McMartin Preschool defender Dean Gits was artful, thoughtful attorney
Judge William Ponders looks on as Peggy Buckey’s defense attorney Dean Gits points to a chart listing different investigators assigned to the McMartin Preshool case during opening arguments in July 1987. Photo by Dwight Ueda During opening arguments of the McMartin Preschool trial, in July 1987, defense attorney Dean Gits told jurors, “Once you have identified the enemy, you will have solved the case.” Then he named the people he considered to be the principal victims in the case — the children and their families and the Buckey family, who owned the preschool. “There is also one more victim, whom I won’t name,” he added. “But before this is over you’ll know who it is…It is the same person as the enemy.” The literary framing of the opening argument was characteristic of the soft-spoken attorney’s thoughtfully crafted arguments, which demanded and trusted in a thoughtful jury. Gits died last week of cancer at the age of 68. At the time of his death, he was the chief deputy of the Federal Public Defender’s Office for California. Gits joined the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s office shortly after obtaining his law degree from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul…
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