MacMartin PreSchool Ritual Abuse Follow Up

In my last post I said I would tell you about what the outcomes were from the McMartin PreSchool Ritual Abuse trials were and here they are :

After the trial:

The events at McMartin caused extensive disruption:

Hundreds of Manhattan Beach children, now young adults, believe that they were abused during bizarre rituals. They are probably suffering various degrees of disability. We have been unable to find any follow-up studies to measure the degree of damage that they have suffered.

The 7 adults who were charged have been financially impoverished.

Mcmartin preschool was closed, and leveled to the ground.

The other 8 schools were closed down and never re-opened.

The pastor of St. Cross church was the victim of harassment and death threats. "He closed the church and moved to another part of the country."

The county had to pay the $13 million costs of the trials. These were the most expensive trials in U.S. history. The O.J. Simpson trial, in comparison, cost 8 million.

Many copy-cat prosecutions subsequently occurred across North America.

Children's stories of mysterious, secret tunnels appeared in various other MVMO cases around the world. None were ever found.

Tens of millions of Americans falsely began to believe that young pre-school children across the U.S. were being terribly abused.

Actions by the principals in the case included:

Peggy McMartin immediately filed a civil suit against the city, county, the CII and an ABC TV station for a shopping list of improper behaviors. A few months later, Virginia McMartin and two of the defendants who were charged but never tried also filed suits. These actions failed because state law and previous court decisions have granted absolute immunity from prosecution to child protective services workers, persons involved in the prosecution. This protection was extended to the CII in this case because they were working for the prosecution.

"Peggy Buckey sued to get back her teaching credentials. In granting them, and restitution of $180,000 from the state in lost teacher's pay, the judge found the children's statements so lacking in credibility as to not constitute evidence. [In 1995] Married, with two children, she now teaches extreme-case disadvantaged children in a special school in Anaheim, Calif." 9

In 1991, the accused sued the parent of one student for slander. They won the case, but were only awarded $1.00 in damages.

Ray Buckey went on to finish college and, in 1995 was preparing to enter law school. 9

Virginia McMartin died in 1995-DEC-18 at the age of 88.

On 2000-DEC-6, Senior Trial Deputy Lael Rubin, the prosecutor in the McMartin case, was promoted to special counsel.

On 2000-DEC-15, Peggy McMartin Buckley died in Torrance, CA, at the age of 74.

In 2001-FEB-19, Betty Evans Raidor, a former teacher at McMartin, died at the age of 81. She had been charged with 32 instances of child molestation, along with four other teachers. The charges were dropped after the preliminary hearing. The trial ruined her financially. The publicity turned her into a pariah.

You can find more information at http://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_mcmar.htm