Below is my summarization of the proceedings on the fourth day of Democratic donor Ed Buck’s federal criminal trial.
In USA v. Edward Buck, Buck is charged in a nine-count first superseding indictment with pdistribution of methamphetamine resulting in death, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C) (Counts 1 and 2); distribution of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C) (Counts 2 through 6); maintaining a drug premises, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 856(a)(1) (Count 7); and enticement to travel for purposes of prostitution, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422(a) (Counts 8 and 9).
Buck has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is represented by Christopher Darden and Ludlow Creary II.
TRIGGER WARNING: Reading further may be disturbing, even traumatizing, to some people who are sensitive to drug use, racial slurs, or sadomasochism.
July 20, 2021
Victim #4
When court resumed on Tuesday, the first person to take the stand Victim #4, a 38 year–old interracial male who said that he was half African and half European Spanish.
Victim #4 felt more comfortable testifying in Spanish–his native language–and used an interpreter.
He told the jury that he had been in Los Angeles for 11 years and was currently homeless living on the streets and in Maywood. Victim #4 talked about his struggles with meth addiction, and that he had been struggling with his addiction for about six to seven years, and that he had become addicted while in downtown LA.
Victim #4 said that he met Ed Buck in Santa Monica at a bus stop when Ed Buck pulled up to him and offered him a ride in 2015 or 2016.
He said Ed Buck took him back to his apartment, and he agreed to go because he was homeless. He said that on his first visit to Buck’s he felt that he was creepy and weird so he left.
Victim #4 said that he ran into Ed Buck again at the same bus stop in Santa Monica one to two years later, and this time he did go back to Buck’s home. He said that they talked and used drugs. He said that he smoked meth and took viagra.
When the prosecution asked, what else he did, he said, “well I put on underwear and like that”
He told the jury that Ed Buck asked him to wear underwear and that he touched him.
He said that on this particular visit he stayed until the next day.
He said that Ed Buck only gave him a couple of dollars and that he went back one to two weeks later, really, because he saw that there was access to drugs.
Victim #4 testified that on his next visit he did household chores at Ed Buck’s, including cleaning the windows. He said that they did the same thing as before–use drugs and that he put on underwear. The prosecution asked Victim #4 if Ed Buck wanted to inject him with meth and he said yes.
“He wanted to inject me, but when he wanted to inject me he offered me money.”
Victim #4 said he’d never done that before and he was scared of it. He said the only reason that he did it is that Ed Buck wouldn’t stop harassing him about it. His first time Ed Buck injected him two to three times with meth.
When the prosecution asked again, why he agreed to do it, Victim #4 replied, “well, because I lived on the street, and I wanted to have a place to rest and like that.”
He repeated that he was nervous about being injected and that he was super desperate.
Victim #4 testified that he lost consciousness and that when it came to Ed Buck was holding on to him sucking his penis.
Victim #4 also talked about Ed Buck calling him “white trash” and “nigger kid.”
The jury heard numerous phone calls between Ed Buck and Victim #4, who would call Ed Buck when he was getting out of county jail.
Victim #4 said that altogether the guesses he went to Ed Buck’s more than 20 times and every time Buck offered drugs.
He said that every time Ed Buck wanted to inject him that Buck told him he was going to give him money.
When Victim #4 tried to put a limit on the meth he was taking in these injections Ed Buck would get a negative attitude.
Victim #4 was one of the men we saw in the videos that were played for us in court on Friday. In one video he had on a mask, white underwear, and was smoking meth.
The jury heard three phone calls between Victim #4 and Ed Buck. Calls that were recorded while he was in county jail.
The first call was on August 3, 2018, and Victim #4 told Ed Buck that he’d be out in 30 minutes. Buck said that he was already partying and playing with somebody so to expect that when he got there. Victim #4 said that he left jail and went straight to Ed Buck’s apartment.
On November 20, 2018, Victim #4 called Ed Buck to let him know he was in county jail and asked for help.
Ed Buck is heard calling him “boy” and saying Victim #4 is going to owe him.
Victim #4 tells Ed Buck he can only do one slam when he comes over and Ed Buck tells him that he isn’t doing him any favors by only agreeing to take one slam.
Victim #4 volunteers to find someone else for Ed Buck, to which Buck replies, “Finally, you lazy bastard.”
