Ed Buck trial: Wealthy Democratic donor’s trial centers on alleged injection fetish

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The men Ed Buck lured to his apartment for “party and play” found themselves in a situation of life and death, prosecutors said.

Two men enticed by the promise of drugs for sex died. Those who survived overdoses reported harrowing encounters with a man bent on injecting them with methamphetamine and slipping them other drugs.

Nearly two years after Buck was arrested and charged by federal prosecutors, the wealthy Democratic donor is going on trial Tuesday on charges of providing fatal doses to two men, running a drug den and persuading others to travel for prostitution.

Buck, 66, who has given more than $500,000 to mostly Democratic politicians and causes since 2000, has pleaded not guilty. He faces nine felonies that could put him in prison for life if he’s convicted.

The arrest of Buck in 2019 marked a turning point for activists who rallied outside his West Hollywood apartment and pressured law enforcement to act after Gemmel Moore died on his floor in 2017. Even after Timothy Dean died 18 months later, it took another nine months and the near-death of another overdose victim before Buck was finally arrested in September 2019.

Family members of Moore, 26, and Dean, 55, plan to speak before the trial Tuesday outside U.S. District Court, said Jasmyne Cannick, a political strategist who has helped lead the charge to bring Buck to justice. Cannick and others complained that Buck escaped prosecution because of wealth, political ties and race.