L.A. County police shared that they will not be charging political donor Ed Buck for the overdose of 26-year-old Gemmel Moore.
On July 27, 2017, Moore was discovered naked on a mattress in the living room of Buck’s home. (Buck is known for enjoying the company of young black men, some of whom were escorts). Once they arrived, paramedics quickly realized that Moore had overdosed. The L.A. County Coroner’s office later shared that Moore overdosed of methamphetamine.
As Knock LA reports, a coroner’s report also shares that Buck’s home was littered with drug paraphernalia such as 24 syringes with brown residue, five glass pipes with white residue and burn marks, a plastic straw with a white residue, clear plastic bags with white powdery residue and a clear plastic bag with a “piece of crystal-like substance.”
Later, Moore’s journal was discovered and Knock LA reports that it contained the following excerpts:
“I honestly don’t know what to do. I’ve become addicted to drugs and the worst one at that. 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, in Dec. 3, 2016, goes: “If it didn’t hurt so bad, I’d kill myself but I’ll let Ed Buck do it for now.”
After the journal’s discovery, Moore’s mother and friends wondered whether Moore’s overdose wasn’t self-administered. Homicide detectives then started a new investigation, according to the LA Times.
Unfortunately, prosecutors have recently announced that they are declining to file charges against the prominent Democratic donor
This past Thursday, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said that the “admissible evidence is insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that Buck gave Moore drugs and is responsible for his death.
Not satisfied with this ruling, Moore’s mother, LaTisha Nixon of Texas, and several others held a rally in protest.
According to WEHOville, Amanda Laflen, a member of the city’s Public Safety Commission, was at the event and read a statement from West Hollywood City Councilmember Lindsey Horvath.
“The life of a thoughtful, caring and giving 26-year-old young man was cut short due to unthinkable circumstances,” Horvath’s statement read. “More young men have since come forward, sharing their concerns of similar encounters. Yet our justice system has said that their stories don’t matter, that their truth is irrelevant. It has told the members of our community that possessing narcotics, using narcotics, luring impressionable young LGBT people without resources into sex – that all of these acts are none of their concern. That anyone facing these issues is on their own. Without support. Alone.”
“We have seen this story before. Black people struggling with addiction are responsible for their own fate. White people, on the other hand, deserve our sympathy and require recovery services and national awareness campaigns.”
At the event, Nixon shared that she will continue to advocate against Ed Buck. “No more Gemmel Moores,” she said. “I’m definitely not going to go away. Ed Buck needs to be stopped.”
