Ed Buck, Political Activist, Is Accused of 'Predatory Sexual Encounters' in Wrongful Death Lawsuit

In the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles this week, the mother, LaTisha Nixon, said Buck injected her son, Gemmel Moore, with a lethal dose of crystal methamphetamine in 2017. The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office had ruled that Moore died from an accidental methamphetamine overdose.

Another man, Timothy Dean, was found dead in Buck’s apartment in January. A cause of death has not been released in that case.

Both Moore and Dean were black, which raised suspicions among political activists and critics of Buck, a white man in his 60s who has given more than $116,000 to Democratic candidates and groups in the past decade or so. Protesters gathered this year outside Buck’s apartment to demand justice after the second death, and the men’s families have accused Buck of preying on black gay men.

In the lawsuit, Nixon said Buck had a “well-documented history of isolating Black men for predatory sexual encounters,” including administering drugs to them and then watching them “cling to life.”

A lawyer representing Buck, Seymour I. Amster, has said his client was innocent in both deaths.

“We categorically deny each and every allegation and look forward to litigating this matter in court,” he said in a statement Thursday.

The lawsuit also listed Jackie Lacey, the Los Angeles County district attorney, as a co-defendant, claiming that the district attorney’s office violated civil rights law by failing to prosecute Buck because he is white and Moore was black.

The Los Angeles district attorney’s office declined to comment Thursday. Buck was not charged in Moore’s death originally, but authorities said they would review their investigation after the death of Dean.

A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday that authorities were still investigating, including completing interviews with potential witnesses, and that the case had not yet gone to the district attorney’s office for review.

Moore, 26, who had been living much of the time with his mother and siblings in Texas, flew to Los Angeles on July 27, 2017, and went straight to Buck’s apartment, according to the lawsuit. He was later found naked on a mattress in Buck’s living room.

Nixon’s lawsuit said Buck had previously solicited sex from Moore, injected him with crystal methamphetamine and required him to watch pornography and masturbate. The suit said Buck had introduced Moore to the drug, citing writing in Moore’s journal.

“I’ve become addicted to drugs and the worst one at that,” the journal said, according to a report by The Los Angeles Times. “Ed Buck is the one to thank, he gave me my first injection.”

In another section, the journal said, “If it didn’t hurt so bad I’d kill myself but I’ll let Ed Buck do it for now.”

After Moore’s death, detectives interviewed Buck and considered him a suspect in the case, according to court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. But no charges were filed because police could not prove “beyond a reasonable doubt that suspect Buck furnished drugs to Gemmel Moore or that suspect Buck possessed drugs,” the documents said.

In January, authorities responded to another emergency at Buck’s apartment. Dean, a 55-year-old fashion consultant who played in gay basketball competitions, was found dead.

A spokeswoman said the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office was not releasing information about the cause of death in that case, citing a hold by law enforcement.

In a statement issued this week by Justice4Gemmel, an advocacy group, Dean’s family said his life had been cut short “by a predatory man.”

“But make no mistake Ed Buck — none of this will be swept under the rug,” the family said.

Nana Gyamfi, a lawyer for Nixon, said in a statement on the group’s website that Moore’s family was seeking justice for “all of Ed Buck’s victims” and that the lawsuit would help protect a vulnerable population of black gay men.

Buck has been prominent in politics since the 1980s, when he first got involved in Arizona as a Republican. In the late ‘80s he led the Mecham Recall Committee, a movement to oust Gov. Evan Mecham, a Republican, who was later impeached over fraud and perjury allegations.

Buck later donated to Democratic causes, and gave about $1,500 to support Barack Obama and $2,950 to back Hillary Clinton, according to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks campaign fundraising. Buck is also prominent in LGBT political circles and ran unsuccessfully for the West Hollywood City Council about a decade ago.

The lawsuit argues that Buck has not been charged because he is a white man who has donated to prominent Los Angeles County politicians, including $100 to the district attorney in 2012.

“There is an aspect of this lawsuit that is about holding Ed Buck accountable in the language that he as a wealthy political donor understands — money,” Gyamfi said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.