Felony charges were filed Tuesday against Democratic political activist and noted donor Ed Buck, after two men overdosed on illegal drugs and died inside his apartment in West Hollywood, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said.
Buck was charged with operating a drug house and providing methamphetamine to a man who survived an overdose Sept. 11.
Prosecutors have also filed court papers to increase Bucks' bail to $4 million, saying he's a danger to the community.
The bail motion states, "...defendant Buck is clearly a predator with no regard for human life. His behavior is malicious and beyond reckless."
The motion also says that even after the deaths of two men in his apartment and the recent criminal charges, authorities say they are still unaware of the extent of Buck's illegal behavior.
The bail motion continues, "In addition to these three incidents, defendant Buck has engaged in and continues to engage in the exact same behavior, namely preying on vulnerable men and injecting them with dangerously large doses of methamphetamine. The full scope of his consistent malicious behavior is unknown. However, during the investigation into these incidents, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department found hundreds of photographs, taken in Defendant Buck's residence, of men in compromising positions."
Buck, through his attorney Seymour Amster, has repeatedly denied he had a role in the deaths of Gemmel Moore in July, 2017, and Timothy Dean in January, 2019, and said he would fight wrongful death and civil rights allegations filed in a civil lawsuit earlier this year.
"We'll fight the allegations vigorously," Amster said earlier this year.
The lawsuit was filed in February by Moore's mother, LaTisha Nixon, who said she was angry authorities had previously failed to file criminal charges in the death of her son, who was 26 years old.
"I just think they don't care," Nixon said of prosecutors and detectives who've worked on her son's case and who were also named in the lawsuit. Last week a federal judge asked Nixon's attorneys to clarify and resubmit allegations against all of the defendants as the judge considered efforts by Buck and the LA County District Attorney's Office to dismiss the case.
The lawsuit alleges wrongful death, sexual battery, hate violence, drug dealer liability, negligence, infliction of emotional distress, and two violations of civil rights. An updated filing also accused Buck of engaging in human trafficking, for allegedly paying for Moore to travel to West Hollywood from Texas.
The case accused Buck of personally administering the drug that took Moore's life. "Mr. Buck injected Mr. Moore with a lethal dose of crystal methamphetamine," it said.
"There's more to the story than is being told,"Buck's attorney said of the allegations in the suit. "If necessary, we'll tell the full story in a court of law."
The District Attorney's office declined to comment in February and July, when the lawsuit was amended.
Moore's death was initially classified as an accidental methamphetamine overdose. The LA County Sheriff's Department re-examined the case after Nixon and activists demanded a deeper investigation, though the LA County DA's office ultimately declined last year to file criminal charges against Buck.
In January 55-year-old Timothy Dean died in Buck's apartment on Laurel Avenue under similar circumstances. Buck through his attorney has said Dean arrived at the apartment already under the influence of a drug. The LA County Coroner's Office said this week the cause of death was still being investigated and any findings will be kept secret at the request of the Sheriff's Department.
Nixon's attorneys, Nana Gyamfi and Hussain Turk, said they believe Buck has received preferential treatment from police and prosecutors, possibly as a result of his history of political activism and campaign donations to a wide variety of elected officials.
"The civil lawsuit doesn't only get some level of accountability from Ed Buck and from the District Attorney's office, the County - in the language that they understand, which is money, but it also enables us to expose what Ed Buck is doing," Gyamfi said.
Photo Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images, File
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