It was the longest criminal trial in American history and ended without a single conviction. Five people were charged with child sexual abuse based on highly flimsy evidence. Some parents began to believe the bizarre stories about ritual abuse and tunnels under the kindergarten. It’s no surprise that the McMartin case, once called the largest case of “mass abuse” in history, has come to be referred to as a witch hunt. Former Times reporter Clyde Haberman echoed the view that the case was a witch hunt and spawned a wave of other cases of “questionable origin” in a comment to Retro Report earlier this month. But does this statement do justice to the facts?
A careful examination of the court records reveals that the witch-hunt narrative about the McMartin case is a powerful but not entirely true story. For starters, critics have hidden the facts surrounding the origin of the case. Richard Beck, quoted as an expert in the Retro Report story, recently claimed that the McMartin trial began when Judy Johnson “went to the police” to claim her child had been abused. Co-author Debbie Nathan, quoted by Retro Report, went even further, arguing that “everyone overlooks the fact that Judy Johnson is psychotic.”
But the Manhattan Beach Police didn’t start this case at the word of Judy Johnson. Instead, they were impressed by the medical evidence of the anal trauma on his son. Johnson did not show up at the police station on August 12; After examining her son, she went to the family doctor who referred him to the Emergency Room. That doctor recommended that the child be examined by a specialist. The pediatrician is the one who reported to the Manhattan Beach Police Department that “the victim’s anus was forcibly entered a few days ago.”
Judy Johnson died of alcohol poisoning in 1986, making her an easy target for supporters of the witch-hunt narrative, but there is no evidence that she was “psychotic” three years ago. A profile published in the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, published after Johnson died, made it clear in 1983 that he was “strong and healthy” and that he “jogged constantly and ate healthy food.” Yes, many strange things were said by parents in February and March 1984. But that doesn’t mean they were all “psychotic” even then, let alone half a year ago. The case did not begin with the speeches of a legendary madwoman.
Retro Report also dismissed the extensive medical evidence in the McMartin case with a single claim that there was no “conclusive” evidence. But defense attorney Danny Davis allowed the genital injuries on one girl to be “serious and believable.” (His primary argument against the jury was that most of the time this girl attended McMartin was out of time-out.) Vaginal injuries in another girl, one of three who participated in both McMartin trials, were described as demonstrative by a pediatrician. sexual abuse “to a medical certainty”. Were the Retro Report reporter and confirmers aware of this evidence?
None of this is to defend the charges against the five (possibly six) teachers in the case. There is also no confirmation of some parents’ claims that large numbers of children are being ritually abused. Rather, it is a defense to treat the case as something that emerges over time, and to treat children as individuals rather than as an undifferentiated mass. In both cases, it seems, there are compelling reasons for jurors to vote in favor of guilty verdict on some issues. These facts do not fit the witch hunt narrative. Instead, they depict the reality of a complex case.
When all the evidence in a child sexual abuse case is eclipsed by a story of prosecuting excess, children are the ones sold cheaply by the media. That’s exactly what Retro Report did earlier this month. The injustices in the McMartin case were significant, many of them directed against the defendants, and the story has been told many times. But there was also some credible evidence of abuse that shouldn’t be ignored or erased from history because it got in the way of a good story.
The witch-hunt narrative replaced all the tangled facts about the McMartin case, and Retro Report, whose mission is to debunk media myths, has been firmly on the side of the myth. It wasn’t all a witch hunt.
