Finally Arrest Made in Leslie Buck Murder

[Rockin Ma]

This case was big news in my county. The victim was a teacher and loved by many people. Also, her and her husband went out to the same place weekly to eat, was well known in their town and there was never any indication there was something wrong in their marriage. My opinion, she had no idea what her husband was thinking and he's now after years, being charged in her death.

On the evening of May 2, 2002, as she returned from a meeting, Leslie Buck was kidnapped from the garage of her Masons Island Road home. Several hours later, the second-grade teacher escaped and police arrested Russell Kirby of Ledyard, a handyman who had done work for her husband.

Two days later, Charles Buck returned home from work and called police to say he had found the body of his wife in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs in their home. They had been married 20 years.

Kirby is being held on a $500,000 bond at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield while he awaits a second trial after successfully appealing his original conviction. He has refused to talk to police about Leslie Buck's death, which occurred while he was in custody.

In the days after Leslie Buck's death, police learned Charles Buck had been involved in a relationship with a young female bartender, Carol Perez, at the now-defunct Draw Bridge Inne in Mystic and had been giving her cash and expensive gifts such as a car and jewelry. She told police that less than five hours before Charles Buck reported finding his wife's body, he had asked her to run away with him. Buck called Perez several times in the days immediately after his wife's death and told her that he had lied to police about their relationship and that he had been kidding when he asked her to run away with him, according to the court files.

Buck allegedly told her he “would have to mourn for about a year for appearances' sake” and that he and Perez would “have to stick to their story and make sure it's the same.”

While he has always maintained he had nothing to do with his wife's death, Buck has refused to answer questions during court proceedings and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Buck had also prevented police from speaking to those who treated his wife at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London after her kidnapping.

Stonington - Since schoolteacher Leslie Buck was found dead in her home six and a half years ago, police have always considered her husband, Charles, their main suspect.

But Buck remained free as detectives were stymied in their efforts to convince the state's attorney's office to sign a warrant for his arrest.

Meanwhile, Buck continued to run his electrical contracting business, drive his antique convertible around town, sail his boat out to Sandy Point on summer afternoons and spend time with the young woman on whom he showered gifts before his wife's death.

Photo gallery: The Buck Case

But despite being free, Buck became an outcast here, and many believed he was involved in his wife's death, which came just two days after she had escaped from a kidnapping allegedly made by a Ledyard man who did part-time work for her husband.

Buck's freedom ended at 10:41 a.m. Thursday as police, armed with their long-sought warrant, waited for the 62-year-old electrician to make his daily visit to the Tim Hortons doughnut shop in downtown Mystic.

As Buck got out of his white van, before he could get inside and buy his coffee, police handcuffed him. Among the officers at the scene was retired detective and current reserve officer Joe Coco, who had investigated the case for years and was invited to participate in Thursday's arrest.

Police told Buck he was charged with murdering his wife. He was taken to the police station, where he was fingerprinted and photographed, then taken to New London Superior Court, where he was arraigned before Judge Kevin McMahon.

When his case was called, Buck shuffled into the courtroom from the holding-cell area, his legs in shackles and hands cuffed in front of him. He stood before McMahon wearing the blue overalls and dark blue shirt he had put on for work.

Despite arguments from Buck's attorney, Donald Beebe, that his client was not a flight risk and the case was purely circumstantial, McMahon set Buck's bond at $2.5 million and his next court date for Feb. 9. He placed Buck on a medical watch at the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Montville because Buck suffers from depression and high blood pressure.

Beebe could not say whether his client has the assets to post such a bond but said that such a high bond “effectively sentences him today.”

To post a bond, Buck would have to come up with $175,000 in fees plus $1.25 million in collateral. Buck owns four properties in town worth $1,262,000. If he does post bond, he would have to surrender his passport and be subject to electronic monitoring.

Word spreads

It did not take long Thursday morning for word of Buck's arrest to sweep across this town, which has been fascinated by the case since the beginning.

Leslie Buck's 97-year-old mother, Catherine Edmonston, lives in a house across Route 1 from the cemetery where her daughter is buried. Shortly after Buck's arrest, Edmonston was there with Leslie's brother, Richard, who declined to comment.

Leslie Buck's estate has sued Charles Buck in civil court, alleging that he struck her in the head and strangled her to death on May 4, 2002. That case is still pending.

Two of Leslie Buck's friends arrived at the cemetery early Thursday afternoon and placed flowers next to the gravestone, which is engraved with her name and that of her husband.

Leslie Buck's teaching colleagues and friends, many of whom wondered whether they would ever see an arrest in the case, said they were glad it finally came but declined to comment publicly after being asked not to do so by police.

'Always working on it'

Few were more satisfied Thursday than Detective Sgt. David Knowles, who had headed the investigation since its inception. Over the past six and a half years, detectives have continued to investigate, re-interviewing witnesses, re-examining evidence and traveling as far as Maine and Florida to interview people. They even called in renowned forensic scientist Henry Lee to review evidence.

Knowles and Coco, along with detectives Cody Floyd and John Fiore and Officer Tim Marley, sat in the back of the courtroom Thursday.

Coco said he was glad to be involved in the conclusion of the investigation, which he said still haunted him when he retired last year.

Former police chief David Erskine, who also retired last year, commended the detectives and the state's attorney's office.

”They never let this case go. They were always working on it. They deserve a lot of credit,” Erskine said.

A 'weak case'?

Knowles, Chief J. Darren Stewart and State's Attorney Michael Regan declined to comment about the case Thursday or say if there was some new information that led to McMahon's signing of the arrest warrant. The judge sealed the warrant, which contains details on the police department's case, for 14 days.

The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed Thursday that it has not changed its ruling that it cannot determine how Leslie Buck sustained the head injuries that killed her.

http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=e76d7123-9f1a-477d-8416-8b7494d66604

Timeline:
http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=7945abaa-13b7-40e9-9136-d8cf47e5688c

[Shellie435]

[QUOTE=Rockin Ma;137565]

Leslie Buck's 97-year-old mother, Catherine Edmonston, lives in a house across Route 1 from the cemetery where her daughter is buried. Shortly after Buck's arrest, Edmonston was there with Leslie's brother, Richard, who declined to comment.

