buckey was acquitted in 1990 after a three-year trial. The same
year, Raymond Buckey was acquitted of 40 counts and a jury deadlocked on
another eight counts against him in a second trial.
The entire case lasted seven years and cost Los Angeles County $13
million, making it the longest and costliest criminal prosecution in U.S.
history. The O.J. Simpson trial cost $9 million.
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 22:58:51 -0500
From: "Laura E. Pasley" <LEPa...@AOL.COM
Subject: Virginia McMartin
To: Multiple recipients of list WITCHHNT <WITC...@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
I'm sure you all have heard Virginia (the grandmother)
and owner of the McMartin Pre-School died in her
sleep today.
I was very troubled by the short bleep on CNN. It
stated she was at the "heart of the McMartin"
situation and although they made mention she, nor
any one else was ever convicted on that case - there
was more time spend telling about the charges.
I think the world owes Virginia McMartin an apology.
Through everything this family went thru - this woman
held her head up with dignity. This woman, her daughter
and grandchildren remind me constantly of the system
that went terribly wrong. Nothing could counter the
injustice done to them. It was the beginning of the
reason we need a witchhunt board in the first place to
debate this issue on. This case continues to haunt me
and always will. It's the first case I dealt with that made
me ashamed of the American justice system - a system
I have worked in since being a teenager.
Today - 10 years later - the witchhunts march on.
Laura Pasley
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 23:35:18 -0500
Reply-To: False...@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: Virginia McMartin
To: Multiple recipients of list WITCHHNT <WITC...@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
I agree they are due an apology. I also believe we owe them many thanks for
being strong and fighting like they did. Although we still suffer through
the witch hunts today, there was much learned during the McMartin trials
which have helped others.
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 21:19:31 -0800
From: George Hero <gh...@IX.NETCOM.COM
Subject: Virginia McMartin dies
To: Multiple recipients of list WITCHHNT <WITC...@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Grandmother cleared in molestation case dies
TORRANCE, California (CNN) -- Virginia McMartin, a central figure in a
child molestation case that became the nation's longest criminal
prosecution,
died Sunday. Authorities attributed the death of the 88-year-old grandmother
to natural causes.
The saga of the McMartin Pre-School began in 1983, when a mother -- later
diagnosed as mentally ill -- called Los Angeles police to say she suspected
her
2-year-old son had been molested. Mrs. McMartin was arrested in March 1984
with her daughter, Peggy McMartin Buckey, and grandchildren, Ray and Peggy
Ann Buckey, along with three teachers.
In the months that followed, allegations were made that teachers at the
school had
molested dozens of the children. In 1986, felony child molestation charges
were
dismissed against all but Peggy McMartin Buckey and her son. They were
charged
with molesting 11 children over a five-year period. Mrs. Buckey was
acquitted in
January 1990 after a three-year trial. Raymond Buckey was acquitted of 40
counts
and a jury deadlocked on another eight counts against him in a second trial.
The entire case lasted seven years and cost Los Angeles County $13 million.
Jim Morris
news:20001208052320...@ng-fq1.aol.com...
> <The appointment that drew the most questions at the news conference
> was that of Senior Trial Deputy Lael Rubin as special counsel. Rubin
> the McMartin Pre-School case, an unsuccessful three-year prosecution that
was
> the most costly in county history.>
> *
> I'm surprised this person would be appointed to anything. This idiot
completely
> destroyed the business and lives of an entire family and several employees
on
> nothing evidence. The testimony of some of the children was just
ludicrous;
> there were stories of being taken to see pink elephants at a circus, on
> spaceships, and all kinds of other complete nonsense. The mother who
started
> the whole thing was a nut case. I could see suspecting the son but they
> arrested a half dozen middle aged and older women including one disabled
in a
> wheelchair. How could anyone think that several people of this kind would
all
> conspire together to molest children? I won't say it's 100% impossible
but
> it's close and requires a hell of a lot of evidence which they didn't
have.
> Dogs & children first.
Keep in mind that the McMartin case was the most expensive (and was the
longest!) in American criminal case history (not just in Los Angeles County
history!). Also, the metro desk editor for the LA Times (David Rosenzweig)
was putting out stories on behalf of the McMartin prosecution at the time of
the case and then married the McMartin prosecutor (Lael Rubin)!:
http://holysmoke.org/sdhok/sat17.htm
Now that same former metro desk editor (David Rosenzweig) is the federal
court reporter for the LA Times, does one really think that the LA Times is
going to cover Rubin's new appointment in depth (especially as at least one
current LA Times metro editor used to work under Rosenzweig when he used to
be the metro editor)! I think not!
Apparently, the new Los Angeles County District Attorney (Steve Cooley)
appointed Rubin because she was a supporter of his campaign and is a friend
as well. So he appoints a prosecutor who is the most prolific prosecutorial
"railroader" in American criminal case history! Apparently because she
supported his campaign (in the time of the LAPD Rampart scandal which Mr.
Cooley criticized Garcetti for not addressing in that gang bangers were
"railroaded" by bad cops!). Yet, Cooley has no problem putting in a
prosecutor who absolutely "railroaded" innocent people (such as the McMartin
family) in the most prolific prosecutorial "witchhunt" in American criminal
case history... One word describes his doing such: POLITICS!
When I spoke with Cooley privately a few months ago (before he won the
election), I mentioned the McMartin case to him, and he said that it was
like the O.J. Simpson case in that the jury didn't go the way the DA wanted.
