‘Predator’: Major Democratic Donor Accused of Running Drug House and Causing Man's Overdose
A prominent Los Angeles Democratic party donor and LGBTQ political activist was arrested Tuesday on accusations he operated a drug house and supplied methamphetamine to a 37-year-old man who overdosed last week but survived.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office called Ed Buck a “violent, dangerous sexual predator,” alleging he preyed mostly on drug-addicted and homeless men.
“The full scope of his consistent malicious behavior is unknown,” prosecutors wrote in court papers obtained by PEOPLE. “Buck is clearly a predator with no regard for human life.”
Buck has been charged with battery causing serious injury and administering methamphetamine and maintaining a drug house. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years and eight months in prison.
In the court papers, prosecutors allege that Buck “personally and intentionally injected two dangerously large doses of methamphetamine” into the 37-year-old man at his apartment in West Hollywood on Sept. 11.
Buck allegedly “refused to render aid” to the man, who prosecutors referred to as Joe Doe and who fled the apartment and called 911 at a nearby gas station. Doe survived the overdose.
Two other men, Gemmel Moore, 26, and Timothy Dean, 55, didn’t.
Moore was found dead of an apparent methamphetamine overdose in Buck’s apartment on July 27, 2017. According to court documents, sex toys, meth, 24 hypodermic needles and five glass narcotics smoking pipes were found in the apartment.
According to a federal wrongful death and racial discrimination lawsuit filed against Buck and Los Angeles County obtained by PEOPLE, Buck flew Moore from Houston to Los Angeles on July 27 and “within hours” after arriving at Buck’s apartment he was dead.
“Before encountering Mr. Buck, Mr. Moore had never used crystal methamphetamine,” the lawsuit alleges. “Mr. Buck introduced Mr. Moore to crystal methamphetamine, administering to Mr. Moore what he narrated in his journal as his first and ‘extremely painful’ injection. … Reflecting on his encounters with Mr. Buck, Mr. Moore wrote in his final journal entry, dated December 3, 2016, ‘If it didn’t hurt so bad, I’d kill myself, but I’ll let Ed Buck do it for now.'”
On Jan. 7, 2019, Timothy Dean was also found dead in Buck’s apartment. He also died of a meth overdose.
“From his home, in a position of power, Buck manipulates his victims into participating in his sexual fetishes,” prosecutors alleged in court papers. “These fetishes include supplying and personally administering dangerously large doses of narcotics to his victims…. Not deterred by the senseless deaths of Moore and Dean, the defendant nearly killed a third victim last week. The defendant’s predatory acts and conscious disregard for human life must be stopped.”
Hussain Turk, an attorney who represents the families of Moore and Dean in the federal lawsuit, says he is happy that Buck has been taken into custody.
“I am grateful to know that Ed Buck is off the streets, which means that for now no gay black men are being tortured, trapped and terrorized in his apartment. And that is a huge relief, because that, at the end of the day, was all of us wanted,” Turk tells PEOPLE. “We didn’t want this to happen to anybody else.”
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Turk says Buck’s arrest was a long time coming.
“It should not have taken as many overdoses as it has taken for the county to finally act,” he says.
Buck is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday. His attorney could not be reached for comment.