I truely hope her mom lives to see justice for her daughter..too bad she had to be buried with the tombstone that has her husbands/alleged killers name on it (maybe someone will scratch it off LOL) RockinMa keep us updated on the FEb 9th court date ok?

[Rockin Ma]

While the medical examiner's office says they can not determine the way she died, there is a civil wrongful death suit started by her estate where they allege an independent examination indicates otherwise. I will try to find it. Strangulation (which I would think would have been obvious in the beginning) and trauma to the head aside from a fall down the stairs.

[Rockin Ma]

Not very often we get to see the warrant and affidavits:

http://media.theday.com/gbl/media/dynamic/pdfnews/buckunsealed020509.pdf

People are talking it's a weak case.

According to one of Buck's former employees, his boss would show him the club and say, “If you wanted to hurt someone, you hit them in the head with this.”

Read the Charles Buck affidavit

The warrant released this morning also confirms that Buck was having a relationship with Carol Perez, a bartender at the now defunct Draw Bridge Inne in downtown Mystic and had showered the younger woman with more than $300,000 in gifts and cash, something Buck originally denied but then admitted to police.

Ralph Hill, an employee of the restaurant, said that around the time of Leslie Buck's death, he saw Buck crying as he sat in his van behind the restaurant.

When Hill asked why he was crying, Buck said he had “told his wife everything” and that she told him “if he leaves her for this whore she would take him for everything he has.”

Police also interviewed a friend of Leslie Buck's who said that several days before her death, Leslie Buck — who was an elementary school teacher in Stonington — asked her about getting a divorce and obtaining a restraining order.

Perez told police that a month before Mrs. Buck's death, Charles Buck began telling her he loved her and that he would divorce his wife. Just before Leslie Buck's autopsy, Perez told police Buck told her someone else might have been responsible for his wife's death and “that he will get over it.”

Police then had Perez record a conversation she had with Buck when he asked her to mislead police about the money he had given her. She said Buck told her Leslie was abusive towards him even though they would hold hands in public. Buck told police he never had sex with Perez.

A judge had sealed the arrest warrant after Charles Buck was arrested and charged with murder two weeks ago. The warrant was unsealed at 9 this morning.

On the night of May 2, 2002, police have said that Leslie Buck, 57, was assaulted and kidnapped by Russell Kirby, a Ledyard handyman who had done work for her husband, as she returned home from a meeting. She escaped 2 1/2 hours later and Kirby was arrested shortly after.

Two days later Charles Buck said he returned home to find his wife lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs in their Masons Island home. Kirby was in jail at the time.

Police had always considered Charles Buck their main suspect but until recently were unable to convince the state's attorney's office they had enough evidence to obtain a warrant for his arrest.

Much of the case revolves around statements from Perez. According to previously released court documents, she told police that less than five hours before Charles Buck reported finding his wife's body, he had asked her to run away with him. Buck called Perez several times in the days immediately after his wife's death and told her that he had lied to police about their relationship and that he had been kidding when he asked her to run away with him, according to the court files.

Buck allegedly told her he “would have to mourn for about a year for appearances' sake” and that he and Perez would “have to stick to their story and make sure it's the same.”

While he has always maintained he had nothing to do with his wife's death, Buck has refused to answer questions during court proceedings and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Buck had also prevented police from speaking to those who treated his wife at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London after her kidnapping.

The 62-year-old Buck is scheduled to appear in New London Superior Court Monday to enter a plea. He is being held on a $2.5 million bond at the MacDougall Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield after being transferred from Corrigan Correctional Center in Montville.

Buck is on medical watch because he suffers from high blood pressure and depression. Among the 2,100 other inmates at the high- and maximum-security prison is Russell Kirby, who is awaiting a new trial for kidnapping Leslie Buck.

Buck has hired Hartford attorney Hubert Santos, whose past clients include Michael Ross and Karin Aparo and who is now representing Kennedy relative Michael Skakel and Hartford mayor Eddie Perez.

Buck has mortgaged four properties he owns in Stonington, including the house where Leslie's 97-year-old mother lives, to amass the $850,000 he needs for legal fees. Santos and Buck's civil attorney, Donald Beebe of Norwich, hold the mortgages and Buck must now sell the three homes and one lot.

Buck also faces a 2005 civil lawsuit from Leslie Buck's estate that alleges he killed her. That case will likely be on hold until the criminal proceedings are completed. If Buck does not agree to a plea bargain, it may be 12 to 18 months before he is brought to trial. After mortgaging his properties for his legal fees, it's unlikely he will be able to post the bond and be released. There is also a possibility the trial could be moved out of New London County because of the widespread media attention over the past seven years.

[Shellie435]

Oh that poor, poor woman. From reading the warrants it seems as though she may have been face to face with her killer seeing as she was hit from the front on the forehead, probably heading upstairs. And with the esteemed Dr Baden saying she may have been strangled as well...that just sucks. It seems she was a well loved member of the community and her husband was an asshole. Was/is there any proof that the husband hired Kirby to kill his wife? He abducted her and drove around for an hour with her. Was he trying to figure out what to do, or just figuring he was about to commit the murder of a nice lady? I am glad though that Perez (Bucks gf) spoke up. Thanks for keeping us up on this case RockinMa..like I said befiore, I really hope her mom lives to see justice.

[Rockin Ma]

http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=b7178f9e-8f29-4197-8e6a-17b7f03b9957


For many people, the memory of Leslie Buck has lived on through seven years of headlines that have chronicled her mysterious death and the police department investigation that led to the arrest two weeks ago of her husband, Charles, for her murder.

But Leslie Buck's friends and teaching colleagues have concentrated less on how she died, or at whose hands, to instead keep her memory alive by continuing her work to get kids interested in reading.

They have created a foundation in her name that buys books for students who can't afford them, awards $500 college scholarships and sponsors reading programs in all the town's schools.


LESLIE BUCK FOUNDATION
For more information, e-mail the fund at lesliebuckfund@aol.com.






