A federal grand jury has added another four charges to Clinton friend and associate and Democratic mega-donor Ed Buck’s already lengthy rap sheet.
Buck is now facing a grand total of nine federal charges including those filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office that includes allegations he was operating a drug house.
Prosecutors allege Buck, 65, operated a drug den at his LA home, where he administered crystal meth to men against their will during sexual encounters
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The four new charges issued by the DoJ – bringing the number of charges in the case to nine counts – include an allegation that Buck knowingly enticed 26-year-old Gemmel Moore to travel to the Los Angeles area to engage in prostitution.
The grand jury folded all nine counts against Buck, who is being held in federal custody without bond, into one filing as a “superseding indictment” Tuesday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
DailyMail report: Buck allegedly provided methamphetamine to Moore, who overdosed on the drug and died on July 27, 2017, inside Buck’s LA home.
A second new charge sees Buck charged with another count of enticing another man to travel with the intent of engaging in prostitution.
The indictment also charges Buck with one count of knowingly and intentionally distributing methamphetamine, and one count of using his residence for the purpose of distributing narcotics such as methamphetamine, and the sedatives gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and clonazepam.
The LA Sheriff’s Department opened a homicide investigation into Moore’s death in 2017, but a year later the District Attorney, Jackie Lacey, declined to file charges against Buck in relation to Moore’s death due to insufficient evidence.
Buck was later hit with a wrongful death lawsuit by Moore’s mother LaTisha Nixon in February 2019 which could provide some insight into the new federal charges that have been brought in the case.
The lawsuit claimed that Buck bought Moore a plane ticket from Houston to visit him at his apartment in July 2017, and that just hours after he landed, Moore was dead.
Police found the apartment ‘littered with multiple syringes with brown residue, a scale, several lighters and torches, a straw with white residue, glass pipes with white residue and burn marks, plastic bags with white powdery residue and a clear plastic bag containing a crystal-like substance‘, legal papers say.
The documents claimed Buck had ‘previously solicited sex’ from Moore ‘would insist upon injecting Mr Moore with crystal methamphetamine‘ then forced him to watch hardcore gay pornography.
Buck has also been charged with another count of enticing another man to travel with the intent of engaging in prostitution.
Timothy Dean, 55, was found dead at Buck’s West Hollywood home in January 2019 from a meth overdose.
The new indictment which includes the four additional felonies also charges Buck of knowingly and intentionally distributing methamphetamine, and another count of using his home for the purpose of distributing narcotics such as methamphetamine and the sedatives gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and clonazepam.
Buck, 65, was arrested in September after being charged with providing methamphetamine to a man who died after receiving the drug intravenously.
In the original five-count indictment it was alleged Buck ‘engaged in a pattern of soliciting men to consume drugs that Buck provided and perform sexual acts at Buck’s apartment.’
Buck is alleged to have used social media to solicit victims including a gay dating website. He is also alleged to have used a recruiter to scout and proposition men.
Federal prosecutors say Buck preyed on vulnerable gay men and pressured them to let him inject them with drugs as part of a sexual ritual. Buck is also charged with providing meth to three more men, including one who overdosed.
The victims families believe their cases were ignored because the men were poor, queer, and Black.
Jasmyne Cannick, an attorney representing Moore’s family, said in a statement, ‘The additional indictments against Ed Buck just further prove that the men who came forward and told their stories of the white man in West Hollywood who loved to inject Black men with meth were true.’
‘We’re happy that the Department of Justice is taking this case seriously, but we are still disappointed in L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s failure to take action against Ed Buck. Jackie Lacey’s failure to take the accounts of Black gay men seriously is the reason that Timothy Dean is dead.’
Moore’s mother, Nixon, claims to have given details to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department of seven men who underwent meth injections from Buck but the office and Lacey ignored her.
Each of the federal charges that allege the distribution of narcotics resulting in death carry mandatory minimum sentences of 20 years in federal prison and a maximum penalty of life without parole, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The four new charges alone carry a statutory maximum sentence of 60 years in federal prison.
Buck is currently held custody without bond until his expected trial date in January 2021.
Buck ran unsuccessfully in 2007 for City Council in West Hollywood, which is known for its large LGBTQ community. He has donated at least $500,000 to Democratic campaigns and causes over many years.
A former model and actor, he also donated to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid.
