XPost: la.general, alt.politics.media, rec.arts.tv.comedy.colbert-report   
   XPost: dc.politics   
   From: ed.buck.shagged.gavin-newsom@disney.com   
      
   LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Prominent Democratic Party donor Ed Buck,   
   who is already facing state charges of running a drug den in his   
   West Hollywood apartment, was expected to appear in federal   
   court today on a charge of providing drugs that killed a 26-year-   
   old man in his apartment two years ago.   
      
   Buck, 65, was charged Wednesday with a single count of   
   distribution of methamphetamine resulting in the death of Gemmel   
   Moore, who died July 27, 2017, of an overdose in Buck's   
   apartment in the 1200 block of Laurel Avenue.   
      
   Los Angeles County prosecutors had earlier declined to file any   
   state charges against Buck over Moore's death, citing   
   insufficient evidence.   
      
   Moore was the first of two men to die at Buck's apartment in   
   less than 18 months. He was found dead of a crystal   
   methamphetamine overdose, and the coroner ruled the death   
   accidental. On Jan. 7 of this year, a second man died of   
   methamphetamine toxicity at Buck's home. The death of Timothy   
   Dean, 55, of West Hollywood, was also ruled accidental. County   
   prosecutors said that case remains under review.   
      
   Buck was not arrested until Tuesday night, when he was charged   
   by the District Attorney's Office stemming from a near-fatal   
   overdose in his apartment that occurred Sept. 11. Buck allegedly   
   injected a man with "two dangerously large doses" of   
   methamphetamine at Buck's apartment. He allegedly administering   
   a "dangerously large dose of methamphetamine" to the same man on   
   week earlier, according to a bail memorandum filed by Deputy   
   District Attorney Cynthia Barnes.   
      
   Buck allegedly refused to render aid to the man, who eventually   
   fled from the apartment and called 911 from a nearby gas   
   station, according to the document. The 37-year-old man suffered   
   an overdose but survived, authorities said.   
      
   Buck was charged in Superior Court with one felony count each of   
   battery causing serious injury, administering methamphetamine   
   and maintaining a drug house. He appeared briefly in a downtown   
   Los Angeles courtroom Thursday morning, but his arraignment was   
   delayed until Oct. 11.   
      
   He was ordered to remain jailed in lieu of $4 million bail on   
   the state charges, but federal officials plan to ask that he be   
   held without bail. The state charges against Buck carry a   
   possible prison sentence of five years and eight months, but the   
   federal charge could land him behind bars for a minimum of 20   
   years and a maximum of life without parole.   
      
   Buck was transferred into federal custody Thursday following his   
   appearance in state court.   
      
   Federal prosecutors said Buck has a history of injecting men   
   with drugs and paying them for sexual activity. They contend   
   Buck flew Moore to Los Angeles and gave him drugs and money in   
   exchange for sex. U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said Moore's mother   
   reported to investigators that her son had told her that Buck   
   "held Mr. Moore against his will and shot him up with drugs."   
      
   Hanna said investigators have identified 10 other "victims" --   
   including Dean, who died in Buck's apartment in January. The   
   other nine victims all said Buck administered drugs to them or   
   strongly encouraged them to do so, and paid them for sex, Hanna   
   said.   
      
    According to a federal court affidavit, the man who nearly   
   overdosed in Buck's apartment -- leading to the state charges --   
   told investigators that "Buck solicited him to engage in sexual   
   activities and distributed methamphetamine to him nearly every   
   day during an approximately one-month period from on or about   
   July 29, 2019, to on or about September 6, 2019." The man said   
   Buck "intravenously injected methamphetamine" into him on both   
   Sept. 4 and Sept. 11, causing him "to suffer overdose effects,   
   requiring him to be transported to the hospital."   
      
   Buck's attorney, Seymour Amster, has denied that his client --   
   who allegedly was present at the location when the earlier fatal   
   overdoses occurred -- had any involvement in either death.   
      
   After Buck's appearance in Superior Court Thursday morning,   
   Amster said, "We will fight this case vigorously, but I'm not so   
   sure legitimately that there was ever enough evidence to ever   
   cause this (state) case to be filed until recently. So, we had   
   two previous incidents. We all know that. We all know that the   
   coroner's office came out with an accidental death (finding).   
   There were some complaints that political donations in hundreds   
   of dollars made a difference. I've never heard anything so   
      
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