They have dedicated a reading garden at the entrance to Deans Mill School in Stonington where she taught second grade, established a reading day in her name and hold a fundraising walk in the borough each spring that draws as many

as 500 of her former students and their parents as well as teachers and friends. Leslie's 97-year-old mother, Catherine Edmonston, who lives across the street from the Route 1 cemetery where her daughter is buried, attends the reading day and walk each year.

Halfway through the two-mile walk, which began in 2003, participants turn around at a stone bench at Stonington Point. They each reach down and touch a book placed on the bench before completing the course. A book for each year of the walk is then donated to the Stonington Free Library.

The effort to honor the memory of the popular 57-year-old teacher began just days after she was found dead from a head injury in her Mystic home in May 2002. Her death came two days after she had been kidnapped and assaulted by a handyman who had done work for her husband.

Russell Kirby sits in jail awaiting a new trial on the kidnapping charges. Charles Buck faces murder charges in the death of this wife.

'Carrying on her spirit and dedication'

The principal at Deans Mill at the time, Dennis Lavin, called teachers into his office and asked them what they wanted to do in memory of their colleague.

The teachers agreed that it should further Buck's efforts to instill a love of reading among students.

”She radiated learning and a love of learning. She wanted to help kids learn and progress no matter what level they were at. That was clear even in our brief interaction,” said fund treasurer Jessica Kam. “Carrying on her spirit and dedication was important for us to do.”

The fund's first effort was simple but effective. It paid to buy books for students who could not afford them from the Scholastic company. The book order forms are periodically sent home with students throughout the school year.

When she was alive, Leslie Buck would often use the points she had accumulated from the company to buy books for her classroom to instead purchase books for her students who could not afford them.

”It wasn't that she just wanted them to have books, but because she didn't want them to feel different than the other kids,” said Anna Greene, who met Buck when she began teaching at the former Broadway School in 1971. Greene is president of the Leslie Buck Foundation.

The reading garden, which contains a bench in Buck's memory, was dedicated in the fall of 2002. The Leslie Buck Reading Day, which brings in guest readers, storytellers and authors, rewards students in each grade at Deans Mill for reading a certain number of books at home during a three-month period.

The mascot for the reading day is Clifford the Big Red Dog, which was one of Buck's favorite children's book characters. This year's reading day will be held April 9, Buck's birthday.

The fund then moved its efforts out into the community and joined with the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center, Mystic Art Association, the library and the Stonington Players to come up with programs that link reading with the arts and sciences.

Eventually, the fund expanded its efforts to all schools and grades in town.

A program done in conjunction with the Stonington Free Library and the Rotary clubs of Mystic and the Stoningtons brings all third-graders to the library where they get a tour and a library card. The Rotarians give each student a dictionary.

A program at West Vine Street School lets teachers buy a book for each of their students at the school's annual book fair. At the middle schools, a day of reading-based programs rewards all students who have read five of the children's books nominated for the Nutmeg Award.

The latest program has sixth-graders reading the 2009 Nutmeg award nominee “Shakespeare's Secret” and then meeting its author, Elise Broach.

Green said the fund invests the approximately $7,000 it receives from the walk each year along with private donations.

”We're always open to suggestions from the schools and people in town for new programs,” Green said.

Of all the programs, it's the walk that organizers say best captures Buck's spirit.

”You see teachers from the past, parents you don't see anymore.

The whole school community in one evening, “ Kam said. “People enjoy the simplicity of it. You gather, you walk, you talk and you share memories.”

[Rockin Ma]

Oh that poor, poor woman. From reading the warrants it seems as though she may have been face to face with her killer seeing as she was hit from the front on the forehead, probably heading upstairs. And with the esteemed Dr Baden saying she may have been strangled as well...that just sucks. It seems she was a well loved member of the community and her husband was an asshole. Was/is there any proof that the husband hired Kirby to kill his wife? He abducted her and drove around for an hour with her. Was he trying to figure out what to do, or just figuring he was about to commit the murder of a nice lady? I am glad though that Perez (Bucks gf) spoke up. Thanks for keeping us up on this case RockinMa..like I said befiore, I really hope her mom lives to see justice.

The man that kidnapped has remained silent this whole time. He won a new trial because they used 911 tapes of the victim stating who kidnapped her and it was later determined they couldn't be used since she was no longer alive to be cross examined.

The girlfriend, I believe, remained with Buck through the years. Shortly after the murder, he bought her a house as well as other gifts.

[Shellie435]

What a wonderful community!! They've really kept her alive in spirit, you can tell just how loved she was.
As for the asshole who kidnapped her 2 days before her murder..it's too bad they can "make" him talk. I think that sucks the 911 call can't be used. I would think that in a case like this, (that it's not her fault she can't be there)
they shoudl definately allow the tape...maybe the law should be changed?

[Wonder]

Russell Kirby has been locked up since 02 - that leaves most of his time as being served, I imagine they arrested Charles now so that Kirby can implicate his activity in the conspiracy. Sounds like their is a chance that in the near future Kirby will be a free man and and may not be available during the Buck trial.

Leslie and Charles married 20 years - do they have children ?

Prayers go out to the Edmonson family I pray for justice!

[Rockin Ma]

They have no children of their marriage.

[Rockin Ma]

Charles F. Buck, who is newly accused of murdering his wife Leslie in their Mystic home almost seven years ago, made his first appearance Monday in the New London courtroom where his case will be heard.

Buck, 62, was initially arraigned at a lower court on Jan. 22, after Stonington Police obtained a warrant for his arrest. They took him into custody when he went to a local doughnut shop to buy a morning cup of coffee.

On Monday, he appeared before Judge Susan B. Handy in the courtroom where pre-trial proceedings in major crimes take place.

Stonington police officers who worked the case and colleagues of Mrs. Buck's from the Deans Mill School were in the courtroom Monday when Buck, dressed in a neon orange prison jumpsuit, walked out of the lockup area with an uneven gait and stood with attorney Hope C. Seeley, a partner in the Hartford law firm he has retained.

