Ed Buck is accused of human trafficking and engaging in “revenge porn” by making and sharing a video of his alleged “meth-fueled sexual encounters” with Gemmel Moore in an amendment to a civil lawsuit brought against Buck, L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey and Deputy District Attorney Craig Hum.
The amendment to the lawsuit was filed today in U.S. District Court by Nana Gyamfi and Hussain Turk on behalf of Latisha Nixon, the mother of Moore, a young black sex-worker who was found dead of a methamphetamine overdose in Buck’s Laurel Avenue apartment on July 27, 2017. The case initially was filed in L.A. Superior Court but moved to federal court in May.
Buck, 64, is a white gay man who is well-known in West Hollywood and Los Angeles for his contributions to the election campaigns of federal, state and local Democratic party candidates and for his successful push for the West Hollywood City Council to ban the sale of fur.
The amended claim accuses Deputy D.A. Hum of not sharing with Lacey important information from the Sheriff’s Department’s investigation of Moore’s death and the death on Jan. 7 of Timothy Dean, a 55-year-old black man found dead in Buck’s apartment of a methamphetamine overdose. And it claims that Lacey’s initial decision, announced on July 26, 2018, not to prosecute Buck in Moore’s death is part of a “widespread and persistent sub rosa practice of deliberate indifference towards the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection rights of Black people by refusing to impartially prosecute white people for their felonious criminal acts against Black victims and survivors.” Lacey is an African-American woman.
The claim filed today alleges that Buck, who has maintained profiles on gay sex hookup sites such as Grindr and Adam4Adam, was continuing to solicit sex from young black men as late as April 2019. Detectives have gone as far as New York City to interview young men who Buck is alleged to have paid to fly to Los Angeles to meet him. Buck is said to have purchased an airline ticket for Gemmel Moore to fly from Houston on July 27, 2017, the day he died.
“Mr. Buck offered to provide (the young men) with temporary housing and compensation in exchange for engaging in or performing sexual acts,” says today’s filing. “Mr. Buck proceeded to pressure (the young men) into ingesting crystal methamphetamine and viewing homemade pornographic video recorded depicting Mr. Moore masturbating while apparently intoxicated on crystal methamphetamine.”
The claim alleges that detectives in the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau obtained accounts of that behavior from those they interviewed. However, “on or around June of 2019, Jackie Lacey claimed that, because Craig Hum never shared with her the findings, contents, or substance of the investigative interviews of Does 21- 30 (a reference to the unnamed witnesses) that were conducted by the County of Los Angeles’s Sheriff’s Department, Edward Buck has yet to be detained, arrested, or charged with any crime whatsoever due to an alleged lack of probative evidence.”
The failure to share that information is “part of a wider pattern of administrative and investigative misconduct whereby information concerning or regarding crimes against or affecting Black victims is ignored, neglected, or otherwise treated in a way that falls beneath the standard of care by which similar information concerning or regarding similar crimes against or affecting white victims is treated,” the claim alleges.
“We see the failure to file charges so far as a basis for outrage and liability,” said Nana Gyamfi in a text to WEHOville. “It should not be taking this long to make the decision to prosecute Buck.”
The Sheriff’s Department initially decided not to investigate Moore’s death because of the L.A. County Coroner’s Office’s ruling that it was an accident, albeit one attributed to use of methamphetamine, a highly addictive and dangerous drug. That decision brought complaints from local politicians such as Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin and West Hollywood Councilmember Lindsey Horvath that prompted the Sheriff’s Department to open an investigation.
Lacey’s decision that the evidence obtained in the investigation wasn’t sufficient to convict Buck sparked protests outside Buck’s apartment building at 1234 Laurel Ave. and demonstrations against her, one of which was the delivery by Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, of 30,000 petitions calling for Lacey to prosecute Buck.
Asked to respond to the new claim, Seymour Amster, Buck’s attorney, said “we will vigorously fight this in court.”
A representative of the District Attorney’s office said: “Our office declines to comment on pending litigation.”
THRILLED DA Jacky Lecy has picked up this on going shocking series of events.
But let’s not (I won’t) Judge, hope, wish or listen to people declare these sad deaths were as criminal as news reports, UNTIL TRIAL & Conviction if such is found.
My neighbor and I attempted to get an appointment with the FBI regarding what we see as corruption in West Hollywood. We are both homeowners in West Hollywood and are very concerned about the sad state of affairs here. The poor young man who was manipulated by this Ed Buck. It’s the tip of the ice berg. The FBI did not respond. My friend even called Adam Schiff’s office and she was totally dismissed by some intern. The endless questions of malfeasance in West Hollywood have certainly been documented on WEHOville. Duran dismisses your news site as a blog. But… Read more »
West Hollywood sinks lower and lower every day. I use Los Angeles as my home address…..too embarrassing to write West Hollywood.
John Duran didn’t return the Ed Buck donations because he has over $100,O00 in Federal and State Tax Leon’s. In fact, since he started practicing law he’s had over $300,000 in tax liens. As for John D’Amico , Ed Buck with the ludicrous fur band and his big donations, put the Mayor in office. Ed Buck has not been prosecuted because of the pressure applied by the Democrat Party. Locally, Ed Buck just reflects a tip of the ice berg about possible malfeasance at West Hollywood Cit Hall. It’s been difficult to secure an investigation by the FBI because of… Read more »
What actual crime are you alleging? The FBI investigates crimes, not angry opinions…
I still think it’s shameful that the Council Members who took money from Buck didn’t either return it or donate it to a drug addiction organization. I realize that Buck donated to many other campaigns outside West Hollywood, but West Hollywood is where the deaths occurred so City Council should have returned the money. I understand one Councilmember gave $25 or $50 to the family towards a funeral. How insulting. Wherever I go in the World our city is referred to as White Hollywood because of this scandal.
Eric- I agree. It’s shameful and embarrassing for the city of Weho. We know now money buys anything.
Hussain Turk once spoke at one of our city council meetings.
He was impressive.
I remember taking notes.
A move to Federal Court seems appropriate.
If Federal Prosecutors can indict Jeffrey Epstein, this case should follow the play book.
Buck should be charged with Murder. If he were African , he’d be in jail .