NEW BRUNSWICK — Keith Buckley said his life wasn't supposed to turn out this way.

It was August 2008 and the North Brunswick police lieutenant had just taken the department’s captain’s test. His goal, he said, was to one day become police chief.

But those dreams ended Aug. 12, 2008, when, while on duty, the 19-year police veteran borrowed a Dodge Viper from his brother and invited fellow officer Christopher Zerby to go on a joyride on Route 130.

Buckley lost control of the speeding sports car and crashed into a utility pole, killing Zerby.



"I went from police officer to criminal in seconds because of a bad decision," a tearful Buckley said yesterday, moments before he was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty in November to official misconduct.

Reading from a letter, Buckley said he was "sentenced to a lifetime in prison" the day Zerby was killed and told Superior Court Judge Bradley Ferencz he finds it "hard to express my sorrow and my emotions for Chris' death."

He then apologized to Zerby’s family, who was seated in the front row of the courtroom, which was packed with Buckley’s family and friends.

Ferencz, sitting in New Brunswick, ordered the 45-year-old Buckley to serve two years of his sentence before he is eligible for parole and to forfeit his job, right to ever hold public office and his police pension.

“The conduct you engaged in cannot be tolerated,” Ferencz told Buckley.

Ferencz admonished Buckley for his use of the word “accident” to describe the events of that August afternoon.

“You are not here because of an accident,” the judge said. “Using that word shows no understanding for what you did. You need to understand that because of your conduct a young man died. That what you did was criminal.”

The sentence was part of a plea bargain negotiated with the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office in November in which Buckley pleaded guilty to official misconduct and admitted he was “intentionally” speeding.

He said during the plea that he “felt enjoyment” driving the car and speeding, despite the fact he “endangered the public and his passenger.”

Zerby’s parents, Donald and Sally Zerby; his widow, Christine Zerby; and sister Kathy Horvath spoke before Buckley was sentenced, telling the judge about their loss.

“This is living hell,” Zerby’s 88-year-old mother said. “No parent should have to bury a child. I try to remember Chris smiling, but all I see is him in the casket.”

Zerby’s widow told the judge: “I lost my past, present and future.”

She said it was so difficult to tell their sons, then 4 and 7, that their father was gone.

“My two sons lost their dad, but the person who lost the most is Chris. He’ll never see his sons grow up,” Christine Zerby said, breaking down in tears. “He never saw his son learn how to ride a bike.”

Horvath told the judge, “There are no words for the magnitude of pain and horror we have lived with for the past five-and-a-half years.

“Keith Buckley not only took my brother’s life. He endangered the whole community.”

Buckley’s wife, Jennifer, yelled, “I love you,” to her husband as he was handcuffed by sheriff’s officers after the sentencing, but no member of the Buckley family spoke in court.

Alan Zegas, Buckley’s lawyer, told the judge that “there is not a day that goes by that he does not think about what happened,” and asked him to treat Buckley with leniency, but Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Weiss called for the negotiated prison sentence.

“What’s missed by all the officials and officers who sent letters on Mr. Buckley’s behalf is the horrendous risk he put the community in,” Weiss said. “What if a mom and her baby were pulling out of a shopping center as he crashed and they were killed? Would they be writing those letters? The defendant should not be treated any differently than anyone else.”

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