Though the spectators, including a reporter from the “48 Hours” TV show, had gathered for the appearance, it was a routine proceeding that lasted just a few minutes.

His next court date, on Feb. 23, could be more revealing as his attorneys are expected to indicate whether they intend to proceed with a probable cause hearing within the 60-day time limit. The probable cause hearing is a kind of mini-trial at which the state must prove to a judge that their case against a murder defendant is strong enough to prosecute.

http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=645f7323-95d0-49c9-9af0-7a3d410b7793

I'm a little pissed his Court date is 2/23 because that's the same court date as a person in another thread I created goes back to Court. With the big cases like this, the ones slowly moving forward don't go anywhere if they share a court date with these cases.

[Rockin Ma]

Charles F. Buck's shoulders twitched at the defense table.

A group of women in the courtroom gallery began to weep.

They were listening to a recording in New London Superior Court Tuesday afternoon of 14 phone calls placed to the Buck home at 77 Masons Island Road in Mystic on May 4, 2002, the day that popular schoolteacher Leslie Buck was allegedly murdered by her husband.

The recording came into evidence on the first day of a probable-cause hearing for Buck, 62, who is accused of clubbing his wife in the head with a 20-inch length of thick electrical wire, causing her to fall down a flight of stairs and suffer a fatal head injury.

Senior state's attorneys Lawrence J. Tytla and Paul J. Narducci and inspector Rhett D'Amico are trying to persuade Judge Susan B. Handy that there is enough evidence to prosecute Buck for murder.

The state's team spent the day setting the scene for the judge while prominent Hartford defense attorneys Hubert J. Santos and Hope C. Seeley cross-examined the witnesses in an effort to derail the state's case.

Most of the calls to the Buck residence on that Saturday afternoon nearly seven years ago came from Leslie Buck's friends, who were worried about her in the aftermath of her kidnapping two days earlier, allegedly at the hands of Russell Kirby, a friend of her husband. Leslie Buck had escaped from the kidnapper only to die an apparently violent death two days later.

Her friends and former colleagues from the Deans Mill School in Stonington have remembered Buck each year with memorial events, and a group of women have faithfully attended all of the court proceedings involving Buck and Kirby. A few of them cried when listening to the loving messages they had left for her that day.

Leslie Buck's elderly mother also checked in by phone that afternoon, not knowing that her daughter lay dead at the bottom of a staircase. Two people called Charles Buck about a fire department banquet. And at 3:30 that afternoon, Charles Buck, who said he was working at his nearby office, left a message asking if his wife needed anything. Later, police found two cans of pepper spray on the kitchen table that Buck said he had purchased for his wife that day at her request.

The prosecutors also played a muffled recording of the 911 call Buck placed at 5:38 p.m. after he said he had discovered his “ice cold” wife at the bottom of the staircase.

Stonington police Sgt. Louis Diamanti testified he was in the police department dispatch center when the call came in. He recognized Buck's voice because, he said, he knew Buck, an electrical contractor, from when Buck had been the department's electrician.

”Charlie?” the sergeant asked in the recording.

Talking fast, Buck told the sergeant his wife had fallen down a flight of stairs.

”I think she's dead,” Buck said on the recording, which was barely audible. He went on to say that he had just come home and that his wife felt “ice cold.” He described “a big red mark on her face where she must have hit something.”

Diamanti transferred the call to Groton fire dispatch but stayed on the line. As the call continued, Buck, a volunteer firefighter, told the dispatcher his wife had no pulse and appeared to have been there “a while.”

The next witness, retired patrolman Eric Johnson, described how he and an emergency medical technician arrived at the Buck home about a minute after the call came in. They had been in the area searching for a possible drowning victim.

”I observed who I knew to be Mrs. Buck laying at the bottom of the stairs,” Johnson testified. “There was a fairly significant amount of blood and (it was) matted in her hair.” He said her chest was not moving and her skin was discolored.

The state introduced photographs of the crime scene. At the request of the defense, and with no objection from the state, Judge Handy ordered the pictures sealed after reviewing them and deeming them “quite graphic.”

Johnson said that he immediately considered Leslie Buck's death suspicious and sealed the house. He said he knew she had been kidnapped two days earlier and was unaware of any medical problems that might have caused her death.

Paramedic Jeffrey Gray, who “presumed” Leslie Buck dead at 6:05 p.m., testified that based on the condition of her body, which had rigor mortis and lividity, he thought she had been dead for three to four hours.

Edward Gookin and Richard Bedard, then members of the state police Eastern District Major Crime Squad, described how they had documented the scene and processed it for evidence. Gookin said Leslie Buck was lying on her back at the bottom of the staircase, her feet on the bottom step, when he arrived. He said there were no signs of forced entry or a struggle in the house.

Bedard said he went over the staircase and surrounding areas with a high-intensity light, looking for blood stains, hair fibers or other evidence. He said he did not find any, nor did he find a murder weapon. Under cross-examination, he said detectives had not dusted the area for fingerprints. He did not recall why there was no fingerprint dusting.

As the investigation got under way, patrolman Timothy Thornton questioned Charles Buck in the front seat of Thornton's cruiser, then took him to the police department, where Buck complied with a request to write down everything he had done in the past 24 hours. Thornton testified that he had stopped by the Buck house the day before to check on Leslie Buck in the wake of the kidnapping.


http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=19e0af8a-fd11-435b-addf-7d57461d1aac

[Shellie435]

Thanks for the update RM...I hope that bastard rots in hell! For Mrs Buck to be kidnapped and then murdered a few days later is horrific. What went through her mind I can only imagine. I hopehe gets his due in jail, that bastard! The community is losing a lovely woman. I'm very glad her mom lived long enough to se justice done in her daughters death.

[Rockin Ma]

Charlie Buck's obsession with bartender Carol Perez was no secret to the employees of the Drawbridge Inn, a bar and restaurant that once occupied a prime spot on the main strip in downtown Mystic.
Seven years ago, Buck went into the bar every day during Perez's shift. He sat at the bar drinking diet Coke and having “secret” conversations with her, according to court testimony. He showered Perez with gifts, including a camera, laptop computer, sound system and brand new Monte Carlo, but she told him that nothing would ever happen between them because he was married.

