Los Angeles, July 28 (AP) A federal jury on Tuesday indicted a wealthy California political donor for injecting gay men with methamphetamine in exchange for sex, killing two and causing overdoses. went.
Ed Buck was found guilty in federal court of all nine felony counts, which could carry a life sentence. The verdict came just four years after one of the victims, 26-year-old Jemel Moore, was found dead of an overdose in Buck’s West Hollywood apartment.
Moore’s mother Latisha Nixon said after the verdict, “Today is a bitter day.” “Today we have won.” After a two-week trial, the jury deliberated for more than four hours. Buck’s defense attorneys — one of whom was the prosecutor in the OJ Simpson case — did not immediately return a request for comment.
Prosecutors said Buck paid the men and provided drugs in exchange for the sex acts. The 66-year-old had pleaded not guilty. His defense lawyers said neither the fatal overdose victim died of meth nor that many of the alleged victims were drug addicts.
His 2019 arrest marked a turning point for activists rallying outside his apartment and pressuring law enforcement following Moore’s death on the floor of Buck in 2017.
Even after Timothy Dean, 55, died 18 months later, it took another nine months and another overdose victim died before Buck was arrested in September 2019.
Joan Campbell, one of Dean’s sisters, said after the verdict, “This man did some terrible things to humans.”
Since Moore’s death, family members and activists have pressed for Buck’s arrest. He said Buck escaped criminal charges for years because of money, political ties, and race.
Dean’s another sister, Joyce Jackson, said, “Ed Buck would never harm anyone else, and I thank God for that.”
Buck is a wealthy white man who was active in gay causes and animal rights issues. He has given over USD 500,000 to most Democratic politicians and causes since 2000.
Prosecutors say she exploited vulnerable men – most of them black – by paying them to come to her home to use drugs and engage in sex plays to satisfy a fetish. There were many destitute drug users who often worked as prostitutes to support their habit.
The defense argues that all the men were in Buck’s apartment of their own free will and that Moore and Dean did not die from the methamphetamine.
According to the Los Angeles Times, after reading the decision, US District Judge Christine A. “I know it’s been a difficult, long and difficult process,” Snyder told the jurors. (AP) CPS
(This story is published as part of an auto-generated Syndicate wire feed. Headline or body have not been edited by ABP Live.)
.