When I was told that Councilmember Kevin de León was involved with the square dedication for Willis O. Tyler, the Black attorney who won the landmark case that made adding racial covenants to block Black people from living in white neighborhoods in California illegal, the irony wasn’t lost on me.
A man who survived two overdoses from drugs
allegedly supplied by Ed Buck is suing the former Democratic donor, who was
convicted in July of the overdose deaths of two other Black men in his West
Hollywood apartment.
Reporters are expected to remain neutral as they uncover the facts of a story even when their biases or details they discover pull them in particular directions.
A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a wealthy California political donor on charges he injected gay men with methamphetamine in exchange for sex, leading to two deaths and other overdoses.
A jury of seven women and five men was sworn in today for the federal criminal trial of former political donor Ed Buck, who is accused of providing methamphetamine to two men who overdosed and died in his West Hollywood apartment.
It took almost three years, but Ed Buck is finally sitting in a jail charged with nine federal counts–including that he supplied the crystal meth that caused two overdose deaths and that he engaged in a pattern of soliciting Black men to consume drugs that he provided.
A request for bail was denied last Friday for Democratic Party fundraiser Ed Buck, who is accused of giving drugs to a man who died at his West Hollywood apartment after allegedly being lured across state lines for prostitution.
On the eve of the one=year incarceration of Democratic donor and activist, Ed Buck in the deaths of two Black gay men, the group, Justice 4 Gemmel and All of Ed Buck’s Victims, has begun gathering signatures for a petition calling upon Magistrate Judge Rozella A. Oliver to deny bail to Buck.
The petition comes after Buck, 65, petitioned the court arguing that he is at higher risk for contracting COVID-19 while in jail due to his age and because he says he suffers from gum disease and needs specialized cardiac care.
A federal grand jury today returned a superseding indictment charging Edward Buck with four additional felonies, including that he allegedly enticed victims – including a man who died at his West Hollywood apartment after he administered drugs to him – to travel interstate to engage in prostitution.
“The additional indictments against Ed Buck just further prove that the men who came forward and told their stories of the white man in West Hollywood who loved to inject Black men with meth were true.
After being ignored by her state and local Democratic Party’s leadership when she called attention to the crystal meth overdose deaths of two Black gay men at Democratic donor Ed Buck’s home– Jasmyne Cannick has won a seat on the Party’s coveted County Central Committee. On Super Tuesday, March 3, Cannick earned enough votes to secure her seat on the elected body that oversees the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.
In 2017, 26-year-old Gemmel Moore was found dead of a meth overdose in the West Hollywood home of Democratic donor Ed Buck. Buck, was 63 and White, a longtime political donor, a one-time West Hollywood City Council candidate and a well-known figure in LGBTQ political circles. Moore was Black and gay and had worked as an escort.
Attorneys for the family and estate of Timothy Dean, a 55-year-old fashion consultant, who died of a crystal meth overdose in California Democratic major donor Ed Buck’s West Hollywood home on January 7, 2019, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit in L.A. Superior Court. Filed with the court on January 7, 2020, just one year after Dean’s death, this is the second wrongful death lawsuit filed against Ed Buck involving crystal meth overdose deaths at his home. The lawsuit is seeking damages against Ed Buck for wrongful death, sexual battery, drug dealer liability, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and hate violence.
Local news and stories of 2019
Jackie Lacey’s failure to charge Ed Buck for the deaths of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean was not because of a lack of evidence or probable cause. Her failure was a direct result of a lack of interest and political will. All of which was the reason that the sheriff’s department sought outside help from their federal counterparts to finally bring Buck to justice.