Charles F. Buck, 62, is accused of killing his wife, Leslie Buck, on May 4, 2002, and police contend his interest in Perez, a woman who was about 25 years younger than he, was a prime motive. Buck is accused of clubbing his wife with a heavy length of electrical wire, causing her to fall down the stairs and suffer a fatal head injury.

Mrs. Buck, a popular elementary school teacher, had been kidnapped two days before she died, allegedly by a Russell Kirby, a friend of her husband, who was later arrested. She escaped from her captor, only to die two days later of a head injury in the stairwell at her home at 77 Masons Island Road in Mystic. She was 57.

Perez is expected to testify at some point at a probable-cause hearing under way in New London Superior Court, but on Thursday, two of her former co-workers at the Drawbridge Inn took the witness stand. The state is trying to convince Judge Susan B. Handy that there is enough evidence to prosecute Buck for murder.

Gage Pray, who worked as a waiter, said the employees called him “Uncle Buck” and became very curious about his relationship with Perez. One day, he overheard Buck say he was thinking about leaving his wife, Pray testified.

”He was concerned that his wife was going to take half his money,” Pray said.

Ralph Hill, a kitchen manager, testified that around the time of the kidnapping, he saw Buck crying in his van in the parking lot behind the restaurant. He asked Buck why he was crying, and Buck told him, “He had told his wife everything, and she said that if he leaves her for this whore that she would take him for everything he has.”

Hill said that around the same time, Buck offered him $7,000 to have someone beat up, or do worse, to a former boyfriend of Perez.

”Charlie Buck wanted me to get Steven Johnson beat up,” Hill testified. “No, he didn't want him beat up. He wanted him not breathing. I said I didn't want anything to do with it.”

The morning after the kidnapping, Buck went to the restaurant and told Perez and others about the incident, according to Hill.

”How was he acting?” prosecutor Paul J. Narducci asked.

”Not like somebody whose wife was kidnapped,” Hill responded



Also testifying Thursday were Glen Hathaway, an officer at the Quiambaug Fire Department, where Buck volunteered. Buck has said he left his wife at their home on 77 Masons Island on the day of her death, went to his office on Elm Street to do some paperwork, leaving at around 3:30 p.m. He said he stopped at the fire department to talk to Hathaway on the way to the Cash Home Center to pick up some pepper spray for Leslie Buck, who was frightened after being kidnapped two days earlier.

Hathaway estimated Buck stopped at the fire department about an hour before the department was called at 4:06 p.m. to search for a possible drowning victim on Masons Island. He said Buck seemed “very emotional” when he talked about his wife's kidnapping.

”He said at the end of the conversation, 'I don't know what I'd do without Leslie. She is my whole life,' “ Hathaway testified.

http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=ad28b35f-49f4-4a4e-bddf-5a7b5e498ef3

[evervigilant]

Thank you for all the updates :cheers:

[Rockin Ma]

He called her “Sweetheart.” She called him “Honey.” He bought her a car, a house and a diamond ring, but she insisted they were “just friends.”

Carol Stevens, the younger woman who police say motivated Charles F. Buck to allegedly murder his wife seven years ago, testified in New London Superior Court Monday that she did not believe Buck killed his wife, Leslie. She said she still considers him a friend and has written to him in prison.

Stevens, who was known as Carol Perez when she tended bar at the Drawbridge Inn in Mystic in 2002, spent six hours on the witness stand as a probable cause hearing continued in the Leslie Buck murder case. She mostly avoided looking at Buck, who sat at the defense table with his attorneys. She spoke so softly the judge told her several times to speak up, and she sprinkled her testimony with “ums” and “I don't recalls.”

Buck, 62, is charged with clubbing his wife in the head on May 4, 2002, causing her to fall down a flight of stairs and suffer a fatal head injury. A recurring theme in the case is the electrical contractor's generosity with the bartender, who, when asked Monday how old she was in 2002, answered “30-something.”

Buck bought Stevens a laptop computer, digital camera and a Chevrolet Monte Carlo. He paid for the insurance. She traded in the car a few months later for an SUV, and Buck paid for that as well.


”How did you pay for that?” prosecutor Lawrence J. Tytla asked time after time.

”I didn't pay for it,” Stevens responded. “Charlie did.”

Buck purchased a PlayStation console for Stevens' children, and a bed. Three months after Leslie Buck died, he bought Stevens a $235,000 house in Westbrook. He paid for the furniture that she picked out at Ethan Allen. He presented her with necklaces, bracelets and rings, including a diamond. When she needed knee surgery for what she described as “a sports injury,” Buck footed the bill.

”We had like a friendship relationship,” Stevens said after describing how Buck would come into the bar, order a Diet Coke and talk to her. They would talk to each other about their day and sometimes, Stevens said, Buck would tell her about his wife.

”What did he tell you?” asked the prosecutor.

”She was mean to him sometimes,” Stevens said. “She was just rude to him.”

She said Buck told her “that in public they would seem happy, but they weren't really happy.” One time, Buck had a cut on his hand and his wife told him “that she wished he would die or something,” Stevens testified.

Stonington police suspected foul play immediately when Buck called them to his home at 77 Masons Island Road on that Saturday afternoon in May 2002. Leslie Buck, a popular schoolteacher who is memorialized with several events in town each year, had been kidnapped two days before her death. She had escaped from her alleged captor - a handyman who sometimes worked for her husband - only to die in her home of blunt trauma to the head.

Police quickly learned of Buck's obsession with Stevens and enlisted her to attempt to coax a murder confession out of Buck. They recorded at least two phone conversations between Stevens and Buck in the days after Leslie Buck's death and she wore a wire to his house in January 2003. Judge Susan B. Handy, who is hearing the case and will decide whether the state has enough evidence to prosecute Buck for murder, ordered all of the recordings sealed “until the case goes to trial” but allowed the recordings to be played in court.

