Incredibly Weak Evidence

The satanic scenario, as well as the prosecution's entire case, began to crumble in September of 1985, near the end of the 18-month long preliminary hearing, when members of the prosecution team (under the leadership of newly elected DA Ira Reiner) began to have doubts about the merits of the case. Those doubts led to a closer examination of the evidence and Reiner's declaration on January 17, 1986 that charges against five of the defendants were dropped.

After months of reviewing the case, including 100,000 pages of preliminary hearing transcripts, Reiner and a small group of high ranking deputies had concluded that his predecessor, Robert Philobosian, had over-filed the case based on "incredibly weak" evidence.⁴¹ Reiner charged that many of the allegations grew from the suggestive interviewing techniques used by CII therapists.⁴² Reiner inexplicably viewed other evidence (derived from the same source and methodology) covering Ray and his mother as "strong and compelling." Thus, Ray Buckey and Peggy Buckey would be prosecuted for child sexual abuse for 79 and 20 counts respectively with an additional count of conspiracy between them.⁴³