XPost: la.general, alt.politics.media, rec.arts.tv.comedy.colbert-report   
   XPost: dc.politics   
   From: nancy.pelosi.nambla.2@disney.com   
      
   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   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)