The prosecution asked why Victim #4 did that and he said that it was the only way to make Ed Buck happy–find another person to do the same thing–party and play.
PnP or party and play — also called “chemsex”— is a subculture of drug use that occurs while having sex. PnP has been widely associated with gay men and with men who have sex with other men, although it spans sexual preferences.
On December 10, 2018, Ed Buck sent an Uber to pick Victim #4 up from the county jail in downtown Los Angeles.
Victim #4 testified that he saw Ed Buck inject Timothy Dean, who Victim #4 called Palm Springs, with meth in December 2018 or the beginning of January 2019, while he and Dean were at Buck’s apartment.
Victim #4 said that he stopped going to Buck’s after Dean’s death because Ed Buck said he had a problem.
“Well, one person died and then a second person. He [Ed Buck] said it wasn’t good anymore.”
On cross-examination, Christopher Darden asked where Victim #4 got the suit he was wearing in court in an effort to let the jury know that the Government had cleaned Victim #4 up for his appearance.
But Victim #4 came back at Darden and said, “I am always clean.”
Darden spent his entire cross badgering Victim #4 about his repeated visits to Ed Buck’s apartment. Victim #4 was open and honest about being addicted to meth and that being his driving factor. He said his addiction got worse when he met Ed Buck.
Victim #4 testified that he let Ed Buck inject him because he could use that money to help his woman out.
Victim #4 repeatedly told Darden that everything came with cost when it came to Ed Buck. He said that Buck offered to find him a job with a labor union but he never did that.
Victim #4 said, Ed Buck always set the price for the amount of money he was going to pay him.
Victim #4 testified that all Ed Buck wanted to do was denigrate him and put tight things on his body.
Victim #4 talked about times when Ed Buck failed to inject him properly and left scars that he showed on Victim #4’s body. He said that one time he gave him too much and knocked him unconscious and when he came too Ed Buck wanted to give him even more.
Once, Victim #4 says he just faked that the meth went into his body when Buck couldn’t inject him properly.
Darden eventually made Victim #4 cry on the stand when he repeatedly asserted that everything that happened to him was his fault and not Ed Buck’s.
Courtney King, Minh Vu, and Christine Siedsma, DEA Digital Forensic Examiners
Several DEA Digital Forensic Examiners testified that they extracted data from the digital devices seized at Ed Buck’s apartment and Buck’s iCloud account.
Victim #5
Victim #5, who I interviewed some years ago after Dean’s death, took the stand and said that he began using meth after learning he was HIV positive in 2015.
He said he moved to Los Angeles from Minneapolis in March 2018 and was couch surfing and homeless. He began escorting and met Ed Buck on Adam4Adam.
Victim #5 testified that when it came to Ed Buck’s fetishes, “he liked bulges. He liked to see bulges. We did oral and foreplay. He doesn’t like penetration.”
Bulges refer to swollen male genitalia in tight-fitting underwear.
Victim #5 saw Ed Buck four times including once when Ed Buck sent an Uber to pick him up from the men’s shelter he was living at in South Los Angeles.
Victim #5 testified that Ed Buck was the only person in his house allowed to administer injections.
Victim #5 said that Ed Buck paid for him to fly from Iowa to Los Angeles to party and play, provided meth every time, and insisted on slamming him.
Victim #5 said Ed Buck surreptitiously gave him what he believed to be a combination of GHB and meth that made him extremely weak, his “booty hole warm,” and as though his head would explode.
Slamming’ is the term used to describe the action of injecting meth, typically in relation to gay and bisexual men.
GHB, or gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, is an illegal drug that is often manufactured in illicit laboratories and passed around at clubs and raves. Often referred to as liquid ecstasy, Georgia homeboy, G, easy lay, grievous bodily harm, and goop, GHB is generally distributed as a clear and colorless liquid or a white powder that is dissolved in liquid.
GHB is known to lower inhibitions, make a person more passive and open to suggestion, and potentially heighten libido. These methods of action on the brain and body make GHB a candidate for use as a date rape drug, often without the victim knowing they are taking it.
GHB is also a depressant drug. It can lower anxiety and may lead to drowsiness and mental confusion. In large amounts, it may cause hallucinations, aggression, and overexcitement.
