Sunday, June 22, 1997
A respected Queens cub scout leader was charged with murder yesterday, one day after the body of a woman was found in a room where the suspect ran scout meetings.
Perry Buckley, 44, of Corona, who is also a local school board member, was arrested after he was questioned at the 110th Precinct stationhouse about a family dispute yesterday morning, police said.
Buckley was the only person known to have a key to the basement recreation room at 5525 98th Place in Sherwood Village. He lives in a nearby Sherwood Village building with his family.
“I love you, Pam, Carla, Corey,” Buckley shouted to his wife, daughter and son as he was led from the stationhouse last night.
Peter Glasgow, superintendent of the seven-story Nebraska apartment building, made the grisly discovery of the decomposed body — which was in a plastic bag in the recreation room — about 2:30 p.m. Friday, police said.
The unidentified victim had been dead about a week, cops said.
Neighbors in the Sherwood Village housing complex near Lefrak City, who had been complaining since Sunday of a foul odor coming from the drab, gray room, said yesterday they were shocked by the gruesome find.
Some called Buckley a kind and caring neighbor and said they didn’t believe he was capable of killing.
“Everybody knows him,” said Winston MacKenzie, 51, who said he has known Buckley for at least 15 years.
“He’s a neighborhood celebrity. Nobody can understand what’s happening.”
MacKenzie added, “I’m totally confused by the situation.”
He said that when Glasgow told Buckley about the odor last week and asked him for the key to the room, Buckley replied that he had lent it to a “girlfriend.”
“He claimed she had the key,” MacKenzie said. “He said he didn’t have it and would get it back, but we’ve never seen it since. . . . I was saying: How could she get in there? Who could she be? He never gives the key to anybody. He had full autonomy in the room.”
Buckley is the leader of Cub Scout Pack 239 and a member of Community School Board 24. He was Parent Teacher Association president at Public School 14 before gaining the board seat.
His world started unraveling Friday morning, when his wife told 106th Precinct cops that he had assaulted her at 137-27 Cross Bay Blvd.
Police later pulled him over as he drove along Junction Blvd. near 55th Ave. and brought him in for questioning.
He faces a charge of third-degree assault on the complaint filed by his wife. He faces an additional charge of tampering with evidence in the murder case.
“He’s nice, he’s caring; he takes care of the kids,” said a 16-year-old boy who lives in Buckley’s building.
The teen said Buckley’s 15-year-old son, Corey, was told by a relative yesterday that his father had been accused of killing the woman.
The boy later came downstairs where other kids were playing.
“We just saw it in his face,” the teen said. “One of my friends blurted out, ‘He was charged with it wasn’t he?’ and Corey just looked away.”
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