Local News in Brief : Boy in McMartin Case, Judge Talk

The 7-year-old boy whose mother filed the first sexual-abuse complaint against the McMartin Pre-School five years ago, but who has reportedly refused to testify, talked with the trial judge in the molestation case for about 15 minutes Friday at the South Bay Center for Counseling in Manhattan Beach. He visited Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders in the downtown criminal courts building later Friday and will return next week to watch part of the trial and to talk more with Pounders.

But when asked whether he would be willing to talk about the things that happened when he was 2 1/2 and attended the McMartin school, he said, “No,” according to sources close to the case. The boy reportedly said he remembered one of the two defendants in the case, Peggy Buckey, but not the other, Raymond Buckey. Prosecutors said Raymond Buckey was known to the children only as “Mr. Ray.”

Attorneys for both sides, along with a defense psychologist, watched the interview through a one-way mirror and videotaped it.

Prosecutors said they did not call the boy to testify because of his “fragility” and the recent deaths of his mother and brother.