últimas notícias

Democratic donor Ed Buck will face federal criminal charges in connection with allegations that he lured several men to his West Hollywood home and injected them with drugs in recent years, leading to two deaths, law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times.

Buck, who was arrested Tuesday night in connection with state-level charges tied to the same allegations, will be formally charged by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles this afternoon, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter candidly.

Buck will be charged with distributing methamphetamine, which resulted in a death, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. The charge is linked to the situation that first placed Buck under scrutiny — the 2017 death of Gemmel Moore, a law enforcement source said.

A debate over whether to charge Buck locally or federally had brewed in recent days, according to one of the sources who spoke to The Times.

Calls to Buck’s attorney, Seymour Amster, were not immediately returned Wednesday morning. In the past, Amster has said his client was a man with a “heart of gold” who invited troubled people into his home to help them.

Buck is accused of operating a drug house, with prosecutors alleging he lured in vulnerable men with money and shelter, then injected them with methamphetamine for sexual gratification.

Moore’s death was initially ruled to be an accident and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said they found nothing suspicious. The case was reopened the next month when Moore’s mother and friends questioned whether the drugs that killed him were self-administered.

Last year, homicide investigators asked prosecutors to consider four charges in Moore’s death: murder, voluntary manslaughter, and furnishing and possessing drugs. L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey declined to file a case, citing insufficient evidence.

The decision not to charge Buck had served as a flashpoint in the city’s black and LGBTQ communities, with many contending he had been spared prosecution because of his deep ties to powerful Democratic politicians. Others have argued that the case would have been handled differently if the men who died at Buck’s residence were white.

“Like America, the LGBTQ community is divided along racial lines, and that is reflected in West Hollywood. It is still not as welcoming to people of color and specifically those who are black,” activist Jasmyne Cannick said earlier this week. “It took outside forces to bring change.”

When a second man — Timothy Dean, 55 — died of an overdose in January, the Sheriff’s Department said it would take another look at the first case.

Buck was arrested Tuesday after a 37-year-old man survived an overdose in his apartment and called 911. In court papers, prosecutors said that Buck is still a suspect in the two overdose deaths.

Times staff writer Alene Tchekmedyian contributed to this report.