However, I disagreed with him because with the O.J. Simpson case there was
evidence (especially the DNA evidence) that the jury just ignored (most
likely because the defense played the "race card"). But in the McMartin
Pre-School case, there was NO credible evidence! Only a "railroading"
prosecutor (in Lael Rubin) who was out of control! She ignored exculpatory
evidence (when she found out that the initial complaining witness' husband
had molested her child and blamed such on the McMartin Pre-School as she was
mentally ill along with being an alcoholic!). Lael Rubin should not even be
a prosecutor (and should definitely not have been appointed to a senior
position in Cooley's new regime). Just think if Virginia McMartin was your
grandmother.. What I didn't like about my conversation with Cooley is that
he (and Rubin as well) seemed to think that the McMartins were still guilty
and just got off (when in actuality, the McMartins were wrongly arrested and
imprisoned!).
Check out the links at the following Web site (especially the reviews about
the McMartin book and HBO film from 1995 which won three Emmys in 1996):
http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/cases/mcmartin.htm
PS: You can still buy the HBO McMartin film via http://www.amazon.com (just
type in McMartin in the "video" search field there).
"Jim Morris" <jdtm...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:JhZX5.721$U4.7...@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
Jim Morris
From: "Jim Morris"
Newsgroups:
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Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 2:25 PM
Subject: Re: "Railroading" McMartin Prosecutor (Lael Rubin) Gets Appointed
by New LA County DA Steve Cooley
> Some are not of "one mind" with the O.J. Simpson situation either, but the
> bottom line is that no tunnels were found at the McMartin Pre-School
(other
> than what was made from prior excavation of the site), and O.J. Simpson
> would have been found guilty by an objective jury.
>
> Child molesters should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but
> innocent people should not have been "railroaded" by an out of control
> prosecutor (Lael Rubin). What would you do if a mentally ill woman (like
> Judy Johnson) accused you of being a child molester when it was really her
> husband who was the culprit (according to what I have read and watched).
> Again, watch that HBO McMartin trial film (which starred James Woods) as
it
> is scary what Lael Rubin did to the McMartin family (simply go to
> http://www.amazon.com and type in "McMartin" in the "video" search field
to
> find the film).
>
>
> <gemini...@excite.com> wrote in message
> news:3A3179D1...@excite.com...
> > While you are at it you might want to check out
> > yet another web site, and know that all are not
> > of one mind on this moment in history on which
> > much in the way of healing remains unfinished:
> >
> > http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/mcmartin.htm
> >
> > ...geminiwalker
Jim Morris
Jim Morris
The McMartin Preschool case was one of the earliest and largest child sexual
abuse cases in this country. Although none of those charged were ever
convicted, the 28-month trial was the longest and costliest criminal
prosecution in U.S. history. This case is often cited as triggering the wave
of pre-school sexual abuse cases during the mid-1980s.
The case began in August 1983 when the mother of a 2 1/2 year-old boy
reported to police that her son had been abused by Raymond Buckey at the
McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, an affluent community on
Santa Monica Bay. The school had been founded by Ray's grandmother, Virginia
McMartin, in the mid-sixties. His mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, was an
administrator, and his sister, Peggy Ann Buckey was a public school teacher
who helped out at the pre-school during school vacations. Ray was the only
male teacher at the preschool.
After the initial accusation, Ray was arrested, but released due to lack of
evidence. The mother continued her allegations, claiming that her son
returned home from pre-school with his anus red and sore and surmising from
that that he had been sodomized, and claiming that he had witnessed bizarre
satanic rituals at the school. At the beginning of the investigation, police
wrote letters to 200 parents of current and former students telling them
that the pre-school was being investigated and questioning them about
possible molestation of their children.
After the letters went out, parents began questioning their children and the
children began telling stories of abuse at the preschool; that they had been
touched inappropriately, that their pictures had been taken, that they had
had been forced to engage in anal and oral sex, and forced to play a game
called "Naked Movie Star."
Dozens of the children were interviewed and examined by therapists
specializing in diagnosing sexual abuse. They implicated Peggy Ann Buckey
and other teachers as well as Ray. As time went on, the accusations
mushroomed from sexual abuse to include stories of bizarre satanic rituals,
where the McMartins mutilated animals and forced the children to touch
corpses, in hidden underground passageways beneath the school. No such
passageways were ever found. Some of the children's interviews were
videotaped and shown to jurors at trial.
In March 1984, police rearrested Ray along with his sister Peggy Ann, his
mother, Peggy, and grandmother Virginia, as well as three other teachers.
Charges against Virginia, Peggy, and the other teachers were dropped in 1986
for lack of evidence.
The first trial of Ray and his mother began in April 1987 and ended in April
1989 with acquittals on some counts and a deadlocked jury on others. Ray was
tried a second time, and in 1990 another jury was deadlocked on all counts.
The prosecutors chose not to retry him. Ray had spent five years in jail and
Peggy had spent two.
The lengthy and sensational McMartin case drew attention from the national
media, and is still cited today as a symbol of the dangers and difficulty of
using children's testimony. Some jurors in the first trial, when interviewed
after the verdict, said that it was the videotapes of the interviews with
the children that had prevented them from finding the McMartins guilty. They
said that they believed that some of the children had been abused, but that
the interviewing techniques had been so suggestive that they had not been
able to discern what really happened.
Kenneth Pangborn
Lael Rubin was some piece of work.
