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LGBTQ - The sisters of deceased man Timothy Dean are asking a judge to rule on three wrongful death civil charges in their lawsuit against disgraced gay millionaire Ed Buck. Buck was found guilty in 2022 of lethally injecting methamphetamine into Dean in January 2019 and of doing the same to another man, Gemmel Moore, in July 2017. Both men died in Buck’s West Hollywood apartment.
Dean’s three sisters — Joyce Jackson, Joann Campbell, and Retha Singleton — filed their lawsuit in January 2020. The suits accused Buck of eight civil charges, including sexual battery, assault, hate violence, drug dealer liability, premises liability, and intentional infliction of emotional distress in connection to Dean’s death.
A judge initially placed their lawsuit on hold while Buck faced criminal charges related to the overdose deaths of Dean and Moore. After a nine-day trial, Buck was found guilty of all nine felony counts against him. He was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
On March 27, the sisters filed a request for judgment to Santa Monica Superior Court Judge H. Jay Ford III. In their request, the sisters said that Buck’s 2022 conviction proved his civil liability for their brother’s death and, hence, three of the civil charges outlined in their lawsuit. If Judge Ford agrees, the remaining charges will be left for a trial which will proceed after a scheduled June 27 hearing, The Los Angeles Blade reported.
The sisters’ court filing describes Buck as a “wealthy white man who has a well-documented history of isolating black men for perverted sexual encounters … in the confines of a drug den in his West Hollywood apartment,” the aforementioned publication wrote.
Investigators determined that Buck had tied down and injected several individuals with methamphetamine and other drugs; hundreds of videos of Buck sexually abusing various men, some of whom were unconscious, hurling racial slurs at them, and injecting them with drugs were found at his home.
Once Moore was found dead in Buck’s home on July 27, 2017, activists and local organizers began to raise awareness about Buck’s predatory ways. He became known for luring escorts, homeless people, and younger men with money to come to his home and allow him to “party and play” (slang for having sex on meth). Several men reported that they felt nauseous or lost control while doing drugs with Buck and that he would convince them not to resist, refusing to call ambulances or police if they felt unsafe. He relied on gay social media sites and even a recruiter to procure men for his actions.
Authorities were initially slow to investigate Buck, saying that the men had died from consensual drug use with no criminal evidence linking Buck to their deaths. However, after a third publicized overdose came to light, Buck was arrested and sent to state prison on September 11, 2019, where he remains.
Many feared that the gay millionaire would never face repercussions for his actions due to the money he contributed to Democratic politicians. The former Republican had donated in the six-figure range to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), among others. However, Democrats distanced themselves from him. Lieu even donated Buck’s contribution.
(Daniel Villarreal is a longtime journalist, webmaster of DanielVillarrealWrites.com and an educator who has written for Queerty, The Seattle Stranger, Vox, Slate and many other publications. This article was featured in LGBTQ NATION.)
