Saw McMartin Movie Sold, Boy Testifies

A 9-year-old boy testified Thursday that he saw the chief defendant in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case, Raymond Buckey, receive money for a movie that showed several McMartin pupils playing a game while naked.

The child said he was taken to a house where Buckey, 26, showed the movie to a man and two women he did not recognize and to several McMartin pupils who had been driven to the house in a green van.

Asked by Deputy Dist. Atty. Christine Johnston what happened at the house, the child replied: “They showed pictures of us (the children). . . . Ray’s friend worked the movie camera. It showed us walking and dancing and playing ‘naked movie star.’ Ray gave him the film and the guy would give Ray the money.”

Johnston did not continue the line of questioning, but later, in the courthouse hallway, when asked if the testimony meant that the alleged movies were sold as pornographic material, she said: “That is correct. Ray turned over the film and received money.”

First Indication

The child’s testimony was the first indication that movies allegedly taken at the preschool were sold. Investigators for both the district attorney and the FBI have said that no such movies or photographs have been found during searches in the United States or abroad.

Thursday’s witness was the fifth child to testify in the preliminary hearing to determine if seven teachers accused of 208 counts of molestation and conspiracy involving 41 pupils at the school since 1978 should stand trial.

He testified that Raymond Buckey and a man he did not know sexually abused him and other children while a van in which they were riding was in a car wash. “The curtains were pulled,” he said. “Then they’d touch us going through the car wash.”

He also testified that Raymond Buckey sodomized him and forced him to perform oral copulation at the school and that he pointed a gun at him and other children and threatened them with death if they told anyone “secrets” about the alleged sexual abuses.

Implicates Defendant

The child also implicated defendant Peggy McMartin Buckey, 58, testifying that she fondled him and also took pictures of him and the other children while they were being sexually abused by Raymond Buckey, who is her son.

The child, who maintained a wooden expression and talked in a monotone throughout his more than three hours of testimony, also said that animals were killed to threaten the children. “There was a . . . hamster like we have at school in a cage. He (Raymond Buckey) threw him against the wall,” he said.

Asked how he knew it was dead, the child replied, “Because it fell down and didn’t move at all.”

Others Watched, He Says

The boy said that three other defendants, including school owner Virginia McMartin, 77, and teachers Betty Raidor, 65, and Babette Spitler, 37, sometimes watched the sessions through a window.

Also charged in the case are teachers Peggy Ann Buckey, 29, and Mary Ann Jackson, 57.