Jim Morris
From: "Jim Morris" <jdtm...@earthlink.net>
Newsgroups:
alt.true-crime,alt.crime,alt.news-media,alt.politics.media,alt.law-enforceme
nt,alt.private.investigator,alt.journalism,alt.journalism.print,alt.journali
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Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2000 12:49 PM
Subject: Re: "Railroading" McMartin Prosecutor (Lael Rubin) Gets Appointed
by New LA County DA Steve Cooley
Jim Morris wrote (in response to "Geminiwalker"):
> The next time a schizophrenic (and alcohlic) "complaining witness"
accuses
> you of molesting her child when her husband actually did such (and a
> "railroading" prosecutor like Lael Rubin ignores such and unjustly slams
> you in jail for five years) we will be there for you as well!
>
> You might want to check out the message boards at
> http://www.crimenews2000.com
>
>
> Forwarded:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "MLYoung" <mly...@aol.comZAPTHIS>
> Newsgroups: alt.showbiz.gossip
> Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 4:33 PM
> Subject: Re: "Railroading" McMartin Prosecutor Appointed by New LA County
DA
> Steve Cooley
>
>
> > >> the whole thing was a nut case. I could see suspecting the son but
> they
> > >> arrested a half dozen middle aged and older women including one
> disabled
> > >in a
> > >> wheelchair.
> >
> > And the son, who was convicted of
> > nothing, spent four years in jail awaiting
> > trial, enduring trial, etc. Really horrible.
> >
> > >Keep in mind that the McMartin case was the most expensive (and was the
> > >longest!) in American criminal case history (not just in Los Angeles
> County
> > >history!). Also, the metro desk editor for the LA Times (David
> Rosenzweig)
> > >was putting out stories on behalf of the McMartin prosecution at the
time
> of
> > >the case and then married the McMartin prosecutor (Lael Rubin)!:
> >
> > Wow, didn't know that part. So much
> > for objective reporting.
> >
> > >evidence! Only a "railroading"
> > >prosecutor (in Lael Rubin) who was out of control! She ignored
> exculpatory
> >
> > Don't forget the attention-hungry
> > D.A.
> >
> > >evidence (when she found out that the initial complaining witness'
> husband
> > >had molested her child and blamed such on the McMartin Pre-School as
she
> was
> > >mentally ill along with being an alcoholic!).
> >
> > Diagnosed schizophrenic as I recall.
> >
> > --margaret
> >
> <gemini...@excite.com> wrote in message
> news:3A340E5A...@excite.com...
> > Lack of evidence had nothing to do with it.
> > It was proven that something happened to those
> > kids, and that they had been sexually abused.
> > Because of the way perpetrators work, it was
> > however difficult to come to grips with
> > evidence that would hold up in court...
> > *who* did *what* to *whom* *when*, how
> > many times, etc. Therefore, they were acquitted.
> >
> > This does *not* mean they were innocent.
> > It does *not* mean that nothing happened.
> > It does *not* mean that there were no tunnels.
> > What it *does* mean is that powerful people
> > had terrible secrets to hide.
> > Not uncommon at all in sexual abuse circles.
> >
> > ...geminiwalker
> >
> >
> > --
> > To learn more about me, go to:
> > http://home.earthlink.net/~chuard
> > updated 8/6/2000
> > To learn more about me, go to:
> > http://home.earthlink.net/~chuard
> > updated 8/6/2000
> >
>
>
"Jim Morris" <jdtm...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:r0eY5.50318$II2.4...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
Jim Morris
Cooley) appointing her to a senior position (and defending her actions from
McMartin as well)?! That is some piece of work as well..
"Kenneth Pangborn" <kenpa...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:WnRY5.55764$II2.5...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
Kenneth Pangborn
> Yea, she really was... But can you believe the new LA County DA (Steve
> Cooley) appointing her to a senior position (and defending her actions
from
> McMartin as well)?! That is some piece of work as well..
Figures in la la land. He must have hand to troll the bottom of the gene
pool to get that hack back on the job. Does she still run the hallways of
Hill Street screaming and braying at the moon? Amazing that anyone would
defend her and Kee MacFarlane. What a pair of matched bookends.
Jim Morris
a friend of Cooley's as well!), so it is appears that Cooley is returning
the favor... Incredible how he could do such with a prosecutor involved
with the most prolific prosecutorial "witchhunt" in American criminal case
history... Where is the outrage?
Did you used to work on Hill Street as well (only ask because you seem
familiar with such)?
"Kenneth Pangborn" <kenpa...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:2ZTY5.56498$II2.5...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
Jim Morris
http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/cases/mcmartin.htm
Laura Pasley
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Morris" <jdtm...@earthlink.net>
Newsgroups:
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nt,alt.private.investigator,alt.journalism,alt.journalism.print,alt.journali
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Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2000 12:49 PM
Subject: Re: "Railroading" McMartin Prosecutor (Lael Rubin) Gets Appointed
by New LA County DA Steve Cooley
Jim Morris wrote (in response to "Geminiwalker"):
> The next time a schizophrenic (and alcohlic) "complaining witness" (like
Judy Johnson)
> > Lack of evidence had nothing to do with it.
> > It was proven that something happened to those
> > kids, and that they had been sexually abused.
> > Because of the way perpetrators work, it was
> > however difficult to come to grips with
> > evidence that would hold up in court...
> > *who* did *what* to *whom* *when*, how
> > many times, etc. Therefore, they were acquitted.
> >
> > This does *not* mean they were innocent.
> > It does *not* mean that nothing happened.
> > It does *not* mean that there were no tunnels.
> > What it *does* mean is that powerful people
> > had terrible secrets to hide.
> > Not uncommon at all in sexual abuse circles.
> >
> > ...geminiwalker
> >
> >
> > --
> > To learn more about me, go to:
> > http://home.earthlink.net/~chuard
> > updated 8/6/2000
> > To learn more about me, go to:
> > http://home.earthlink.net/~chuard
> > updated 8/6/2000
> >
>
>
"Jim Morris" <jdtm...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> > > > > <The appointment that drew the most questions at the news
conference
> > > > > was that of Senior Trial Deputy Lael Rubin as special counsel.
