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In political circles, Ed Buck was best known as a wealthy donor
who championed animal rights and LGBTQ causes, dumping more than
half a million dollars into the coffers of Democratic candidates
running for school boards, Senate seats and spots on the West
Hollywood City Council.

In West Hollywood's Plummer Park, less than a mile from Buck's
home, homeless men in desperate circumstances had a much simpler
frame of reference for the 65-year-old.

They called him "Dr. Kevorkian."

A 22-page federal criminal complaint unsealed Thursday painted a
depraved picture of how Buck earned his grim sobriquet. Ten men
told investigators that Buck had paid them to use drugs and
dress up in skimpy underwear for his own sexual pleasure.
Several of the men claimed they lost consciousness after Buck
served them a drink, and some said they woke up to the sight of
him injecting drugs into their arms against their will,
according to the complaint.

Buck was charged Thursday with one count of distributing
methamphetamine leading to a death, according to the U.S.
attorney's office in Los Angeles. The announcement ended a two-
year saga that had circled around Buck, local law enforcement
leaders and activists from the city's black and LGBTQ
communities, many of whom alleged Buck had been ducking justice
since the 2017 overdose death of Gemmel Moore.

Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Buck earlier this week
with operating a drug house, but the federal charges could prove
far more perilous. If convicted of providing the drugs that led
to Moore's death, Buck faces a minimum of 20 years in prison.

Buck made a brief appearance in federal court Thursday afternoon
and was ordered held without bond. Calls to his attorney seeking
comment were not returned.

"Investigators have identified 10 additional victims – nine of
whom (Buck) administered drugs or strongly encouraged them to
ingest narcotics as part of agreements to be compensated for
sexual services," U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna told reporters
Thursday.

Buck was arrested at his West Hollywood home Tuesday night, less
than a week after a man fled his home fearing he was suffering a methamphetamine overdose, prosecutors allege. Buck tried to
prevent him from getting medical attention, authorities said.
The man was able to get to a gas station and call 911 after the
Sept. 11 incident, which investigators have said was key to
bringing charges against Buck.

"The surviving victim's statements gave us the break we needed,"
said Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, whose
office has been the subject of withering criticism for choosing
not to prosecute Buck in the past.

Buck's behavior first came under scrutiny in July 2017 after
Moore, who had been homeless and sometimes worked as an escort,
died of a methamphetamine overdose. Investigators initially
ruled his death to be accidental, but activists and Moore's
family quickly challenged that determination. In a journal found
among Moore's possessions, the 26-year-old Texas man blamed Buck
for his drug addiction.

"I've become addicted to drugs and the worst one at that," the
journal said. "Ed Buck is the one to thank, he gave me my first
injection of chrystal meth."

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department revisited the case,
and in 2018, investigators asked prosecutors to consider four
charges in Moore's death: murder, voluntary manslaughter, and
furnishing and possessing drugs. Lacey declined to file a case,
citing insufficient evidence.

When a second man – Timothy Dean, 55 – died of an overdose in
Buck's apartment in January, the Sheriff's Department said it
would take another look at the first case.

Buck first gained political notoriety as a self-described
conservative Republican while leading a gubernatorial recall
effort in Arizona in the 1980s. But he became prominent in
California as an "in-your-face" Democratic activist and booster
of animal rights and LGBTQ causes. In the last decade, he has
donated money to all but one member of the current West
Hollywood City Council, as well as candidates for the Los
Angeles school board and California Senate.

In that same time frame, prosecutors say, Buck was luring young,
disadvantaged men to his home with the promise of drugs and
money.

One man, who was homeless and sleeping in West Hollywood's
Plummer Park in 2011, told investigators that he had never used
methamphetamine before he heard that Buck was "well-known for
compensating male prostitutes with drugs and money," according
to the complaint. The victim agreed to take a "small amount" of
drugs at Buck's behest but said Buck then emptied an entire
syringe into his arm.

Several other men said Buck wanted to watch them use drugs while
they wore tight underwear, according to the complaint, adding
that he became insistent and sometimes forceful if they refused
to ingest more narcotics at his command. Two men alleged that
Buck had injected them with drugs while they slept on his couch,
and others suggested he was surreptitiously giving them unknown
substances that made them sleepy or weak.

One man told investigators that Buck hired him as an escort in
late 2018. After drinking a "clear soda" provided by Buck, the
man said, he felt "sleepy and began to lose control of his
physical movements," according to the complaint.

"When he awoke, Buck was approaching him with two additional
syringes loaded with methamphetamine," the complaint said.

In March 2019 – just two months after Dean was found dead in
Buck's home – another man said Buck also offered him cash and
marijuana in exchange for sex. After taking a drink that Buck
described as vodka, the man said, he lost consciousness. When he
awoke, Buck was injecting him with a syringe and had placed
metal clamps on his body, according to the complaint.

The man involved in the most recent case said he had lived with
Buck since late July and claimed they used drugs and had sex
nearly every day for more than a month, according to the
complaint.

The decision not to bring charges against Buck last year served
as a flashpoint in the city's black and LGBTQ communities, with
many contending he had been spared prosecution because of his
ties to Democratic politicians. Others have argued that the case
would have been handled differently if the men who died at
Buck's residence were white.

Lacey and other law enforcement leaders pushed back against that
narrative during a news conference Thursday. Lacey said there
was a misconception among the public that multiple victims had
come forward to make allegations against Buck.

"We have done everything possible to put this depraved sexual
predator away," she said.

According to the court documents made public Thursday, five of
the victims who spoke to investigators came forward in March and
April of this year. But two other men – both of whom made
allegations that Buck injected drugs into their bodies while
they were asleep – were interviewed in August and September of
2017, after Moore died but before Lacey's office declined to
press charges.

Federal and local prosecutors debated which agency should bring
charges against Buck this week, according to two law enforcement
sources with knowledge of the case who spoke to the Los Angeles
Times on condition of anonymity. One source described the
situation as a "fight."

Lacey said federal prosecutors first became involved in the
investigation in June, adding that it made no difference to her
who ultimately oversaw the case against Buck.

Jasmyne Cannick, an activist who served as a spokeswoman for
Moore's family and had become the public face of the push to
have Buck prosecuted, said that public pressure was the main
reason Buck was sitting in a jail cell Thursday.

"I am happy to give them credit, but not at the exclusion of the
community," Cannick said of the district attorney's office and
Sheriff's Department. "There is a lot of saving face going on by
the D.A."

(Staff writer Alene Tchekmedyian contributed to this report.)

https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-
world/national/article235261877.html

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