McMartin a Talkative Witness for Grandson : Molestation case: Preschool founder takes on attorneys and judge. Both sides rush through questioning as trial seems to have picked up speed.

Time has not tempered feisty matriarch Virginia McMartin who, as the first defense witness at her grandson’s retrial Tuesday, spoke her mind, as always.

In only two hours of testimony, the 83-year-old founder of the Manhattan Beach nursery school that bore her name took on both the judge and the prosecution, and tried to chat with jurors as well.

Interrupted by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg when she began elaborating on an answer, she harrumphed:

“Oh, you’re not allowed freedom of speech in this court either.”

She was referring to her experience last year in the first trial of defendant Ray Buckey, when another judge threatened to put her in jail for “spouting off in front of the jury,” and declared her medically infirm.

McMartin’s testimony was stricken, and three hours of excerpts from earlier videotaped testimony were presented to the jury in its place.

This time, too, her remarks were stricken repeatedly.

However, both sides rushed through her testimony Tuesday, as though someone had pushed the fast-forward button on the proceedings. Last week, after only 13 days of testimony, prosecutors abruptly rested their case.

Spectators and McMartin herself seemed shocked when, after only minutes of cross-examination, Deputy Dist. Atty. Joe Martinez said, “No further questions.”

“Oh! And I can see the baseball game?” McMartin then asked, referring to an Angels telecast Tuesday evening.

Martinez had just shown her a photograph of the school. It showed dense foliage, which McMartin said must have been placed there to “fool” the earlier jury. He also had introduced as evidence the detailed diaries she kept, but never got around to asking her about entries concerning her grandson.

Outside the courtroom, Martinez said he believed that he had shown McMartin to be a biased and prejudiced witness who is trying to protect her grandson. “Why go on?” he asked, shrugging his shoulders.

The wheelchair-bound McMartin, known to generations as “Miss Virginia,” testified that “children have always been my great love.” She answered “heavens no,” and “never” when questioned about alleged improprieties at her school, which she portrayed as a caring place for toddlers. She said the youngsters “adored” her grandson, Buckey.

Buckey, 32, is charged with eight counts of molestation involving three girls who attended the school between 1979 and 1983.

McMartin called the proceedings, in which she was once a defendant, “a witch hunt” and said it is her belief that children are “impressionable at any age.”

She also ignored entreaties by the judge.

“Am I allowed to ask a question?” she wanted to know.

“No,” said Weisberg. “You can discuss that with Mr. Davis (Buckey’s lawyer).”

“Oh,” she went on, not missing a beat, “I was just wondering when the Angels were coming on.”

“Just be quiet,” fumed Weisberg.

Minutes later, while lawyers were huddled at one of several conferences requested by the defense, McMartin turned to the jury and began addressing them.

“OK, Ma’am,” Weisberg snapped, “You’ll have to be quiet.”

Earlier Tuesday, Weisberg denied a defense motion for acquittal on five of the eight charges, calling defense arguments of denial of due process and double jeopardy “erroneous.” The judge said that although the children’s testimony does not exactly match the listed charges, both come under the general heading of “a lewd and lascivious act with a child under 14.”