Rubin
> > > > prosecuted
> > > > > the McMartin Pre-School case, an unsuccessful three-year
prosecution
> > that
> > > > was
> > > > > the most costly in county history.>
> > > > family) in the most prolific prosecutorial "witchhunt" in American
> > criminal
Kenneth Pangborn
> I heard that Lael Rubin was a strong supporter of Cooley's campaign (and
is
> a friend of Cooley's as well!), so it is appears that Cooley is returning
> the favor... Incredible how he could do such with a prosecutor involved
> with the most prolific prosecutorial "witchhunt" in American criminal case
> history... Where is the outrage?
>
> Did you used to work on Hill Street as well (only ask because you seem
> familiar with such)?
Well not really. I met Peggy Ann Buckey and some of the lawyers,
followed the case, saw some of the videos of MacFarlane and briefly met
Rubin. My impression of this intense women was that she was psychologically
over the edge. I was guardian ad litem on several interstate custody actions
and had to appear in Superior Court there. I just felt that Rubin had her
emotions out of control, and from my impression several of her co-workers in
Garcetti's office felt the same way about her.
Jim Morris
Check out the following link which someone just forwarded me:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_mcmar.htm
"Kenneth Pangborn" <kenpa...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:Z55Z5.59151$II2.5...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
Kenneth Pangborn
> Thanks for letting me know your background with the case...
>
> Check out the following link which someone just forwarded me:
>
> http://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_mcmar.htm
I have seen that. While there were allegations of "Satanic rituals" nothing
was ever found to support that. There is a web site that claims to have
documented the tunnels, however such tunnels at that location would have
been impossible. Funny none of this "startling evidence" of the tunnels was
ever provided to the legal system or media.
Jim Morris
With regard to the "tunnels", it was apparently just some "quack" mentioning
such (after the fact) in a failing effort to keep the "witchhunt" alive.
Please feel free to post to the McMartin thread on the message board via
http://www.crimenews2000.com (scroll down to the bottom of the page to get
to the message boards).. Look forward to keeping in touch with you as well.
You don't have the contact info to the McMartin family, do you? Just
curious... Would be nice for them to know that there are many like us who
believe that they were done wrong by an overzealous ("railroading") and out
of control prosecutor (in Lael Rubin). The rumor that I heard is that she
was going to be chief deputy under Cooley. I reread that LA Times article
that I posted earlier to this thread and saw that the current Cooley "Chief
Deputy" is only there on an interim basis. Do you think Cooley is going to
put Rubin in that position ("under the radar")?
Kenneth Pangborn
> With regard to the "tunnels", it was apparently just some "quack"
mentioning
> such (after the fact) in a failing effort to keep the "witchhunt" alive.
> Please feel free to post to the McMartin thread on the message board via
> http://www.crimenews2000.com (scroll down to the bottom of the page to get
> to the message boards).. Look forward to keeping in touch with you as
well.
> You don't have the contact info to the McMartin family, do you? Just
> curious... Would be nice for them to know that there are many like us who
> believe that they were done wrong by an overzealous ("railroading") and
out
> of control prosecutor (in Lael Rubin). The rumor that I heard is that she
> was going to be chief deputy under Cooley. I reread that LA Times article
> that I posted earlier to this thread and saw that the current Cooley
"Chief
> Deputy" is only there on an interim basis. Do you think Cooley is going to
> put Rubin in that position ("under the radar")?
The "tunnels" have been mentioned or are linked via the ICRRT website.
The claims are preposterous according to geologists. It is amazing that a
"witchhunter" found what police and many other official agencies said they
could not and geologists said was impossible at that location.
I met Peggy Ann Buckey and a couple of the lawyers at the VOCAL
conference that was held in the Los Angeles area in 1986. I even got to
dance with her at the Holiday Inn. I sort of wished I had been single, she
was quite a looker. She was a very sweet kid. She wasn't even at the
pre-school when any of those kids were students, she was un UC-Berkeley
through her bachelor's and she was just about to get her master's in
education. So she hadn't been there for almost 5 years. Several of the kids
identified her under MacFarlane's grilling.
Rubin is, as I said a "hysteric." she certainly would have been used as
poster girl for MCP's arguing that women should not be allowed in such
positions because they can't separate their emotions from their professional
duties. Rubin tend to be a "caped crusader" on any case she is on. She
really tripped off on the McMartin case. Her emotional level during that
case, if one observes from an objective distance, certainly gave rise to the
possible need for medication. I have seen other cases like this where the
prosecutor becomes so emotionally involved in the case that it becomes an
obsession. I think you can look at the O.J. Simpson case and brand Marcia
Clark with that same iron. She blew the case. Clark's FIRST of MANY sins was
by boring the shit out of the jury with almost a month of DNA science. When
the jury's eyes started glazing over that was her first clue she had gone
too far, but even when the snoring broke 80 decibels she didn't catch on
that the jury didn't understand the crap. She had gone WAY over their
heads. But her mannerisms and those of Darden alienated the jury. They had a
trial consultant tell her not to do the things she was. Sadly her various
hairdos and outfits for TV didn't help. It seems that extremes in the L.A.
DA's office seems to be a constant.
