8/4/2019 McMartin Trial Shattered Lives, Judicial System (July 29, 1990)

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Spo r t s

Braves

slugger

on target

Page IBage IB

Sunday

July 29, 1990

T H E HAWK E Y EForecas t

More rain expected today

and tonight, then after two

relatively clear days, rain re

turns at midweek. Page 2A

Iowa's Oldest Newspaper

154th year — No. 17 800 S. Main St. — Burlington, Iowa 52601 — (319) 754-8461 120 pages — 75 cents

• . •JUT - „ „- .

.'-4

John Gaines/The H*wk Eye

RAGBRAI XVH1 ende d at the North Boat R amp whe re cyclists dip pedo r dunked their bikes; in the Mississippi River.;

Bike ride ends on soggy noteBy Kevin Robbins

The Hawk Eye

Another notch in the annals of endurance can be etched.

The rain, pain, winds and wounds arehistory. This ride has ended, 495 milesfrom where it began. The time is ripe forsomething that doesn't involve a bike.

The 18th RAGB RAI brigade startedmoving from Washington to Burlingtonyesterday before the sun came up, andtraces of the estimated 10,000 riders stillwandered around the city last night-

They looked worn.Nature again played nemesis - for the

final lap, dumping buckets of rain andslapping RAGBRAI's face with windsfrom the south.

C a m p s around Washington bedded

down Friday under a cloudless sky, butrain heckled the slumber party before themorning ritual of packing tents andmounting the bikes. Riders streaked tothe Mississippi River trying to beat the

clouds.Rain pelted the route until noon. Jokes

about the weather were no longer funnyso they weren't told. Cyclists trainedtheir concentration on the road ahead andcaught tire drizzle in the face.

Thunder tagged along through Way-land, Trenton and Mount Union. Newsorts of road kill issues emerged, changing from racoons and squirre ls early inthe week to turtles and frogs in thesoutheast. Mold filled the air.

Three miles of gravel before PrairieGrove challenged the durability of cyclists and their machines. Cows grazingin the Dewey Byar Farm looked at thefilthy riders. At the Peace LutheranChurch, many used a garden hose tospray sjand from their bikes and bodies

before sprinting to the end.There, Burlington's welcome soothed

the taxing effort of getting to the Port.

Bike -Please turn to page 5A

And now, the trip by canoe ...By Ann Weiler

The Hawk Eye

It's the season for acronyms:As RAGBRAI ends, MADRACbegins.

Thousands of bicyclistsrolled into Burlington yesterday to conclude the week-long (Des Moines) Register'sAnnual Gre at Bike RideAcross Iowa. In seven days,participants in the MississippiAnnual Down River AdventureBy Canoe will make theirtriumphant return to the Burlington riverfront.

The 153-mile canoe trip begins, today with a 5:30 a.m.wake up call. After a heartybreakfast, the paddlers werescheduled to shove off at 7 a.m.from Bellevue.

MADRAC co-chair J e f f

The MADRAC routeIToday : Bellevue, to Sabula (22 miles)

I Monday : to Camanche (23 miles)

ITuesday : to Le Claire (15 mi es)

IWedne sda y : to Buffalo (24 miles)

•Thursday : to Muscatine (171/2 miles)

I Friday: to Keithsburg, III. (28 miles)

ISa turday : to Burlington (231/2 miles)

Taeger said that as of Tuesday,about 40 people had registeredto take part in the ride.

"Usually we get about halfor a third as many more regis-'tering at the (take off) site, somaybe we'll have another 11

or 12," he said. "It's downsomewhat this year becausethere are no internationalguests." ^

In past years, teams fromBrita in, New Zealand, Austra lia and other nations have

joined the journey, sponsoredby MADRAC organizers.

Annabelle Dahlsten, whocoordinates the crew that follows the canoeists on land,said that funding might havebeen a factor.

"They (international teams)come as guests. We weren'table to have a fund-raiser intime, and I think that's part ofit ", Dalhsten agreed that las£-

minute registration could addto the "number of canoeists.

