2018 Year in Review
Harry Kuhlmeyer joined the Manhattan Beach Police Department in the early 1950s and was named chief in 1980. Photo courtesy of the Manhattan Beach Police Department. Kuhlmeyer worked way up to MB chief Former Manhattan Beach Police Chief Harry Kuhlmeyer passed away Jan. 12 at his home in Santa Monica, at age 94. Kuhlmeyer joined the Manhattan Beach Police Department in 1953 and rose through ranks to become chief in 1980. Three years later, in August 1983, the frank talking, low profile chief was confronted with the McMartin Preschool case. Therapists and medical doctors identified hundreds of McMartin preschool children as sexual abuse victims. Despite intense community pressure, Kuhlmeyer refused to take primary suspect Raymond Buckey into custody because his detectives could find no corroborating evidence. “Why hadn’t any of the suspects copped a plea, why no mea culpas, no suicides? No one got drunk and bared his soul. If everything the kids said happened, it looked like the perfect crime,” he said. Kuhlmeyer’s unpopular stance was vindicated seven years and $15 million in court costs later when two McMartin trials ended with Buckey and his mother Peggy Buckey found not guilty…
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