Jim Morris
Just wanted to let your recent response was much agreed with... Check out
the following Web link which shows that the "tunnels" were bogus as well:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/tunnels.htm
Any idea how one can get in touch with Peggy Ann Buckey as I would like to
let her know about an article that will be coming out in a local LA
newspaper next week (if there is a Web link for it which I think there will
be, I will post it here). I just found the following Web link:
http://www.lawyersandjudges.com/products/notable_trials/abuse.shtml
I just ordered a copy of that McMartin trial (HBO) film via the following
Web link as amazon.com still has the flim in stock, but HBO is no longer
selling it (as the film was taken fo the court transcripts and was well
done):
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6303597866/ingramorganizati/102-59746
97-2308155
Did you check out the book by the Eberles:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0879758090/ingramorganizatiA/102-59
/102-5974697-2308155
http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/cases/mcmartin.htm
http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/cases/mcmartin.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_mcmar.htm
"Kenneth Pangborn" <kenpa...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:zRmZ5.62121$II2.5...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
Jim Morris
Just wanted to let you know that your recent response was much agreed
with... Check out
the following Web link which shows that the "tunnels" assertion were bogus
as well:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/tunnels.htm
Any idea how one can get in touch with Peggy Ann Buckey as I would like to
let her know about an article that will be coming out in a local LA
newspaper next week (if there is a Web link for it which I think there will
be, I will post it here)?
I ordered a copy of that McMartin trial (HBO) film via the following
Web link as http://www.amazon.com still has the film in stock, but HBO is no
longer
selling it (as the film was taken from the court transcripts and was well
done):
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6303597866/ingramorganizati/102-59746
97-2308155
Did you check out the book by the Eberles about the McMartin Pre-School
case?:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0879758090/ingramorganizatiA/102-59
/102-5974697-2308155
I just found the following Web link about the book as well:
http://www.lawyersandjudges.com/products/notable_trials/abuse.shtml
Kenneth Pangborn
> Hi Kenneth,
>
> Just wanted to let your recent response was much agreed with... Check out
> the following Web link which shows that the "tunnels" were bogus as well:
>
> http://www.religioustolerance.org/tunnels.htm
>
> Any idea how one can get in touch with Peggy Ann Buckey as I would like to
> let her know about an article that will be coming out in a local LA
> newspaper next week (if there is a Web link for it which I think there
will
> be, I will post it here). I just found the following Web link:
Peggy Ann has married and is raising a family. I haven't followed where
she is. Last time I heard, I thought she was in the San Francisco area, but
don't know her married name. The lawyer whose name I gave you in e-mail
MIGHT know how to contact her, Ray or her mom.
Jim Morris
were bogus:
http://www.axiomatic.net/ragnar/mcmartin.htm
Kenneth Pangborn
here is a simple SCIENTIFIC answer to the hysterical crap on sites like the
ICCRT website:
1. The soils under the McMartin site are primarily very compacted Holocene
marine sand deposits, horizontally layered over with two distinct strata of
fill: one older, loose fill and one more recent compacted fill which was
most likely put in place during the construction of the foundation of the
school. Both of these fill layers also consisted largely of sand, while the
earlier fill also contained a great deal of organic material and refuse.
Some minor interlayers of clay are also present between the Holocene sands
and the older fill layers. (reference attached Appendix 1.3a from Dr. Gary
Stickel's study: a letter from Dr. Don Michael, his geotech consultant
<geol-mm.txt>)
This type of soil configuration is more or less stable for the support of
gravitational loads provided it has been properly prepared and compacted
prior to construction. The Holocene sands contain approximately 30%
silt/clay mixed in with the sand and thus are also what is generally termed
"partially expansive." Excavating in such soils without maintaining an
appropriate angle of repose (which I would guesstimate as around
1.5Horiz.:1Vert. for these soil conditions) or extensive engineered shoring
would most likely result in progressive collapse. Even a small tunnel would
most have most likely resulted in structural failure without some heavy
shoring. By heavy shoring, I mean steel and timber lagging. Plywood and 4x4
wood posts would not be structurally adequate. Dr. Stickel found no evidence
of piling or lagging. If the "tunnels" had been in place for a significant
period of time with such reinforcement, the building would likely have been
seriously undermined. Even small unsupported gaps under a foundation can
have very serious consequences. Also, shoring is VERY expensive and requires
an engineer's design to do it right.
Jim Morris
What is the direct Web link to that "ICCRT" site? Via at least one of the
following Web sites (http://www.religioustolerance.org/tunnels.htm and at
http://www.axiomatic.net/ragnar/mcmartin.htm), it is mentioned that "Dr.
Stickel" was a professor (or similar) at UCLA, but a telephone call
confirmed that he had no such affiliation... Also, there were supposedly
earlier trash fill holes (or similar) that might have been thought to be the
"tunnels". But the key is that there were no trap door (or similar)
"entrances" in the concrete slab foundation of the McMartin Pre-School (not
even any "entrances" that were sealed!). The "tunnel" assertion was bogus
(according to what I have read that has been ojectively written). There is
no doubt in my mind that the McMartin family was "railroaded" (in the most
prolific prosecutorial "witchhunt" in American criminal case history) by DDA
Lael Rubin (as seen in that HBO film about the McMartin trials). How the new
LA County DA (Steve Cooley) can "reward" her (in return for her supporting
his campaign) and ignore what she did to the McMartin family is a further
travesty...
Your posts to this thread have much appreciated and have been "on the money"
as well (as I look forward to keeping in touch with you).
"Kenneth Pangborn" <kenpa...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:QnUZ5.26$UN1....@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
Kenneth Pangborn
> Hi Ken,
>
> What is the direct Web link to that "ICCRT" site? Via at least one of the
> following Web sites (http://www.religioustolerance.org/tunnels.htm and at
> http://www.axiomatic.net/ragnar/mcmartin.htm), it is mentioned that "Dr.
