McMartin Preschool Trials: 1987-90

In February 1989, Ray Buckey's friends raised $1.5 million in bail money—enough to free him after five years' imprisonment. His mother had earlier spent two years in jail before being released on $495,000 bail on January 23, 1986.

Both defendants testified on their own behalf. Peggy Buckey denied that she ever sexually assaulted any student. Ray Buckey repeatedly denied sodomizing the children, playing naked games with them, killing animals before them, or taking pornographic pictures. Typical of the trial's slow pace was a several-weeks-long debate over how a car wash operates—all because one of the charges against Ray was for molesting children in a car wash.