Dem Donor's Legal Troubles Just Got Worse

Complaint: Ed Buck, accused of luring gay men for sex and meth binges, had at least 10 victims
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 20, 2019 12:37 PM CDT
Complaint: Dem Donor Had at Least 10 Victims in Drug-Sex Spree
In this Sept. 22, 2010, file photo, Ed Buck makes a campaign appearance for Meg Whitman, not shown, then a Republican candidate for governor of California, in Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

When you're known around town as "Doctor Kevorkian," the implication probably isn't a good one. That's the nickname court records say was bestowed on wealthy Democratic donor Ed Buck, 65, who's been accused of luring homeless, gay black men to his home, then plying them with meth as part of a sexual fetish. Two men have had fatal overdoses at Buck's home: 26-year-old Gemmel Moore in July 2017, and Timothy Dean, 55, in January of this year. This week, Buck was charged with administering meth to Moore. After a third man overdosed at Buck's residence earlier this month but escaped, Buck was hit with additional charges of operating a drug house, furnishing meth, and battery causing serious bodily injury. Now it looks like those three men may not have been Buck's only supposed marks, per the Guardian, citing a new federal criminal complaint listing 10 alleged victims.

The complainants lodge similar accusations, with claims including Buck offered to pay them for sex, made them do drugs (sometimes injecting them himself), and sexually assaulted them, even while some were unconscious. One alleged victim says "[sex] was not gratifying for [Buck] if [the victim] did not ingest methamphetamine." The man who said he escaped from Buck earlier this month is included in the complaint, claiming Buck gave him meth "nearly every day" for about a month. Who's not surprised by the allegations: writer Jasmyne Cannick, who's long raised a red flag on Buck, as well as local LGBT activists who say they've also tried to get the authorities to look into what's been going on. "He has been allowed to do all of these things all of this time," an attorney for Moore's family says, per the Guardian. Buck is being held without bond, per the Los Angeles Times. (More Ed Buck stories.)

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