Buck denied harming his wife in all of the conversations. He speculated that his wife had tripped over her own feet and fell. He told Stevens to downplay the gifts he had purchased and said he was just “helping her out” because she was having a rough time.

”I'm a friend, that's all,” Buck said.

In another recording, Buck said he was on his way to meet with attorney Donald Beebe. Stevens asked Buck why he had said earlier that he was going to hurt himself.

”I'd rather be dead than spend the rest of my life in jail,” Buck said. He had learned that somebody overheard him at the bar saying that he was going to liquidate his assets. He also had asked Stevens to run away with him.

”Why do you need a lawyer if you're innocent?” Stevens asked.

”Because if they charge me with something, then I'm in deep (expletive),” Buck responded.

He said he feared that Russell Kirby, the handyman who allegedly kidnapped his wife, might tell police that Buck had hired him to kill Leslie Buck if police told Kirby he could shorten his prison sentence.

http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=ad92e05a-887f-49f8-96a3-46bff5cc6601

[Rockin Ma]

Wow, I should've updated this long ago. I was so into it when it was going on. I will try recap what happened, but in the end he was acquitted by a three judge panel. I don't know why more people don't opt for that. Five different medical examiners testified almost all saying something different killed her from strangulation to a blow to the head to a heart condition. One even said the scene where he was found was altered. A tid bit of information I find interesting because he was so obsessed with the woman he spent cash on is that he was impotent.
http://www.theday.com/article/20101119/NWS02/311199862


Testifying at Buck's murder trial Thursday, a woman who worked at a Groton medical practice said she had a strained conversation with Buck when he called Seacoast Orthopedics on July 22, 2002, to see when Carol Perez Stephens would be out of surgery. Kathleen Napert, who said she had seen media coverage of Leslie Buck's kidnapping and death, testified that she had recognized Buck when he had accompanied Stephens during an earlier consultation, and that she recognized his voice on the phone as well.
"I said, 'Who is this?' '' Napert testified. "He said, 'Well, I'm her fiance. I'm going to be giving her a big diamond ring.' ''
Buck was paying for the anterior cruciate ligament surgery for Stephens, who worked as a bartender and had no health insurance. He had made a $2,000 deposit with the medical practice a week earlier. When Stephens returned for a follow-up appointment, Napert said she brought her into an exam room.
"And on purpose, I looked at her hand, and on her right hand she had a beautiful diamond ring," Napert testified.
The state is emphasizing the 63-year-old electrical contractor's largesse with the younger woman to a panel of judges who will decide if Buck is guilty of murdering his wife.
The prosecutors contend that Buck wanted his wife out of the way and clubbed her in the head at their Mystic home 8½ years ago. She had been kidnapped and assaulted by a friend and sometime employee of Buck two days earlier but had escaped.
Within weeks of his wife's death, Buck took his wife's engagement ring to two jewelers. James L. Mallove, president of Mallove's jewelers, said that in mid-May Buck came into the store with the 2-carat diamond. Mallove did not buy the ring. Joseph M. Nigrelli Jr., co-owner of Nigrelli's Jewelry store in Westerly, said he took the ring on consignment on May 29, 2002, after agreeing on a price of $6,000.
Two months later, in July, Buck would present Stephens with a 2.5-carat diamond that he purchased for $15,999 at Zales in the Crystal Mall using a check from a joint account that still carried his wife's name. The saleswoman, Jenna Jones, said she asked Buck if it was an anniversary present.
"He said no, it was an engagement ring," Jones testified Thursday. She said Buck told her that his fiancée deserved the ring "for putting up with him."
That same month, Buck and Stephens went car-shopping at Valenti Toyota in Westerly. Buck had bought a Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Stephens months earlier, but she was a mother of two and decided she needed something bigger. Saleswoman Carmela Miner testified that she sold them a $33,000 Toyota Forerunner SUV. Miner said the couple acted "rather high schoolish" at the dealership.
They were "very familiar, holding hands, giggling, very inappropriate, I thought," Miner testified.
Also testifying Thursday was Jennifer Wilson, who worked at the Drawbridge Inne in downtown Mystic when Buck came in daily to visit Stephens. She testified that Stephens told her Buck was her "sugar daddy."


Leslie and Charles Buck had assets worth more than $1.2 million when Mrs. Buck died suddenly in May 2002.
She was an avid shopper who looked forward to monthly meetings of the Alpha Delta Kappa teacher's sorority because it gave her an opportunity to get dressed up, according to her friends. But Mrs. Buck was a bargain hunter and a saver, her friends said. She was debt-free when she died.
"She loved to get things on sale," retired schoolteacher Judith Barber testified Friday in New London Superior Court. "She was very good with money. She was excellent with money."
Buck, who followed his father into the electrical business and inherited the family home and business, spent more liberally than his wife did, and that sometimes caused friction in the marriage, according to court testimony.
The 63-year-old Mystic man is charged with killing Leslie Buck on May 2, 2002, and is on trial in New London Superior Court. In the months before and after his wife's death, according to testimony, Buck spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a younger woman, buying her cars, electronics, a 2.5 carat engagement ring and paying for her knee surgery.
In August of that year, as police were investigating his wife's death and Buck's apparent obsession with bartender Carol Perez - now known as Carol Stephens - Buck paid $235,000 in cash for a raised ranch on Roberts Road in Westbrook, according to testimony. Sarah Marcinek from Caldwell Banker handled the real estate transaction for Perez.
"There had to be extra monies at the closing," Marcinek testified. "Charlie brought $1,000 in cash and Carol contributed, I believe it was 12 cents."
Mystic lawyer Deborah J. Tedford, executor of Mrs. Buck's estate, testified that Mrs. Buck's estate was valued at between $1.2 million and $1.7 million. Stonington's probate judge appointed Tedford to administer the estate because Charlie Buck, the named executor, was under a cloud of suspicion after Leslie Buck's sudden death. The estate has brought a wrongful death lawsuit against Buck, and the civil court case is on hold until the criminal case is resolved.

http://www.theday.com/article/20101120/NWS02/311209909

[Rockin Ma]

