Retired hero cop William Fox busted in Pennsylvania on sex-abuse charges

BY JOE KEMP

A former hero NYPD cop who became a father to a troubled teen he coaxed out of jumping from a downtown flophouse 30 years ago was arrested in Pennsylvania on charges of molesting three boys.

William Fox, 65, was collared Monday at his Liberty Township home and accused of sexually abusing the juveniles between 1996 and 2009, the Sun Gazette newspaper reported Thursday.

The 21-count indictment against Fox included charges of rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, the paper reported. He is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

The former NYPD officer made headlines across the country in 1981 when he adopted 17-year-old Michael Buchanan after he talked the teen out of committing suicide.

Buchanan was sitting on a sixth-floor ledge of a Bowery building when Fox, who was on duty, crawled near him.

The crowd below encouraged Buchanan, a runaway, to jump.

"See, they don't care about me," the teen told Fox, according to news reports.

"Somebody cares," Fox replied. "I'd be proud to have a son like you."

A few months later, the bachelor Fox became the teen's legal guardian.

Fox - who was forced to retire from his 11-year NYPD career after a car accident - later helped pen the novel "The Cop and the Kid" about the heart-warming ordeal.

Buchanan made the news again a couple of years later when he taped a fake bomb to his chest and threatened to blow himself up in downtown Brooklyn.

He wasn't charged and was sent to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

A year later, Buchanan was arrested in Pennsylvania after he fled their Staten Island home with Fox's gun, Jeep and credit card.

According to an Associated Press article, Buchanan wrote a note to Fox that read: "I love you, don't get mad, you've tried to help but I can't live up to all the expectations."