Peggy McMartin Buckey, acquitted of molestation charges in the McMartin Pre-School case, filed a $1 million federal lawsuit Friday, alleging her civil rights were violated by the county, the city of Manhattan Beach and others.
"We are all good Christian people. I say that if it can happen to us, it can happen to you," said Buckey, 64, who was joined at a news conference by her mother, preschool founder Virginia McMartin, 82, and daughter, Peggy Ann Buckey, 33, both former defendants in the mammoth case."If it weren't for God, I'd never have been able to survive jail, where I was mentally and physically abused," she told reporters a day after she and her son, Raymond Buckey, 31, were acquitted of 52 molestation charges.
The stunning verdicts climaxed a three-year, $15 million trial - the longest, costliest criminal trial in U.S. history.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, names as defendants the county, the city of Manhattan Beach, where the now-closed Virginia McMartin Pre-School is located, and Robert Philibosian, the district attorney at the time the historic case was filed in 1984.
Other defendants are the Children's Institute International in Los Angeles, which conducted videotaped interviews with McMartin students that formed the basis of the prosecution's case, and CII interviewer Kathleen "Kee" MacFarlane.
Also named as defendants are Capital Cities/ABC Inc., and former KABC-TV reporter Wayne Satz, who has been credited with breaking the McMartin story.
"To me, there's nothing worse than being wrongly accused of child molestation," said Peggy Buckey's attorney, James H. Davis.
"If a person has been treated unfairly, if a person's constitutional rights have been violated, if a person's civil rights are violated, then a person has a right to sue. And that's the case here," Davis said.
The suit charges that the defendants conspired with one another "to conduct and publicize an investigation of allegations of child abuse at the McMartin Pre-School in such a way as to predetermine the outcome of the investigation of those allegations and produce indictments . . . even though the defendants . . . knew those allegations were false."
The suit also accuses the defendants of violating Buckey's civil rights and defaming her character. It further accuses ABC, Satz, CII and MacFarlane of malicious prosecution of Peggy Buckey.
The suit alleges that "each defendant actively assisted in presenting or suppressing such information by either committing perjury . . . fabricating information, hiding it or selectively leaking it to the press."
The civil action seeks $1 million in general damages and other, unspecified damages. Davis said part of the damages Buckey will seek are to compensate for her loss of the preschool, which was given to defense attorneys as fees.
Five former defendants in the case, including Peggy Buckey's mother and daughter, previously filed similar lawsuits in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Buckey, who spent about 2 1/2 years in jail awaiting trial before being released on bail, was acquitted Thursday by a Superior Court jury of 12 counts of child molestation.
Ray Buckey, who spent about five years in jail before posting $3 million bail last year, was acquitted of 40 counts. Jurors deadlocked on 12 other molestation charges against Ray Buckey and a conspiracy count against both Buckeys.
Prosecutors are scheduled on Jan. 31 to announce whether they will re-try Buckey on the deadlocked charges. Most observers, however, think that prosecutors will chose not to re-try him. Peggy Buckey does not face re-trial on the conspiracy count.
"I feel I've lost everything, but I am not resentful," Peggy Buckey said Friday. "We have lost three homes. I feel I have a right to have a home. It's been a nightmare."
She then paraphrased from the Bible, saying: "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Buckey said she was physically abused in County Jail by sheriff's deputies who cuffed her hands together so tightly that she developed arthritis.
She also thanked the jurors who acquitted her.
"I think they're great," she said. "I sure wouldn't want to have my fate decided by a judge. At least with 12 jurors, you have a chance."
Buckey said her future plans include volunteer work with animals "and work with prisoners because of my experiences in jail."