Prosecutor Paul J. Narducci spent Tuesday morning trying to convince a panel of judges that the work of bloodstain analysts at the Connecticut Forensic Laboratory is science-based and subject to multiple checks and balances.
Defense attorney Hope C. Seeley attempted all afternoon to debunk the science behind the bloodstain work in the Leslie Buck case and to demonstrate that the field in general lacks standards.
As the murder trial of Charles F. Buck continued in New London Superior Court, the attorneys questioned Deborah Messina, the retired director of the state forensic laboratory and former protege of renowned bloodstain expert Henry C. Lee.
Bloodstain analysis, Messina explained, is the study of blood as it is subjected to different physical forces, or physics, and it makes different types of patterns.
"It has to do with velocities, angles, mathematics," she testified. Messina said the state criminalist's proficiency is tested yearly and that all of their work is reviewed by at least one colleague.
Messina, Lee and Elaine M. Pagliaro examined and re-examined bloodstains on the clothing that Leslie Buck was wearing when her body was discovered at the bottom of a staircase at her Mystic home. Police allege that Buck clubbed his wife in the head, causing her to die on May 4, 2002. The bloodstain team opined that the source of the blood on her clothing came from above and that she was in motion at some point after receiving a head injury. They did not determine if the death scene was "staged."
The case has baffled investigators from the beginning. Although Stonington police suspected that Buck killed his wife because he was infatuated with a younger woman, the medical examiner never changed her opinion that the manner of Mrs. Buck's death, whom they said died from a head injury, could not be determined.
Lee and other investigators went to the Masons Island Road home in August 2002 to reconstruct the scene of Mrs. Buck's death. They found no evidence of blood on or around the staircase, and a curtain they seized tested negative for human DNA.
The uncertainty of the Buck case was obvious in a report that Seeley produced from a 2007 meeting between Lee and investigators. Messina was at the meeting, she said just as a "note-taker," but she did not dispute the contents of the report.
"You would agree that this case, at least from a forensic aspect, was a puzzle?" Seeley asked. "Correct," Messina responded.
"And there's not one thing in this case that is clear-cut?" Seeley said. "Correct," Messina responded.


Friends of Leslie Buck who have faithfully attended the court proceedings left early Tuesday to attend services for the late Mrs. Buck's mother, Catherine C. Edmonston. The 98-year-old Edmonston, who had been living with her son, Richard in Massachusetts, died Friday.

http://www.theday.com/article/20101124/NWS02/311249898

[Rockin Ma]

Charles F. Buck has been found not guilty of murder in the May 4, 2002 death of his wife, Leslie. After six weeks of hearing testimony, the three judges presiding over the trial announced their verdict at 12:15 p.m.
Speaking for the panel, Judge Stuart M. Schimelman asked Buck to stand, and then said the judges were unanimous in finding that Buck is not guilty. The judge immediately adjourned the court without explaining the decision. John D. Boland and Joseph J. Purtill were the other judges.
Leslie Buck's brother, Richard Edmonston, quickly left the courthouse without comment. Friends of Leslie Buck who have faithfully followed the trial were not in court to hear the verdict.
Buck called the verdict "the best Christmas gift I could ever get."
"It's the second best," he quickly added. "The best would be to get Leslie back."
Buck, suspected by Stonington police as soon as his wife's body was discovered at the bottom of a staircase at their Masons Island Road home, was arrested in 2009. He pleaded not guilty and opted for trial by a three-judge panel rather than a jury. At the trial, five medical examiners testified with little agreement on the cause and manner of Mrs. Buck's death.
Buck said it has been a tough eight years, with the cloud of suspicion hanging over his head.
"I spent 20 months in jail for something I didn't do," he said. He said he has no plans to move from Stonington.
"I was born here," he said. "I lived my entire life in Stonington. Why should I leave?"
Buck said he would be selling his home on Masons Island Road, where he had been accused of killing his wife, and living in the Elm Street property where he grew up and which housed his electrical contracting business. Asked if he would continue to work, he said he was not sure anybody would hire him, but noted he had at least one faithful client who is still awaiting his services.
Buck's attorneys, Hubert J. Santos and Hope C. Seeley, phoned the verdict into their office and left the courthouse with Buck. Santos briefly discussed their strategy in the case, particularly the decision to have it tried before a three-judge panel rather than a jury.
"It was focused in medical issues, and we thought the judges would be best equipped to evaluate them," Santos said. "It would have been difficult to get an impartial jury because of the massive negative publicity for eight years."
Prosecutors Lawrence J. Tytla and Paul J. Narducci attempted to paint Charles Buck's relationship with bartender Carol Perez Stephens as a motive for murder. Following the verdict, they shook hands with Santos and Seeley and returned to the State's Attorney's office.
"We don't have any regrets about the way we tried the case," said Tytla. "We feel we were able to present all the evidence that was admissible."
"Obviously we're disappointed with the verdict," Narducci said. "But that being said, this was the way the system was designed to work and it worked in this case."

http://www.theday.com/article/20101215/NWS02/101219861

[Rockin Ma]

Look at all these opinions by medical examiners!

Medical Experts Opinions
State witnesses

Dr. Malka Shah
Cause of death: Head injuries
Manner of death: Could not be determined
Shah retired in 2008 after working as an associate medical examiner for the state for 27 years and performing an estimated 6,800 autopsies. She is not certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties. She conducted the autopsy on Leslie Buck on May 6, 2002.

Dr. H. Wayne Carver, the state's chief medical examiner, agreed with her ruling Mrs. Buck died from head injuries.

Their office consulted with a Yale phyisican, Stephen Downey, who said the cause of death was likely a heart conditon called myocarditis.

Dr. Barbara C. Wolf
Cause of death: Strangulation/head injuries
Manner of death: homicide
Wolf is the chief medical examiner for five Florida counties. She is certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties in anatomic pathology, hemato-pathology and forensic pathology. She oversaw autopsies of victims of TWA Flight 800 in 1996 and assisted with mass graves in Bosnia.

