Bunice Knight, of Copiague, second defendant charged in connection with missing girl's case

A second man has been arrested on rape and drug charges related to the 25-day disappearance of a 14-year-old East Patchogue girl, court records show.

Bunice Knight, 47, of Copiague, is alleged to have had sex with the teen in his home the evening of Jan. 2, according to a criminal complaint. He is charged with second-degree rape, endangering the welfare of a child and three counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance, court records show.

Knight kept the teen in his Jervis Avenue home on Jan. 2, one day before she was found on a boat docked at an Islip marina, according to charging documents. Newsday is not naming the girl because she is a minor and she is the alleged victim of a crime.

The arrest is based on a statement the teen gave to police Jan. 3, allegations made by another man days later, a police interview with Knight on Monday, and home surveillance footage police obtained through a canvas of the Copiague neighborhood, a Suffolk police detective stated in court documents.

Knight, who was ordered by Suffolk County District Court Judge Alonzo Jacobs to stay away from the teen, pleaded not guilty at his Tuesday arraignment, where bail was set at $50,000 cash bail or $100,000 bond. Knight has since posted bond, court records show.

Prosecutors had sought bail of $500,000 cash or $1 million bond, an amount defense counsel Glenn Obedin, of Central Islip, objected to, according to a transcript of the arraignment obtained by Newsday.

"The idea that the people would ask for that kind of bail on a D-felony is, quite frankly, outrageous," Obedin told Jacobs.

Second-degree rape carries a maximum sentence of 2½ to 7 years in state prison, Obedin said. The drug offenses, which Jacobs noted carry a penalty of up to 20 years incarceration, are not bail eligible on their own.

Jacobs called the allegations contained in statements shared with the court, but not read publicly, "shocking to the conscience," according to the transcript.

"I mean, the whole case in general, the whole — I listened to everything," Jacobs said. "But he has every presumption of innocence here."

Knight previously served more than five years in federal prison following a guilty plea in a 2004 narcotics trafficking case, court records show.

Police previously arrested Francis Buckheit, 64, of East Islip, on rape and kidnapping charges related to the missing teen, whose Dec. 9 disappearance unnerved Long Island residents as efforts to find her played out daily on social media.

Prosecutors have said Buckheit kept the girl under netting covering the hull of his 56-foot boat as it was docked at Whitecap Marina for three weeks beginning around midnight Dec. 13.

"[Buckheit] was holding her in this place not likely to be found for weeks and the victim’s parents did not know where she was nor acquiesced to her being with the defendant," Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Sean Murphy told Suffolk County District Court Judge Stephen Ukeiley at his arraignment Jan. 4. Murphy said the East Islip truck driver intended to take the teen "to the Carolinas" by boat.

An indictment charging Buckheit is expected to be unsealed at an arraignment before acting Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Karen Wilutis in Riverhead next week. Prosecutors have not said if anyone else has been indicted in connection with the case.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney declined to discuss Knight's arrest, referring instead to a prior statement he gave that investigators would look into the "circumstances behind how she went missing and the responsible parties" and present those facts to a grand jury.

Obedin did not respond to requests for comment on his client's arrest.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.