By Brian Zanzonico
In the spring, after the final school bell rings, a veritable parade of students march up Poplar Street on the way home.
Two weeks ago, Michael Flory, a 48-year-old unemployed mechanic, moved into the white house on Poplar Street. At 2 a.m. on Friday, March 18, he was escorted out of his new home in handcuffs, accused of sexually attacking children ages 7 to 11 for over a year in his old home in College Point, Queens, and in a van parked outside the Queens home.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the father of three had easy access to his victims, both boys and girls, because many were his children's friends, whose parents trusted Flory.
Neighbors said that Poplar Street is home to many school-age children. And with the school just a short walk away, they said, dozens of children play or walk past Flory's house every day. "The school is only one block away," said a neighbor who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "What else does he need?"
Flory was charged with multiple counts of first-degree rape, criminal sexual acts, sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child, and faces up to 50 years in prison. Police said he seemed to have been an ideal neighbor in College Point, often helping busy parents out of jams by driving their children to school. Police are also conducting interviews in several of Flory's old neighborhoods, some of which are out of state, hoping more victims will come forward.
"I wonder if that's his way of operating," said a Poplar Street mother of a 4-year-old girl. "It seems he would want to establish himself in the community and have access to children. As parents, that's something we have to be aware of. We have to know who our children's friends are and who their friends' parents are."
One mother expressed concern because the neighborhood mailbox is next door to Flory's home. "Now we have to worry about our children mailing letters and riding their bikes around," she said. "You want to give children the freedom to ride their bikes around the block. Now will they have to play in the backyard all the time?"
Another neighbor, commenting on Flory's reported confession of abuse to police and remarks that a sexual relationship between men and children is natural, called Flory "twisted."
"Why are we wasting money to put this before a judge?" the neighbor asked. "He said he did it. Put him away for 100 years and let him experience in prison what it's like to have your innocence taken away."
Flory will be held in protective custody until a hearing on April 4.
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