UPDATE 8:19 p.m.,Jan. 9: The African-American man found dead on Monday in Ed Buck’s apartment had been identified as Timothy M. Dean, 55, of West Hollywood. Dean, who studied at Santa Monica College, was a Saks Fifth Avenue employee and originally was from Florida.
An African-American man was found dead early this morning in the Laurel Avenue apartment of Ed Buck, where a death in July 2017 sparked a protest about its handling by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and about the reaction to the incident by Democratic Party politicians.
Sheriff’s deputies and the coroner were on the scene at 1234 Laurel Ave. at around 3:15 a.m. according to nearby residents.
The death on July 27, 2017, of Gemmel Moore, then 26, was deemed by the L.A. County Coroner’s office to be a result of an overdose of methamphetamine. A coroner’s report said drug paraphernalia was found in the home, along with sex toys and clear plastic bags containing what was suspected to be methamphetamine. The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute Buck saying the evidence is “insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that (Buck) is responsible for the death of Gemmel Moore. Likewise, the admissible evidence is insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that suspect Buck furnished drugs to Gemmel Moore or that suspect Buck possessed drugs.”
Before the 2017 incident Buck, a gay white man in his early 60s, had been an active donor to Democratic candidates ranging from Hillary Clinton in her race for president to John D’Amico in his initial and successful race for a seat on the West Hollywood City Council.
City Council members John D’Amico and Lindsey Horvath have reached out to City Manager Paul Arevalo, asking him to request that newly elected Sheriff Alex Villanueva put priority on investigating his death. Councilmember Lauren Meister also has pressed for the homicide division to investigate.
As of publication, WEHOville has been unable to get further details about the incident but will update this story as they become available. WEHOville also has reached out to Ed Buck for comment but has not received a response. However, Seymour Amster, Buck’s attorney, said in a television interview that “This is not a situation where Mr. Buck had caused the death. This is a situation where Mr. Buck has had longtime friends who, unfortunately, do not handle their life well, then succumb when they are in the apartment of Mr. Buck.”
Presumably the authorities will investigate and make a determination as to the cause of death of this poor man, and if Mr. Buck is in any way responsible. It is however reprehensible and irresponsible for the West Hollywood Sheriffs’ Dept. to allow 100’s of people to descend upon a residential building and harass and scream at residents and neighbors. Protestors who threatened to go up and get Mr. Buck and bring him down to the mob, and run up to passing cars and scream at them that a murderer was inside the building. Why are they allowing this to go… Read more »
Omg. That’s the porn actor that goes by ‘Hole Hunter’. The tattoos in the photo in this article match those in the videos.
Does WeHoville stand by this first report stating the deceased was “a young African-American man?” Yesterday (January 8) the LA Times reported that he was 55-years-old. I haven’t seen any corrections, and the original claim still leads this article. This claim has been repeated by several journalists and social media influencers throughout the world.
Note this quote from the story about the rally at 1234 Laurel Ave: “An investigation into the death is being led by Detective Q. Rodriguez of the department’s Homicide Bureau. The identity of the dead man has not been revealed. While it is clear that he was African-American, he may not have been a young man. Cannick said that she had been told that he was in his 50s.”
The coroner’s office has not yet released the age or name of the man involved, so it isn’t possible to confirm either at this point.
I did research of the death of the first young, black, gay, male. His friends said that Buck had a fetish of shooting them up with meth. They said he sometimes is the first person to shoot up the young men. The first time, yes…he could possibly get away with it. Twice??? I hope not, but we do have an effed up justice system. I applaud those applying pressure and protesting for our judicial system to do its job properly.
This is very sad and my heart goes out to the families affected by the death but drug use is a choice! There is no excuse, period! One comment says people are forced into this life as a result of bad home lives/sex trafficking…really? Tons of us come from bad home lives, including me and I have never used drugs in my life! Coming from a bad home made me stronger and made me want a different life and that’s exactly what I did! It was not easy but the blood, sweat and tears were totally worth it. I have… Read more »
addiction is not a choice, it is a disease. It’s obvious you don’t get what black lives matter is about, also it does not say people with light skin do not matter .
think of it as meaning black lives matter too. that is what it means
I disagree. Plunging a needle into your own vein is something you chose to do. No one else on this planet made you do it. It was your own choice and your own bad decision all along.
