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.
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.
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.
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.
Gemmel Moore’s Mother Speaks Out on the Indictment of Ed Buck
LaTisha Nixon is still mourning the death of her son Gemmel Moore, who will be forever 26, the age he died in the home of longtime Democratic donor Ed Buck. But, she said she is really happy that he can’t hurt anybody else. Buck was arrested on September 17 and charged with three counts of battery causing serious injury, administering methamphetamine and maintaining a drug house, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. He is accused of injecting a 37-year-old man, who overdosed but survived, with methamphetamine on September 11.
“It’s incomprehensible to me that it took a third Black man to be attacked and almost die to finally dissolve the unconscionable apathy that has allowed Ed Buck, a racist sexual predator, to roam free. Everyone knew that he preyed on young Black men — two died in his apartment. The inaction in response had a message was loud and clear: Black gay lives obviously didn’t matter.
Ed Buck, the prominent Democratic Party donor whose West Hollywood apartment was the scene of two fatal drug overdoses, was jailed this morning in lieu of $4 million bail after being arrested and charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office with running a drug den in his residence after a third man last week suffered a near-fatal overdose at Buck’s apartment.
Local activists are urging District Attorney Jackie Lacey to “do her job” and find that the evidence presented to Los Angeles Sheriff’s is probable cause to immediately charge and prosecute Ed Buck in spite of his “Whiteness, wealth, and her political ambitions,” in the death of Timothy Dean, the second man to die at Buck’s residence.
Attorneys for the mother and estate of Gemmel Moore, a 26-year-old man who died of a crystal meth overdose in California Democratic major donor Ed Buck’s West Hollywood home in 2017 have filed an amendment to their wrongful death lawsuit in U.S. District Court. The case was initially filed in L.A. Superior Court but moved to federal court in May.
Timothy Dean would have been 56 years old