Ed Buck's Trial Moved to Next August

Ed Buck will not go on trial until next summer. The West Hollywood-based Democratic donor was arrested in September after two gay Black men suffered fatal methamphetamine overdoses in his home over the course of two years. A third man nearly died.

Out reported that activist and journalist Jasmyne Cannick, who played a key role in urging law enforcement officials to arrest Buck, tweeted on Friday that Buck will remain behind bars until his new trial date of August 4, 2020.

Cannick also wrote that a civil lawsuit is proceeding in the case of Gemmel Moore, who died in Buck's home in July 2017. As previously reported by The Advocate, "Moore's mother, LaTisha Nixon, says that Buck flew her son to California, provided him with drugs, and injected them into him, causing his death. Moore stated in a diary found after his death that Buck was indeed giving him drugs and shooting him up."

"We are moving right along with the Gemmel Moore wrongful death lawsuit and making preparations to file the Timothy Dean wrongful death lawsuit," Cannick tweeted.

Dean died in Buck's apartment in January 2019.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a victim named in court documents as Joe Doe left Buck's apartment on September 11 to seek medical help after being injected with methamphetamine. Law enforcement officials initially charged Buck with one count each of battery causing serious injury, administering methamphetamine, and maintaining a drug house.

Buck was later charged with providing the methamphetamine leading to Moore's overdose. A grand jury indicted him in October, the New York Times reported, in connection with Dean's death.

Buck could face life in prison without parole if convicted.

A federal complaint filed against Buck includes stories from eight other accusers, some of whom believe Buck injected them with methamphetamine while they were sleeping.

In an editorial for The Advocate published in September, Cannyck wrote, "I have been very hard on the sheriff's department and district attorney's office, and I don't apologize for that. The lives of Black gay men matter. The lives of Black gay men who engage in survival sex matter. The lives of Black LGBTQ people matter. The lives of Black people matter. In order to get that point across, sometimes you have to go hard."

"I do not believe that if the community hadn't kept calling for justice for Gemmel and Timothy that we'd be here today with Ed Buck," Cannyck continued.