Victim #5 took several videos and photographs of a session he had at Ed Buck’s. He said he did this because he didn’t trust Ed Buck.
Victim #5 also testified that Ed Buck would not give him the same drugs that Buck was taking and the thought that was suspect.
He said that he asked Buck about Gemmel Moore dying at his house and whether he, “stuck that boy with a needle.”
On cross-examination Christopher Darden highlighted the victim’s criminal record for the jury and that he had been paid $5,000 by a production company for the rights of his life story with another $5,000 if the film was made. Darden also brought up that the victim was paid $500 by The Daily Mail for an interview.
Darden ignorantly kept trying to tie me–yes me– to Black Lives Matter for the jury and asked the victim if I was the reason he was in court testifying. Victim #5 said no.
Victim #5 gave all the shade Darden was throwing right back at him and it was great to watch.
“Cor-rect.”
Coroner Investigator Brenda Shafer
Coroner Investigator Brenda Shafer testified that she responded to Ed Buck’s apartment following Timothy Dean’s death on January 7, 2019. Upon arrival, she saw Dean’s body on the living room floor surrounded by clothing, sex toys, and thick clear plastic tubing that appeared to contain a white powdery substance. She also recovered a glass pipe on the dining room table and one on the stovetop. She then inspected Dean’s body, which was in rigor mortis. Dean was wearing two pairs of white men’s briefs with a ring secured at the base of the penis and wrapped around the scrotum.
The jury and audience saw photos of a deceased Timothy Dean in Ed Buck’s apartment. I have to admit, I do not enjoy looking at dead people. It was very hard. One of Timothy’s sisters left the courtroom.
Dr. Matthew Miller, County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner
Dr. Matthew Miller testified that he performed the autopsy of Timothy Dean. He testified about scar tissue in Dean’s elbow pit, as well as a small amount of subcutaneous hemorrhage and subcutaneous scar tissue on the right side. The subcutaneous hemorrhage contained foreign debris consistent with recent drug use. Dr. Miller testified that the cause of Dean’s death was methamphetamine and ethanol toxicity, with coronary artery atherosclerosis as a contributing condition.
Jennifer DeStefano, Ed Buck’s Neighbor
Jennifer DeStefano testified that on January 7, 2019, she saw an abandoned package on a ledge outside Buck’s bathroom window, and reported it to police.
We also saw photos of the package before it was removed.
Deputy Raymond Rose, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
Deputy Raymond Rose testified that he retrieved the package that DeStefano reported to police, photographed the location where he found it, and gave the evidence to Sergeant Cardella.
Sergeant Paul Cardella, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
Cardella took the stand a second time but this time regarding the Timothy Dean death investigation, where he was the assigned homicide detective.
Cardella testified about a text exchange between Buck and Dean prior to Dean’s arrival at Buck’s
We were shown video surveillance of Dean entering Buck’s apartment around 12:07 a..m.
We saw Ed Buck’s call log for January 7, 2021, around the time of Timothy Dean’s death. Buck’s called: West Hollywood Councilmember John Duran, attorney Seymour Amster, his friend Neil and Big Mike–whoever that is.
Cardella showed the jury the contents of the package found on the ledge outside of Buck’s bathroom the day of Dean’s death–meth pipes, rubber tubing, and syringes which tested positive for Buck and Dean’s DNA.
Wrap Up
The jury sent a message to the judge saying the trial was taking too long. Perhaps their minds are made up.
The judge appeared to nod off during one of Darden’s exhaustive cross-examinations. To be fair, I was nodding off too. Darden and his flunky Ludlow Creary are boring and embarrassing to watch defending this white man.
Wednesday will see testimony from more of Buck’s victims including Joe Doe, the last man to nearly die in Ed Buck’s apartment after being overdosed in September 2019.
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Jasmyne Cannick is an award-winning journalist, political strategist, and popular television and radio commentator on race, politics, and social issues.
She’s been covering and chasing Ed Buck since August 2017.
You can read her previous coverage of Ed Buck, including the trial here.
Cannick founded Justice for Gemmel and All of Ed Buck’s Victims to extend her advocacy for the survivors and victims of Ed Buck beyond her journalism, leveraging both her political acumen and savviness with her community relationships.
Follow her on Twitter @Jasmyne for realtime trial updates.
