Democratic Donor Ed Buck Arrested After Third Drug OD at His WeHo Residence
Big-name Democratic donor Ed Buck, 65, was placed under arrest on Sept. 17 following a reported third overdose at his West Hollywood home. Buck now faces multiple drug-related charges, including a meth rap in connection with an alleged overdose suffered by a 37-year-old man last week, CBS News reports.
As previously reported at EDGE, a 55-year-old onetime Gay Games gold medalist named Timothy Dean died earlier this year at Buck's West Hollywood home, allegedly from an overdose.
Dean's death was the second such fatality to take place at Buck's residence. In July 2017, 26-year-old Gemmel Moore succumbed to what an autopsy report characterized as an overdose of meth. Entries in Moore's journal suggested that Buck had shot him up with the drug on multiple occasions, media reports said.
Buck is known as a well-connected donor to Democratic politicians, including Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey. Media reports said that Lacey claims she refunded that money to Buck. Lacey also denied last March that the donation, which was in the sum of $100, had any bearing on her handling of the men's deaths.
"Every life, regardless of a person's age, race, economic status and even whether they use illegal drugs, has value," Lacey stated in an open letter. "If that life is lost because of the unlawful actions of another, rest assured that my office will do everything possible to bring the perpetrator to justice."
Last week's overdose led to Buck's arrest, with Lacey issuing a statement in which she said, "With this new evidence, I authorized the filing of criminal charges against Ed Buck," the Los Angeles Times reported.
The LA Times reported on the latest overdose incident, recounting that "Joe Doe" feared Buck had given him an overdose of meth on Sept. 4. Even so, he claimed, he returned to Buck's residence on Sept. 11, and, he alleged, Buck once again injected him with "large doses" of the drug.
Again fearing an overdose, the man tried to get help, but, the LA Times reported Buck tried to stymie him. The man claimed that he managed to flee Buck's residence and went to a gas station to call emergency services. He was subsequently treated at a hospital.
Prosecutors allege that Buck "preys on men made vulnerable by addiction and homelessness" and has a "fetish" for injecting men with drugs, CBS reported.
Buck was hit earlier this summer with additions to a previously-filed civil suit that accused him of human trafficking and revenge porn.
The accusations stemmed from amendments to a wrongful death suit brought against the prominent donor by Gemmel Moore's mother, LaTisha Nixon. The suit, originally filed Feb. 26 of this year, alleges that Buck preyed upon younger African-American men, calling him "a wealthy older white man who has a well-documented history of isolating black men for predatory sexual encounters during which he injects them with crystal methamphetamine in the confines of a drug den in his West Hollywood apartment."
Hussein Turk, a lawyer for Moore's family told the media, "It's unfortunate that it's taken a third overdose for the (Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department) to finally act."
Added Turk, "We believe that the third overdose could have been avoided. We believe that the death of Timothy Dean could have also been avoided had they taken the death of Gemmel Moore seriously."