"L a s t year we doubled ,thenumber. They're very independent people," she said..

The people of Bellevue were

Canoe —Please turn to page 5A

Senate keeps

subsidies

in farm billFrom wire reports

WASHINGTON - The SenateFriday approved a new five-yearfarm program that features $54billion in farm subsidies andincludes an increased emphasison environmental protection andfood safety.

The bill, passed 70-21, leavesvirtually unchanged the farmsubsidy programs put in placeby the 1985 farm bill, whichwere intended to make agriculture more responsive toworldwide markets.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, was among those vot ingagainst the measure; Sens. TomHarkin, Paul Simon and AlanDixon, all Democrats from Iowa

and Illinois, voted for the bill.Grassley said he voted no be

cause the bill continues current

policy that restricts the plantingoptions of farmers who enroll infederal farm programs.

"After talking with Iowafarmers over the last 18 monthsabout what they expect fromthis bill, more fl exibilityemerged time and time again asthe No. 1 concern," Grassleysaid in a statement issued afterthe vote.

"The problem is the UnitedStates Senate is made up of toomany lawyers," he said. "Two-thirds of this body are lawyerswho don't understand that theNo. 1 issue to farmers is planting flexibility."

Agriculture Secretary ClaytonYeutter had warned earlier thatPresident Bush might veto the

F arm bill —Please turn to page 8A

Stroll along tracksis deadly for mann . . r-» i _ i A J i . . ™y Brenda Woody

The Hawk Eye

A train killed a man walkingalong the Burlington NorthernRailroad tracks east of Roosevelt Avenue Friday night.

David J. Taylor, 31, Lincoln,Neb., was walking west when atrain approached him from behind. Although the train'swhistle blew, Taylor failed toget out of the way. He waskilled by the impact.

Burlington Police Lt. VernEilers said that although Taylorwas from Nebraska, he appar ently did not live there buttraveled most of the time, whichexplained why he was in thearea.

"He spent a lot of time on thetracks . He was probably a transient," Eilers said.

Eilers did not know why Taylor did not respond to the trainwhistle. There was no information indicating that Taylor wasdeaf.

Deputy Iowa Medical Examiner Dr. Peter Stephens, Davenport, performed an autopsy onTaylor's body yesterday. Results

ar e expected to be available inabout two weeks .

Taylor had family in Lincoln,Neb., and Sioux Falls, S.D.,Eilers said. Lunning Chapel wasmaking arrangements to sendhis body to Sioux Falls.

Soggy state getting

wet at a record clipStaff and wire reports

S t a t e Climatologist HarryHillaker says that Iowa is onpace for what might be its wettest first seven months on record.

Hillaker said before theweekend's rains that Iowa hadreceived an average of 4.74

inches of rain in J u l y , comparedwith the normal 3.95 for theentire month. He noted that inthe 57 days since J u n e 1, onlyfive days have been rain-freeacross the state, two in J u n eand three in J u l y . In the 85days since May 4, it rainedsomewhere in Iowa on 75 days .

More rain is surely to fallsomewhere in the state today.In southeast Iowa, skies will be

mostly cloudy and there is a 50percent chance of showers andthunderstorms. The high temperature should be in the lowerto middle 80s.

More rain is expected tonight,mainly during the evening. After two days of relative clearskies, the extended forecast callsfor even more rain at midweek.

A spokesman at the NationalWeather Service attributed thesoggy weather to a broad lowpressure system in the westernU.S. and a nearly stationaryhigh pressure system in thenortheast. The wind flow around

. the two systems has pulled

W e t -Please turn to page 5A

McMart in trial shattered lives, judicial systemBy Linda Deutsch

The Associated Press

L O S A N G E L E S - In the history of American jurisprudence,no criminal prosecution haslasted longer nor taken agreater toll financially andemotionally than the McMartinPre-School molestation case.

Reputations were ruined andlives were shattered. A schoolwas demolished and the justicesystem took a beating as

Analysis

McMartin became a symbol oflegal excess.

