Democratic megadonor Ed Buck guilty in ‘party and play’ drug deaths
Ed Buck, a prominent liberal activist who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates, was convicted Tuesday of injecting men with methamphetamine in exchange for sex, causing two deaths.
A federal jury convicted Buck of two counts of meth distribution resulting in death as well as three other charges following deliberations that lasted for more than four hours following a two-week trial. The 66-year-old will face a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison at his sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled.
The verdict was handed down four years to the day after 26-year-old Gemmel Moore was found dead of a drug overdose in Buck’s West Hollywood apartment. An investigation revealed that Buck had purchased a plane ticket for Moore, who was black, to fly from Texas to Los Angeles to “party and play” with the older white man.
“The party is the drugs, the play is the sex,” Assistant US Attorney Chelsea Norell told jurors in her opening statement. “If they didn’t party, he wasn’t interested.”
Moore’s family and activists had pushed for Buck’s arrest, charging that his wealth, political connections and his race precluded him from facing consequences. Despite the clamor, Buck was left free to pursue his fetish for another two years after Moore’s death.
“Today is bittersweet,” LaTisha Nixon, Moore’s mother, said after the verdict. “We got victory today.”
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