It’s very sad that the selfishness, cluelessness, and myopia of the white supremacist gayKK is so rampant that your main focus in this whole thing is not supporting the victim and queer people of color, but writing a screen downplaying and denying the existence of racism. It’s amazing, but not surprising, that in the Trump era the idea of “black lives matter” is to triggered to bigots that you feel the need to scream “ALL LIVES MATTER!!” in all caps. When you see a Save the Whales button do you run up screaming “ALL ANIMALS MATTER!!”? Do you know how… Read more »
Actually Federal crime statistics show that Blacks are disproportionately both perpetrator AND victim of crime.
As for crime between races, it is overwhelmingly Black on White. Just statistical fact. There is no great White on Black crime wave.
Actually, federal crime statistics show that, like I already said, most crime — to the tune of 60-70%, is committed by whites. This is a stone cold fact. The bulk of that is white males aged 17-45, who are barely 15% of the population but disproportionately commit more criminal acts than ANY other group. Whites also get away with more crime due to bias in law enforcement and criminal justice. That Ed Buck is still walking around scott free where a black man with two dead white bodies in his apartment is proof of that. Federal statistics don’t account for… Read more »
They are not saying only Black Lives Matter. It quite obvious that all lives matter, but the BLM movement was started to bring awareness to the racial disparity facing African Americans.
PS – you lose all credibility when you use Fox News as a source.
I done see this as much as a BLM issue, as an older man taking advantage and supplying vulnerable young men with drugs. He took the risk, and unfortunately we need to hold him to his actions and stop blaming others.
I completely agree. Dead is dead and this is not the first time corpses have been (oops) found in Ed Bucks apt – with narcotics and sex toys and I must ask – did Ed obtain the drugs legally? The sex toys are legal. I would make sure the M.E. makes certain that the young victim’s body was not violated post mortem.
They are not saying only Black Lives Matter. It quite obvious that all lives matter, but the BLM movement was started to bring awareness to the racial disparity facing African Americans.
PS – you lose all credibility when you use Fox News as a source.
Is it possible to obtain records of any/all contributions Ed Buck has made to past/current West Hollywood politicians?
And, while legal distinctions under penal law are important, what is essentially different under the following two possible scenarios?
1). These men “voluntarily” arrive stoned and drugged at Buck’s apartment after having been summoned/lured either in person or on social media.
2). These men arrive and are “provided” with intoxicants by Buck.
Either way, it’s death twice in the same place.
If these were white model/actor/waiter boys, Buck would be in jail already.
Life…. and death…. in Fabulonia.
Made international news. Wealthy Democrat donor Ed Buck has a SECOND black man in 18 months die in his West Hollywood home, sparking police to reopen the first case of a male prostitute who died of an overdose in 2017
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6567071/SECOND-man-dies-apparent-overdose-apartment-prominent-white-Democratic-donor-Ed-Buck.html
I believe this is much wider than Ed Buck. He gave too much money to politicians to not call in favors.
And if the County of Los Angeles District Attorney and the Sheriff’s Department push this new death under the rug, I think it’s time to make a complaint to the FBI.
The WEHO two John’s (D’Amico & Duran) took big bucks from Ed Buck. They had to know what his lifestyle was. It’s naive not to believe they didn’t know everything.
I smell a cover-up and I’m sure anybody with half a brain does too.
Prove they took big bucks. There are I believe contribution limits in WeHo. The idea that they’d risk their careers to block investigations based on your guesses is reckless and baseless.
It was DA Jackie Lacey who made the decision not to prosecute.
Why are other news outlets calling Buck “wealthy”? Puhleese. That rental looks basic AF.
Maybe he spends all his money on meth and boys. And soon, lawyers.
NYC sucessfully prosecuted the dealer who sold the herion to Phillip Seamore Hoffman. Come on LA – at least Manslaughter?! Stop the coverup!