Seven years and $13.5 millionafter it began, the last act in

the saga of Raymond Buckeyand the teachers of the McMartin school was played out Fridayin a Los Angeles courtroom.

A mistrjal was declared inBuckey's retrial after the jury

sa id it was hopelessly deadlocked on eight child molestation counts. District AttorneyIr a Reiner said there would notbe a third trial.

Buckey, once among sevendefendants, sat alone before thejury in his second trial. Six

women — including his mother,sister and grandmother — werecle.ared in earlier proceedings.

Marathon trial

The abbreviated second trial,lasting three months, was a

sharp contrast to the first marathon McMartin trial whichstretched to nearly three years.An 18-month preliminary hearing had preceded that case.

As months and years passedin the McMartin case, a newdecade dawned and time became

the enemy of the truth-seekingprocess.

The children who were alleged to have been molested atthe Manhattan Beach nurseryschool grew up. In the second

trial, one-time toddlers grown toadolescence strained to remember on the witness stand a timenow lost in the dim haze ofchildhood memories.

They furrowed their brows,searching for answers, sayingagain and again: "I don't re

member.""The truth never had a

chance," ' Buckey's attorney,

T ria l -Please turn to page 8A

InsideBusiness I D

Classified ads 3 D

Dear Abby 4 C

Deaths/Records 9 A

Happenings 3 D

Midlands I COpinions 4 A

Sports I B

8 supplements inside

8/4/2019 McMartin Trial Shattered Lives, Judicial System (July 29, 1990)

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BA The Hawk Eye • Sunday • July 29, 1990

From the front page

TrialContinued from page 1A

Danny Davis, told jurors inc losing a rguments. "We neverheard from the children. Weheard from little adults."

Deputy Dist r ic t At torney PamFerre ro to ld the jurors, "Thisparticular case boils down tocredibility. Who do you believe?If you believe the children, thenthe people have proved theirc a se b e y o n d a r e a so n a b l e

doubt ."Buckey took the stand at bothtrials and denied ever molestingany children.

The young girls said theywere molested by Buckey, buttheir recollection of details wassketchy. One girl who earlieraccused Buckey's mother, PeggyMcMartin Buckey, of lewd actsshocked participants in the second trial by calmly saying under oath that none of it wastrue . Mrs. Buckey, 63 , whospent two years in ja i l and threeyears on trial based on suchaccusations, had already beenacquitted.

From hate to co m pass i o nTime a lso changed Raymond

Buckey. He spent five years injail awaiting resolution of hiscase until a judge decided heshould be released on $1.5 million bail. He emerged a seem

ingly d i ffe rent pe rson . Thegangly, self-conscious 25-year-old who was arrested in 1983had matured in to a man of 32 ,ca re fu l ly groomed, a r t icu la teand confident as he faced TVcameras for daily hallway interviews, proclaiming his innocence.

"It 's been close to seven yearsof my life and now it 's come to a

Farm billContinued from page 1A

.Senate farm bill if its cost did, not come down.

Bu t . o n F r i d a y Ch r i s t i n aMcCown, USDA spokeswoman,sa id only tha t the president andthe Agricu l ture Secre ta ry would

' "take a close look at the bill."

T h e . House left for the weekend without comple t ing work onits version of the bill but

; planned to take it up againTuesday .

Even as they debated the• measure in to the seventh day ,se n a t o r s a c k n o wl e d g e d t h a tthey expected dollars spent oncrop subsidies and the bill 'soverall spending level would be

' sharply cut after the Wh iteHouse and Congress agreed on adeficit-cutting budget.

"We ' l l have to make fur theradjustments in all these programs," sa id Sena te Republ icanLeader Robert Dole , R-Kan."We could be looking at savingup to $18 billion to $19 billion."

Democrats concede that cutsa re necessa ry , 'bu t hope to keepthem below $6 billion.

Pra i r ie sta te sena tors fa i led insevera l a t tempts to modest ly

increase subsid ies, s igna l l ingthe Sena te 's unwil l ingness toincrease spending in the face ofthe budget deficit.

Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.,who voted aga inst the b i l l ,wanted to cut benefits to ther ichest fa rmers and inc reasesubsid ies to smal le r producers.He said the bill didn't doenough to keep small farmerson the land.

"I t means tha t many fa rmersjust s t ruggl ing to main ta in the i rexistence will not be able to dos o , " he said.

On the other hand, efforts tocut subsid ies to fa rmers ofsugar , peanuts and e l imina tepayments to the Uni ted Sta tes 'richest farmers also failed.

The bill provides subsidies. and price supp orts to farmer s of

wheat, corn, rice, cotton, wool• and an array of less well-known

c ro p s . T h e S e n a t e o m i t t e dmoney for food stamps andemergency food assistance programs usually provided for in

• the farm bill.The only crop program elimi

nated from the bill was theminuscule honey program.

Highlights of the bill include:• Freezing target prices at $4 abushel for wheat; $2.75 a bushelfor corn, $2.61 for sorghum;$2.36 for barley; 73 cents a

. pound for cotton an d $10.71 p erhundred pounds for rice.

Oats would be set at $1.55 for1 9 9 1 .

• A loan rate for. soybeans of$5.50 a bushel, but gives theagricu l ture sec re ta ry the opt ionof reducing it to $5 if surplusesrise to a certain level. It also

1 establishes a loan rate of 9.7cents for sunflower seed, canola,flax and safflower.

• New gra in qua l i ty standards.• A reorganized c rop insuranceprogram.• A requirement th a t fa rmerskeep records of pesticides theyu s e .• A five-year, $250 million program to he lp fa rmers lea rn howto use fewer chemicals.

f i n a l e , M c M a r t i n T wo , t h esummer re run ," Buckey to ldreporters one day.

And after the trial, his onlyoccupation for years?

"I don't know what I'll do,"he sa id , "maybe grow Christmastrees in Oregon, maybe 'g iv eadvice on how you survive awitch hunt ."

Moments before his secondmistrial was declared, Buckeysummed i t up th is way: "I 'vegone from probably one of themost hated people you couldever mention .. . to a point of

where, everybody that comes upto me now is ve ry sympathe t ic ,and they ' re say ing ' I a lwaysthought you were innocent. ' "

A poisoned caseThe first trial was a gut-

w r e n c h i n g d r a m a s t a r r i n gprosecutors and defense a t torneys seemingly obsessed withthe case . Parents of McMart inchildren crowded the courtroomto watch 124 witnesses. TV andnewspapers t rumpeted b iza rrea l lega t ions of sa tan ic r i tua ls ,animal sacrifices and supern a t u r a l o c c u r r e n c e s a t t h eschool.

Superior Court Judge Wil l iamPounders, who presided at thefirst trial, said the case poisoned

everyone who touched it. Themother whose first molestationreport ignited the wildfire ofaccusations died of alcoholism

before the trial began. A defenseinvestigator committed suicideduring the t r ia l .

The second trial, which beganApril 6, was a toned-down affair. Except for Buckey and hisa t torney , Danny Davis, the castof charac te rs had changed. Anew judge presided and two newprosecutors seemed de te rminedto remain detached from thepassions tha t consumed the irpredecessors.

The McMart in school wasclosed and ultimately demolished after parents excavated

the grounds in search of underground tunne ls where they believed children had been molested. They turned up little con

clusive evidence.Teachers ' reputa t ions were

destroyed and some of themmoved away to escape thest igma.

Dist r ic t At torney Ira Re iner 'spolitical career also fell victimto the McMart in case . When thefirst jury deadlocked on 13charges aga inst Buckey, pa rentspressured Reiner to refile thecounts. Buckey had been acqui t ted on another 40 counts.

Reiner, then a candidate forstate attorney general, decidedto reprosecute Buckey on eight

charges involving three children . The McMart in case waswidely blamed for Reiner's election defeat in the June primary.

Raymond Buckey .... free after seven years

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