Dr. Michael M. Baden
Cause of death: Strangulation with shirt/head injuries
Manner of death: Homicide
Baden, who is the chief forensic pathologist for the New York State Police, has practiced medicine since 1959. He has consulted in high-profile cases, including the deaths of President John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights activist Medgar Evers.

Defense Witnesses
Dr. Vincent J. DiMaio
Cause of death: Myocarditis
Manner of death: Natural causes
DiMaio, retired Texas medical examiner who with his late father, Dominic DiMaio, co-authored “Forensic Pathology,” a widely respected reference book. Serves as expert witness for both state and defense.

Dr. Ljubisa Dragovic
Cause of death: Myocarditis
Manner of death: natural causes
A forensic pathologist and neuropathologist from Oakland County, Mich., he is board-certified in anatomic and forensic pathology and neuropathology.

[Rockin Ma]

Just a few weeks after he was acquitted of murdering his wife, Leslie, Charles Buck has sold the home where he found her dead in 2002 to his attorneys for $415,000.
The sale price for the 2,110-square-foot home with a three-car garage is half the value his appraiser said it was worth in September. That value was used to post the bond he needed to get out of jail before trial.
Documents filed in Stonington Town Hall show that on Jan. 3 Buck sold the house at 77 Masons Island Road to Hartford attorneys Hubert Santos and Hope Seeley.
Buck still owns a vacant piece of land across the street from the house. He also owns a house at 126 Elm St. in Stonington, which he once used as an office for his electrical contracting business. After a three-judge panel in New London Superior Court found him not guilty on Dec. 15, 2010, he said he would be moving to the Elm Street house.
Buck had told police he had been working at the 126 Elm St. house on the afternoon of May 4, 2002. When he returned home he called police to say he found his wife dead in their home.
Two months before the trial, a judge lowered Buck's bond from $2.5 million to $1.5 million and he posted a real estate bond to secure his release from prison.
One of the properties he used was the 77 Masons Island Road property, which the appraiser hired by his attorneys, William Henry of Associated Appraisal Services of Norwich, found was worth $825,000. The town though, had valued the property at $558,000 in the Oct. 1, 2007, revaluation. Since that time the average sale price of a home in the region had plummeted by 25 percent.
In all, the appraisal said the three properties were worth $2,035,000, almost double the town's value of $1,062,400, which would have been far short of the $1.5 million Buck needed to secure his release from the MacDougall Walker Correctional Institution, where he had been held since his January 2009 arrest. Prosecutors, the judge who set the bond and the court clerk who reviewed the appraisals, did not challenge the values.
http://www.theday.com/article/20110117/NWS01/301179942

[Rockin Ma]

And there's still a wrongful death suit:


Mystic - Attorneys for the estate of Leslie Buck and her husband Charles, who was acquitted last month of murdering her, met with a New London Superior Court judge Wednesday afternoon to discuss how to proceed with the civil lawsuit he now faces in connection with her death.
Leslie Buck's estate has sued Charles Buck, saying he struck her in the head and strangled her to death on May 4, 2002.
Although Buck was found not guilty of murder in criminal court, the level of proof is much less in a civil case.
Many observers have likened it to the case of football great O.J. Simpson who was found not guilty in criminal court of murdering his ex-wife and her friend but found liable for their deaths in a civil trial.
New London attorney Shelley Graves, who represents the estate, said Judge James Devine instructed her and Buck's lawyer Donald Beebe of Norwich to discuss the legal issues that have to be resolved before the case can move forward and report back to him at the end of the month.
No date has been set for a trial, but Graves said she would likely have a better idea about scheduling next month.
http://www.theday.com/article/20110106/NWS02/301069421

[Rockin Ma]

As for the handyman:

May 2010


Russell Kirby rejected two plea deals that would have had him released from prison in a few years. Now, the 72-year-old might die in prison.
In 2003, just a year after he was arrested for the assault and kidnapping of Stonington teacher Leslie Buck, the Ledyard handyman rejected an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a 14-year prison term. If he had done so, it's possible he would have been paroled just a few years from now.
And just before his second trial earlier this year, prosecutors offered him a 12-year sentence if he pleaded guilty. With credit for the eight years he's been in prison since his arrest, he would have been released within the next two to four years.
On Wednesday, Norwich Superior Court judge Barbara Bailey Jongbloed sentenced him to 21 years in prison following his February conviction. He must serve 13 more years, in addition to the eight he has spent in prison.
"This crime was a very heinous crime. It traumatized her and it terrorized her," said prosecutor Paul J. Narducci as he asked Jongbloed to impose the maximum sentence of 21 years during Wednesday's sentencing hearing. "Short of taking a life, I can't imagine a more horrific situation than what Mrs. Buck went through that night."
Jongbloed agreed.
"I can only imagine the terror Mrs. Buck felt that night," she said in explaining the maximum sentence was warranted.


Narducci told Jongbloed that Kirby has not accepted responsibility for what occurred.
"He got on the stand and told a story that was even more far-fetched and ludicrous than what he told the first jury. The story he told cast blame on Mrs. Buck," Narducci said.
Kirby had testified that he had to restrain Leslie Buck after she attacked him with her purse and keys in a fit of rage over a $760 check that Buck's husband had written Kirby from the couple's joint account.

Two days after Leslie Buck escaped from Kirby, she was found dead in her Mystic home. Her husband, Charles Buck, who had hired Kirby for odd jobs in the past, has been charged with her murder and is expected to go on trial later this year.
The murder case against Charles Buck has hung over Kirby's case since the beginning as investigators believed that Buck hired Kirby to kill his wife and, when that failed, he did it himself.
Koch told Jongbloed that since Kirby's arrest there has been a presumption that he had been involved in Leslie Buck's death "and that he should do the right thing and testify against Mr. Buck."
"But from the very beginning he's said, 'that what happened with me and Mrs. Buck in the night in question had nothing to do with what happened two days later,' " Koch said.

http://www.theday.com/article/20100506/NWS01/305069432

[akika666]

I still can't believe he was acquitted.

[VXIII]

Thanks for the story and updates...

[Abroad]

I'm glad her mother passed before he was acquitted. She died thinking he was finally getting his. I am sure that can only make her rest easier.