<P> 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 numerous acts of sexual abuse of children in their care . Accusations were made in 1983 . Arrests and the pretrial investigation ran from 1984 to 1987 , and the trial ran from 1987 to 1990 . After six years of criminal trials , no convictions were obtained , and all charges were dropped in 1990 . When the trial ended in 1990 , it had been the longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history . The case was part of day - care sex - abuse hysteria , a moral panic over alleged Satanic ritual abuse in the 1980s and early 1990s . </P>
<P> 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 numerous acts of sexual abuse of children in their care . Accusations were made in 1983 . Arrests and the pretrial investigation ran from 1984 to 1987 , and the trial ran from 1987 to 1990 . After six years of criminal trials , no convictions were obtained , and all charges were dropped in 1990 . When the trial ended in 1990 , it had been the longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history . The case was part of day - care sex - abuse hysteria , a moral panic over alleged Satanic ritual abuse in the 1980s and early 1990s . </P>
longest and most expensive trial in us history
longest and most expensive trial in us history
The McMartin preschool trial
The McMartin preschool trial