> Stickel" was a professor (or similar) at UCLA, but a telephone call
> confirmed that he had no such affiliation... Also, there were supposedly
> earlier trash fill holes (or similar) that might have been thought to be
the
> "tunnels". But the key is that there were no trap door (or similar)
> "entrances" in the concrete slab foundation of the McMartin Pre-School
(not
> even any "entrances" that were sealed!). The "tunnel" assertion was bogus
> (according to what I have read that has been ojectively written). There is
> no doubt in my mind that the McMartin family was "railroaded" (in the most
> prolific prosecutorial "witchhunt" in American criminal case history) by
DDA
> Lael Rubin (as seen in that HBO film about the McMartin trials). How the
new
> LA County DA (Steve Cooley) can "reward" her (in return for her supporting
> his campaign) and ignore what she did to the McMartin family is a further
> travesty...
>
> Your posts to this thread have much appreciated and have been "on the
money"
> as well (as I look forward to keeping in touch with you).
Great to see you on the WH and Falseacc lists. I suggest you ask William
Scherck on the WH list
I seem to not have the link on my new system.
Jim Morris
Kenneth Pangborn <kenpa...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:Kl4_5.2178$UN1.1...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
Thanks:-) Will do!
Jim Morris
> > The next time that a mentally ill (alcoholic) woman (Judy Johnson)
accuses
> > you of being a child molester (when her husband really was the culprit)
we
> > will see how much you rely on that jury's decision!
> >
> > Jury decisions aren't perfect: Look how a jury let a murderer (O.J.
> Simpson)
> > "off the hook". Lael Rubin is a "railroading" prosecutor (who
deliberately
> > ignored exculpatory information about Judy Johnson in the McMartin case)
> and
> > even tried to hide such from the defense... The McMartin case was a
> definite
> > "witchhunt" as Lael Rubin shouldn't be in a senior position in LA County
> DA
> > Steve Cooley's new regime! She is there because she supported Cooley's
> > campaign to defeat Garcetti (who is gone because of his regime's poor
> > handling of the O.J. trial and LAPD Rampart scandal). Rubin shouldn't
even
> > still be a prosecutor after what she did in the McMartin case...
The following are some additional Web sites that you might want to check out
if interested further:
http://users.cybercity.dk/~ccc44406/smwane/McMartin2.htm
http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume7/j7_2_1_12.htm
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/archive/1995/950522/950522.television.html
http://www.crimenews2000.com/cgi-bin/wwwthread/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=today&
Number=1367&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5
"Jim Morris" <jdtm...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> > Hi Ken,
Howard
adjoins Manhanttan Beach, while the McMartin tragedy was acted out. This
was a horrible hysterical witch hunt that all media joined into with one
exception: a local paper in Hermosa Beach (I think it was) exposed the
entire deception. Everyone involved in the prosecution of this horrific
miscarriage of justice should be excluded from political life. If this
Rubin dared run for anything she would be slaughtered, but the prosecutorial
forces in LA County will never admit their culpability in this terrible
case. This horrid person has been APPOINTED by our local scumbags.
Similar mis-prosecutions happened accross the country. But here we had it
all; fake social workers, fake psychological work ups on children, etc.
Jim Morris
Thanks for your response post... Sadly, Peggy McMartin Buckey passed away in
Torrance on Friday... I agree with you in that none of the people involved
with the prosecution of McMartin should be be in any type of position of
authority whatsoever. They ruined the lives of the Mcmartin family...
Jim Morris <jdtm...@earthlink.net> wrote in message:
> > The next time that a mentally ill (alcoholic) woman (Judy Johnson)
accuses
> > you of being a child molester (when her husband really was the culprit)
we
> > will see how much you rely on that jury's decision!
> >
> > Jury decisions aren't perfect: Look how a jury let a murderer (O.J.
> Simpson)
> > "off the hook". Lael Rubin is a "railroading" prosecutor (who
deliberately
> > ignored exculpatory information about Judy Johnson in the McMartin case)
> and
> > even tried to hide such from the defense... The McMartin case was a
> definite
> > "witchhunt" as Lael Rubin shouldn't be in a senior position in LA County
> DA
> > Steve Cooley's new regime! She is there because she supported Cooley's
> > campaign to defeat Garcetti (who is gone because of his regime's poor
> > handling of the O.J. trial and LAPD Rampart scandal). Rubin shouldn't
even
> > still be a prosecutor after what she did in the McMartin case...
> > To: <jdtm...@earthlink.net>
> > Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2000 7:29 AM
> > Subject: Re: Fw: Betty Raidor
> >
> >
> > > Dear Jim,
> > >
> > > I spoke with my mother yesterday and read to her all the postings on
the
> > > website you had sent me. She was very interested in hearing it, as I
> > thought
> > > she would be. She was unsure about giving me Peggy's phone number,
but
> > would
> > > give me Peggy Anne's last name as soon as she could remember it or
told
> me
> > I
> > > could look through all her old Christmas cards to find one from her.
I
> > took
> > > it to mean she doesn't have Peggy Anne's phone number. After
arriving back at my mother's house to pick up my son,
he
> > > informed me that the phone had been ringing off the hook, people
calling
> > to
> > > let my Mother know Peggy had passed away. He first got the news
shortly
> > > after you had called so he didn't know then. I appreciate all the
info
> > you
> > > have sent thus far and hope you will continue to keep me updated. I
> will
> > > send you what infomation I come across, when I come across it.
