Los Angeles, CA - A 25-year-old Black gay man has stepped forward with information that he was at Democratic donor Ed Buck’s West Hollywood home on September 11 after Buck approached him on the gay dating website Adam4Adam. Buck is the prominent Democratic donor at the center of a scandal involving the July 27 crystal meth overdose death of 26-year-old Gemmel Moore. Moore’s death was immediately classified as an accidental methamphetamine overdose by the coroner, but now the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s homicide bureau is taking a closer look after his personal journal was published and other young men have stepped forward recounting similar stories about a man who they say has a Tuskegee Experiment like fetish which includes shooting drugs into young Black men that he picks up off the street or via dating hookup websites.
Using the pseudonym “Brian,” Brian said that Ed Buck sent an Uber to pick him up in South L.A. a little after midnight to bring him to his apartment on Laurel Avenue in West Hollywood.
Brian says that he came in touch with Buck recently on the website Adam4Adam where Buck has a new profile under the name “dounome” after his previous account was compromised when other young men stepped forward with screenshots of Buck’s ad under the name “bucked.”
Brian provided screenshots from his phone detailing his conversation with Buck prior to his arrival which included texts from Buck’s phone to his and the access code to get into the building. Brian explained that he didn’t know until the car pulled up to the apartment that he was going to Ed Buck’s home.
Brian said that he arrived around 12:30 a.m. via Uber on the morning of September 11 and left around 3 a.m. He said that he smoked crystal meth with Ed Buck and tried on tights and joggers for him. Brian brought his own drugs to Buck’s, although he says Buck was adamant that Brian use his drugs.
“He was very persistent,” Brian said.
Brian said that Buck asked him if it was okay for Buck to call him the N-word.
“He kept asking if it was okay to call me that,” Brian said referring to the N-word. “But you already know I don’t take no form of disrespect from anyone for any amount of money. He knew he better not to play with me in regards to saying that.”
Brian says that he refused Buck’s pressure to use his drugs and began to feel uncomfortable and started making excuses for why he had to leave. He said that he texted someone to call him so that he could fake like he had somewhere else he had to be because Buck was so adamant that he stay–almost demanding. Buck paid him $60 and let him leave. Brian says that Buck continued to try and get him to come back over but that he hasn’t returned.
In a recent interview with the WeHo Times, Seymour Amster, the attorney for Ed Buck, said that his client was “grieving.”
When asked how Ed Buck was doing, Amster, whose most recently defended South L.A. serial killer Lonnie “The Grim Sleeper” Franklin said, “What is lost in this whole thing, no matter how you want to twist this, Ed is grieving and I think it bothers him more than anything that he’s not allowed to grieve properly, but he is grieving. He’s fine.”
Amster has repeatedly claimed that his client Ed Buck hasn’t been accused of anything.
In recent weeks, other young Black gay men have stepped forward and made allegations against Ed Buck including recounting similar stories about a man who they say has a Tuskegee Experiment like fetish which includes shooting drugs into young Black men that he picks up off the street or via dating hookup websites. Buck has been accused of being a sexual predator, kidnapping, forced drug use, injecting unconscious Black gay men with crystal meth, filing false police reports to cover his crimes, coercion and pimping and pandering by his victims. After securing immunity, the victims are in the process of making statements to L.A. County Sheriff’s Department homicide detectives.
Gemmel Moore himself wrote about Ed Buck in his personal journal.
In his journal, Moore wrote, “I honestly don’t know what to do. I’ve become addicted to drugs and the worst one at that,” a December entry reads. “Ed Buck is the one to thank. He gave me my first injection of crystal meth it was very painful, but after all the troubles, I became addicted to the pain and fetish/fantasy.”
“My life is at an alltime [sic] high right now & I mean that from all ways. I ended up back at Buck [sic] house again and got munipulated [sic] into slamming again. I even went to the point where I was forced to doing 4 within a 2day [sic] period. This man is crazy and its [sic] sad. Will I ever get help?”
His last entry, dated Dec. 3, 2016, reads: “If it didn’t hurt so bad, I’d kill myself, but I’ll let Ed Buck do it for now.
Images from July 27 surveillance video at Buck’s apartment showed a young Black male trying to come up to his apartment as the coroner was removing Gemmel Moore’s body. The young man was turned away by sheriff’s department.
Sheriff’s Department homicide detectives assigned to the case were given the information about Buck’s new profile on Adam4Adam as well as other information last week.
Buck has given hundreds of thousands of dollars of Democratic causes and candidates over the years. His Facebook page boasts dozens of photos of him with everyone from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to Governor Jerry Brown, Los Angeles County Democratic Party and California Democratic Party chairman Eric Bauman and even Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Justice4Gemmel.com has been been established to help more victims come forward.