XPost: la.general, alt.politics.media, rec.arts.tv.comedy.colbert-report   
   XPost: dc.politics   
   From: ed.buck.dick.sucker@disney.com   
      
   Stunning new allegations that Democratic donor Ed Buck paid at   
   least 10 men to use drugs for his pleasure have sparked more   
   questions from activists and others about why it took so long to   
   uncover the longtime West Hollywood political activist’s alleged   
   misconduct.   
      
   Buck has been the subject of protests and demands for justice   
   since 2017, when a young man was found dead in his home of a   
   drug overdose. Early this year, a second man was found dead   
   inside Buck’s West Hollywood apartment.   
      
   Community activists and family and friends of the victims have   
   long questioned whether Buck’s political connections played a   
   role in the lack of law enforcement action after the first death   
   — an accusation authorities deny.   
      
   Jasmyne Cannick, who has led community protests about Buck, said   
   she was pleased with his arrest this week but said it took far   
   too long.   
      
   “We brought them plenty of witnesses,” Cannick said. “Over the   
   years, I met with victims repeatedly. They didn’t want to be out   
   in the open. One of them is now dead, and sadly he didn’t get to   
   see this day.”   
      
   The mother of Gemmel Moore, the man found dead in Buck’s home in   
   2017, thanked her son’s supporters for not giving up. In a video   
   statement posted on Twitter, LaTisha Nixon said she felt like   
   prosecutors initially treated her like a criminal when she   
   pressed her case.   
      
   “I am happy. I knew this day was going to come,” she said.   
      
   A 22-page federal criminal complaint unsealed Thursday painted a   
   depraved picture of how Buck earned the grim sobriquet of “Dr.   
   Kevorkian” among the homeless men in West Hollywood’s Plummer   
   Park, less than a mile from Buck’s home.   
      
   Ten men told investigators that Buck had paid them to use drugs   
   and dress 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 African American and LGBTQ   
   communities, many of whom alleged Buck had been ducking justice   
   since Moore’s 2017 overdose death.   
      
   Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Buck earlier this week   
   with operating a drug house, but the federal charge could prove   
   far more serious. 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 bail. Calls to his attorney seeking   
   comment were not returned.   
      
   Buck was arrested at his West Hollywood home Tuesday night, less   
   than a week after a man fled Buck’s home fearing he was   
   suffering a methamphetamine overdose, prosecutors allege.   
      
   Buck tried to prevent the man 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 Dist. Atty. 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 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.   
      
      
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