Taleless Dog Booksellers Criminal Secret

By Lily Barnette and Ülvi Gitaliyev

*TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual Abuse*

On September 23rd 2022, The Pinnacle published an article about a new, independent bookstore in Berea, named the The Taleless Dog Booksellers, opened by “Clark and Susan Buckmaster.” The article had this to say about the background of the bookstore’s owners:

“Originally from Louisville, the couple have been living in Berea for the past eight years. Prior to moving to Berea, the couple owned a café and often mused about having their very own bookstore next door.”

What The Pinnacle failed to mention was that Clark, whose full name is Alvin Clark Buckmaster III, was fired from his previous job as a nurse in Richmond in 2019. Alvin Buckmaster was originally accused of three counts of sexual abuse in the first degree by one of his patients whilst he worked as a nurse. An article from the Richmond Register details the exact crimes:

“While Buckmaster was drawing blood from the victim, he placed their hand on his body… the victim said that later, Buckmaster returned to the victim’s room with a blanket, took the victim’s top and pants off and sexually assaulted them.”

Many other local news stations, including WKYT, have also confirmed the reports. According to the Kentucky State Police, Alvin Buckmaster had allegedly committed the above mentioned crimes on October, 2018 and after an investigation, was arrested and sent to the Madison County Detention Center on May 22nd, 2019.

*TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual Abuse* Legal documents regarding the Alvin Buckmaster case.

The Berea Torch asked Alvin Buckmaster about his criminal record, to which he replied by saying, “There was some unfounded allegations that were dismissed” and denied that he had served any jail, prison, or parole time. This is not the full truth of the story. Two counts of the sexual abuse in the first degree were dismissed, but the third count was amended to attempted sexual abuse in the first degree, which he was found guilty for. Furthermore, he was conditionally discharged for 178 days of his 180 sentence.

In a phone call, The Madison County Courthouse confirmed that Alvin Clark Buckmaster III, who helps to run the bookstore, indeed was found guilty for attempted sexual abuse in the first degree indicted by a grand jury. Furthermore, The Berea Torch went to the Madison County Circuit Court to look at his criminal record to further confirm if all the information provided was correct. In fact, the Madison County Circuit Court actually allows for people to purchase copies of the record, which we have to show for evidence.

When asked for comment, a Berea College Human Resources employee said that their department is not in charge of hiring and firing when it comes to leased property by the college. Actually, leased property is not through the Human Resources Department at all. Furthermore, the President, Lyle Roelofs, was also asked for comment, to which he did not respond.

10 responses to “Taleless Dog Booksellers Criminal Secret”

  1. Is this guy a he or a they? Clean up the pronouns, it’s making the article hard to read

  2. This is insane omg. He shouldn’t be allowed to work near the school if all of this is true. Disgusting

    • I feel like nothing will happen considering nothing has happened to the owner of BC&T despite several complaints.

  3. I went once and never went back because I got weird vibes from him. Glad I listened to my gut.

  4. If he has served his sentence and been conditionally released, what would be the legal or ethical justification for denying him a livelihood, so long as he keeps to the conditions of his parole?

    • Exactly. I have zero respect for clickbait and this just seems to aim at smearing someone for attention.

  5. Sounds like you are just trying to get attention by destroying someone’s reputation. Be aware that you will stand before God some day and give an account of your actions, as well.

  6. Someone just forwarded me this article. What a piece of sh*t journalism (if you can even call it that). I think there’s a code of ethics in journalism to report the news in such a way as to do the least harm. Have the “reporters” of this story ever explored the ethics of journalism? After seeing some of their articles, it would appear not. If you had even an ounce of critical thinking skills, you would realize that if the prosecution had even a shred of evidence, they would have nailed this guy. But instead, these high level felony charges were dropped to a benign misdemeanor – meaning they had nothing on him. It is curious why you are so intent to destroy someone’s business by digging up meaningless and outdated information. I’m sort of with the person above. You know what they say about karma……

Leave a Reply

Skip to content