XPost: la.general, alt.politics.media, rec.arts.tv.comedy.colbert-report   
   XPost: dc.politics   
   From: eric.garcetti.democrat.perverts@disney.com   
      
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   Political activist Ed Buck pleaded not guilty Thursday to   
   federal drug charges in connection with two overdose deaths at   
   his West Hollywood home and three additional counts of   
   distributing methamphetamine.   
      
   Buck, a wealthy Democratic donor, was first charged in federal   
   court in September with providing methamphetamine that led to   
   the 2017 overdose death of Gemmel Moore. He was then indicted   
   this month in connection with Moore’s death and the January 2019   
   death of Timothy Dean. He also faces three additional counts of   
   distributing methamphetamine.   
      
   When asked by Federal Magistrate Frederick Mumm how he would   
   plead, Buck, dressed in a beige jail shirt, paused for a moment   
   and replied, “I am working on one hearing aid, not guilty.”   
      
   Buck also acknowledged having read the indictment against him   
   during the short appearance at the downtown Los Angeles federal   
   court building. His next hearing was set for Nov. 26. He will   
   remain in custody.   
      
   He is set to be arraigned Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court   
   on state charges, including operating a drug house.   
      
   Family members of Dean and Moore met for the first time before   
   seeing Buck in court Thursday.   
      
   “My heart aches but we are at that point where we will get   
   justice for my brother,” Dean’s sister Joyce Jackson said. “I   
   just want closure ... and we are moving in the direction to get   
   closure .... I cannot forgive him.”   
      
   Moore’s mother, LaTisha Nixon, called Buck a “monster.”   
      
   “Seeing Ed Buck in court today enraged me. He pretends to be   
   feeble,” she said.   
      
   Nixon said the deaths could have been avoided if law enforcement   
   has acted sooner.   
      
   “We have been in this fight for a long time. It has been a long   
   time coming,” she said. “I am grateful the feds came in and took   
   this case .... I feel the Dean family’s pain.”   
      
   Family and activists have long called on local prosecutors to   
   take action against Buck, 65, and heavily criticized Los Angeles   
   County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey when she declined to bring   
   homicide charges against Buck in connection with Moore’s death   
   last year. Many have argued that Buck’s status and privilege,   
   coupled with the fact that his purported victims were largely   
   sex workers or homeless, had insulated him from prosecution.   
      
   Federal prosecutors accuse Buck of “targeting vulnerable   
   individuals who were destitute, homeless and/or struggled with   
   drug addiction, in order to exploit the relative wealth and   
   power imbalance between them.”   
      
   According to the indictment, Buck met many of his victims on the   
   dating website Adam4Adam, but he also sometimes used a   
   “recruiter” who “scouted men” on his behalf. The recruiter was   
   not identified or described further in the court documents.   
      
   If convicted in either Moore’s or Dean’s death, Buck faces a   
   minimum of 20 years in federal prison. Buck’s attorney, Seymour   
   Amster, has repeatedly declined requests for comment.   
      
   “We are extremely happy about these charges. We are all sorry   
   that Timothy Dean had to lose his life,” said Jasmyne Cannick,   
   one of the most prominent activists in the push for Buck’s   
   arrest. “The federal prosecutors finally delivered what the [Los   
   Angeles County] district attorney could not…. It is extremely   
   gratifying after all these years to see this.”   
      
   Buck has been under scrutiny since July 2017, when sheriff’s   
   deputies responded to his apartment and found Moore’s body. The   
   26-year-old’s death was ruled accidental, but activists and   
   Moore’s family immediately began to pressure the L.A. County   
   Sheriff’s Department to take a closer look at the incident.   
      
   Nixon accused Buck of forcing her son, an escort who had been   
   homeless, to do drugs against his will. In a journal, Moore also   
   accused Buck of getting him hooked on crystal meth in the first   
   place.   
      
   Lacey’s office declined to charge Buck with manslaughter or drug   
   charges in connection with Moore’s death, citing insufficient   
   evidence and an “inadmissible search and seizure,” records show.   
   Law enforcement leaders have never explained what, if anything,   
   illegal was done by responding sheriff’s deputies on the night   
   of Moore’s death.   
      
   Buck became a target of law enforcement again earlier this year   
   when Dean, a 55-year-old fashion consultant and avid basketball   
   player, died of a drug overdose at his home. The case prompted a   
      
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