> >
> > > Sincerely,
> > > Joyce > >
> > Dear Joyce,
> >
> > Thanks for your return email:-)
> >
> > I am saddened to learn that Peggy (McMartin Buckey) has died before she
> even
> > had a chance to read the article. I would have liked for her to know
that many people
still
> > think that it was a travesty of justice what Lael Rubin did to her and
her
> > family (as well as to your Mother and the other McMartin teachers,
Babette
> > Spitler and Mary Ann Jackson). Thanks for your additional info on
Raymond
> > and Peggy Ann.
> > I tried a search for Ray Buckey and didn't come up with
> > anything yet. Do you have any ideas where I could do an email search for
> > Ray? Are you going to the memorial service for Peggy? If so, could you
let
> > Ray and Peggy Ann know that I would like to get in touch with them? If
> they
> > don't want to talk about the case any longer, could you let them know
> about
> > that discussion board?:
http://www.crimenews2000.com/cgi-bin/wwwthread/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=today&
Number=1367&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5
> > The following is the Web link for the discussion board on my
> ex-girlfriend's
> > murder case (McMillen murder on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands in
> the
> > Caribbean) which is now also covered via the main home page for Court TV
> > (http://www.courttv.com/trials/tortola):
> >
> >
>
http://www.crimenews2000.com/cgi-bin/wwwthread/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=crimet
rials&Number=755&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5
> > I will definitely keep you updated...
> >
> > With kindest regards,
> >
> > Jim Morris
> > Los Angeles
The following are some additional Web sites that you might want to check out
if interested further:
http://users.cybercity.dk/~ccc44406/smwane/McMartin2.htm
http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume7/j7_2_1_12.htm
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/archive/1995/950522/950522.television.html
http://www.crimenews2000.com/cgi-bin/wwwthread/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=today&
Number=1367&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5
Howard <hv...@inreach.com> wrote in message
news:Io6%5.2635$9U1.1...@news.inreach.com...
Jim Morris
------------------------------------
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Monday, December 18, 2000
The Victims Can't Be Counted
By PATT MORRISON
Before that other trial of the century came along, this was the trial of
the century.
For size, for price, for outrage and outrageousness, you just couldn't
beat the McMartin Pre-School case. Seven years in the making (and
unmaking), 208 counts of child molestation right out of the pedophile's
encyclopedia, seven defendants, 41 children--it was the Cecil B. DeMille
extravaganza of criminal cases.
On and on, through L.A.'s Olympic summer of 1984, McMartin busted the
tape with records of its own: L.A.'s longest preliminary hearing (a year
and a half), its priciest prosecution ($13 million and change). McMartin
would chew up seven years, six judges, 17 lawyers.
It was unimaginable that within the bright rooms, behind the kindly
faces, dark things happened at the Manhattan Beach preschool. A secret cave
for sexual games (investigators couldn't find it). Rabbits butchered on a
church altar (no traces of blood turned up). Airplane rides for in-flight
molestations (no records were found). Strangers molesting children (almost
absurdly, children picked photos of actor Chuck Norris and city Controller
James K. Hahn).
As O.J. Simpson's trial would, McMartin sundered friendships and
family table talk. Did they do it, or didn't they? Did the kids make it up?
Did the investigators encourage them?
There were no convictions. None. Five of the seven defendants didn't
even go to trial. Of the two who did, Ray Buckey, the only man among the
defendants, had a hung jury in his first trial. He had a hung jury in his
second trial. There was no third trial.
The other defendant who went to trial was his mother, Peggy McMartin
Buckey, who died over the weekend--daughter of one defendant, mother of
another and a defendant herself.
No one won in this case: not the children, not successive district
attorneys, not the late Peggy McMartin Buckey, in spite of her acquittal.
She spent her life savings on attorneys. One of them won a slander case
against one of her accusers. She got a dollar.
* * *
In 1983, the year a mother called Manhattan Beach police to say her
2-year-old son had been molested at his preschool, the baby boomers were
well into their own childbearing and a pediocracy was emerging, more
child-focused than even the boomers' parents had been.
Children were pure. One didn't drink or swear around them. One
certainly didn't spank them. And the unspeakable act of
molestation--children could not lie about such things. They could not make
such things up.
Of course children lie. I lied. We all lied. We lied about not eating
cookies even as we had tollhouse on our breath. But we also lied for the
pleasure of creating our own reality--our imaginary friend, our dad's
superhero strength, our magic car.
That was called imagination, and it was an enchanting element of being
a child, like believing that Santa was real and your mom could fly. If it
were not part of childhood, the author of the Harry Potter books would
still be a welfare mom.
But McMartin was different. The animal sacrifices could have come from
some horror movie, but games like naked movie star, and naked cowboys and
Indians--how could they make this up?
I was new to The Times' newsroom, but not to molestation stories.
Three years before, I'd written about a man wrongly convicted of molesting
two boys. The boys had made up the story to get out of being punished. The
parents went to the police, the police went to court, the man went to
prison.
His conviction was expunged after the boys confessed to making it up.
It turned out that an investigator had kept questioning the boys until she
got the answer she wanted, and then taped over what didn't help the case.
Call it manipulation or zeal, doing the wrong things for the right
reasons can be as corrosive as ignoring the problem itself and hurting the
very children we seek to help. When perspective gets lost, so does the
truth. We see it in the drug wars, the zero-tolerance policies that expel a
Texas girl for having Advil, a West Virginia boy for giving a cough drop to
a friend, but seem not to discourage cocaine smugglers from trying to use a
submarine to get their goods to market.
