Disgraced Democratic donor Ed Buck hit with more charges after allegedly drugging two sex workers who died of overdoses
Prominent Democratic Party donor Ed Buck appears in court in 2019. (Los Angeles Times via Getty/ Al Seib)
A federal grand jury has added four more felony charges to the US Justice Department’s case against disgraced Democratic donor Ed Buck, who is accused of drugging two sex workers who died of overdoses.
Buck, a one-time LGBT+ political activist wealthy donor known for given money to the Democratic Party and its candidates, is already facing criminal charges for allegedly causing the deaths of two gay Black men.
On Tuesday, 4 August, a federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging Buck with four further counts, on top of the five felony charges he is already facing.
According to a release from the US Justice department, he has been newly charged with distributing methamphetamine in 2017, two counts of enticing men to travel between states to engage in prostitution, 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”.
Buck is currently being held in custody, and if found guilty, could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
He already faces two counts of distributing methamphetamine resulting in death, which each carry a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life without parole. The four new charges carry a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison.
Buck is set to face trial on January 19, 2021.
What charges was Ed Buck already facing?
Before this week, Ed Buck faced five charges; two counts of distributing methamphetamine resulting in death, and three counts of distributing methamphetamine to men in May 2018, December 2018 and September 2019.
In July 2017, the body of 26-year-old Gemmel Moore was found at Buck’s home and at the time a medical examiner found that Moore’s death was the result of an accidental methamphetamine overdose.
In January, 2019, a second Black gay man, Timothy Dean, died at Buck’s house. Dean, 55, was a longtime friend of Buck and worked as a gay porn actor under the name Hole Hunter.
The big money Democratic donor and businessman and was finally arrested in September, 2019, after a third gay Black sex worker survived an overdose at his house.
Other alleged victims were interviewed by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which showed that Buck “continued to solicit men for sex and drug use” long after Dean’s death.
Prosecutors say that Buck used his wealth and position of power to target gay Black men who were vulnerable due to homelessness and drug addiction.
