Gary Eberle

The McMartin preschool trial was a day care sexual abuse case in the 1980s, prosecuted by the Los Angeles District Attorney, Ira Reiner. Members of the McMartin family, who operated a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, were charged with hundreds of acts of sexual abuse of children in their care. Accusations were made in 1983, with arrests and the pretrial investigation taking place from 1984 to 1987, and trials running from 1987 to 1990. The case lasted seven years but resulted in no convictions, and all charges were dropped in 1990. By the case's end, it had become the longest and most expensive series of criminal trials in American history.
A pivotal case during the Satanic panic, the McMartin investigation began when a mother accused a teacher of molesting her son. Authorities and social workers began using highly suggestive interviewing techniques on children at McMartin, resulting in a number of fantastical allegations, including satanic rituals in underground tunnels and hot-air balloons. Over the years, many of the children recanted or contradicted their original allegations, and said they were influenced and coerced by suggestive questioning. The case was pivotal in informing how child abuse investigations are conducted today.