The victims of McMartin Syndrome cannot be counted:
The preschool students themselves, damaged perhaps by sexual abuse and
surely by the prosecuting of it. Americans from the San Joaquin Valley to
small-town Tennessee, caught up in a decade of McMartin copycat witch
hunts. Legitimate victims of abuse whose less flamboyant truths were lost
in the backwash of skepticism about any such childhood horrors.
And McMartin is still making victims. Every weeping child who wasn't
even born in 1983, who can't get a hug from a teacher who is too afraid of
being accused of molestation, is one more victim of the McMartin Pre-School
case.
* * *
Patt Morrison's e-mail is patt.m...@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20001218/t000120639.html
-------------------------------------------------
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Monday, December 18, 2000
McMartin Case's Legal, Social Legacies Linger
Peggy McMartin Buckey's death recalls searing questions
brought on by the 1980s prosecutions.
By TED ROHRLICH, Times Staff Writer
Day-care operator Peggy McMartin Buckey and her family became the closest
things to witches that Southern California had in the 1980s.
For years, Buckey had led a quiet existence, helping her family operate the
McMartin Pre-School in the seemingly idyllic seaside community of Manhattan
Beach. Then, in 1983, she suddenly found herself plucked from obscurity and
vilified as an embodiment of evil--accused, with other family members, of
molesting toddlers in her care.
Her acquittal on the charges, after the longest trial in the nation's
history, provoked searing questions about how to protect children and to
guard against the kind of sex-abuse hysteria that can lead to false
accusations against caregivers.
Authorities are still groping toward answers for these fundamental
questions, which have now outlived Buckey, pronounced dead Friday at age 74
at a Torrance hospital after paramedics found her unconscious in her home.
But her case, and several like it across the country, have left a legacy.
They have changed the ways in which alleged victims are interviewed by
authorities and the ways in which teachers and day-care providers interact
with their young charges.
The case against Buckey and her family was the first in a series of
high-profile nursery school sex abuse prosecutions in the 1980s and early
1990s that collapsed for lack of persuasive evidence.
The cases were not typical of sex crime prosecutions involving child
victims, experts said, since those usually involved family members and took
place in the home. But their breadth guaranteed immense attention.
After the collapse of a case in San Diego, in which a church baby-sitter
was accused of molesting his charges, that county's grand jury offered an
analysis of why so many such cases cropped up at the same time.
The grand jury blamed fallout from a well-intentioned federal effort to
bring child abuse out of the closet. A federal law in the 1970s had given
states a financial incentive to require teachers, doctors, nurses and
police to report suspected child abuse or face punishment. The states had
obliged and such reports had quintupled. One result, the grand jury found,
was the creation of "a child abuse establishment" whose economic interests
had "fuel[ed] a certain amount of sex-abuse hysteria in which an accused
individual's constitutional due process protections are commonly ignored."
'We Were Ignoring Potentially Good Cases'
Victor Vieth, director of the National Center for Prosecution of Child
Abuse, a nonprofit affiliate of the National District Attorneys Assn., said
Sunday that the collapse of those cases left child abuse prosecutors
"gunshy" for a while. "We realized we were getting beaten up because we
didn't know what we were doing," he said.
One result: "We were ignoring potentially good cases because we didn't want
to end up on '60 Minutes' or in the Los Angeles Times or other journals
being criticized for the way we talked to kids."
A key problem in the McMartin case was the suggestive way in which children
were questioned.
Social workers interviewed 384 children who had attended the preschool and
349 of them ultimately confided what the social workers called "yucky
secrets."
This, for example, from a tape-recorded interview with an 8-year-old
girl--Child No. 184:
"We also need to remember that all the mommies and daddies got tricked,"
said the social worker.
"You know how they got tricked?"
"How?" asked the girl.
"They thought it was a really good preschool," said the social worker.
"They didn't know about that yucky stuff. So the mommies and daddies got
tricked too, just like the kids. Remember I told you 183 kids?"
"183," repeated the girl.
"183 and they all got tricked," said the social worker.
Vieth's agency now trains prosecutors and investigators across the country
to avoid suggesting to children the answers they hope to elicit and to
learn how to corroborate their accounts in the absence of physical
evidence. The vast majority of molestations do not involve penetrations, he
said. But corroboration of peripheral information, such as the color of a
room in which an alleged molestation took place, often gives detectives the
upper hand in an interrogation of a suspect and leads to admissions. Nine
out of 10 accused molesters plead guilty, Vieth said.
In the aftermath of the failed nursery school prosecutions, psychologists
demonstrated the high degree to which small children, in particular, are
susceptible to incorporating others' suggestions.
Elizabeth Loftus, a University of Washington psychology professor and
leading memory expert, said Sunday that "the 1990s were full of concerted
efforts on the part of psychological scientists to find out how far you can
go with kids without contaminating them."
She said she co-authored several studies "showing that you could get kids
to [falsely] believe that they got their hand caught in a mousetrap and had
to go to the hospital to get it removed, or that when they were younger
they fell off a tricycle and had to get stitches in their leg. All it took
was some suggestive interviewing."
Perhaps the most far-reaching consequence of the prosecutions was in the
alarm they conveyed and the changes they promoted among teachers and in the
child-care industry.
Many teachers have adopted no-touch policies--worried that an innocent hug
could be interpreted as a sexual embrace.
Writer Margaret Talbot observed last year in The New Republic that workers
at many day-care centers are now required to change diapers only when
accompanied by another adult and are discouraged from holding toddlers.
"Our preoccupation with people who do assault children," she wrote, "has
made us wary of people who would never assault them. These days we are all
suspects."
----------------------------------------------
Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Pangborn <kenpa...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:Kl4_5.2178$UN1.1...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...