The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department said Monday that a man's body had been recovered from the West Hollywood home of Ed Buck, a longtime Democratic donor and prominent figure in local LGBTQ political circles. The deceased man's name has not been released and the cause of death is unknown, but a spokeswoman for the sheriff's department said he was black.
Buck's attorney, Seymour Amster, said his client is cooperating and was not arrested, adding that "from what I know, it was an old friend who died of an accidental overdose, and unfortunately, we believe that the substance was ingested at some place other than the apartment." The sheriff's department said homicide investigators are "conducting a thorough investigation" and working closely with the district attorney's office.
Last summer, prosecutors declined to file charges against Buck for the July 2017 death of Gemmel Moore at his apartment, citing insufficient evidence. Moore, 26 and black, was found dead of a methamphetamine overdose on a mattress in Buck's living room, naked and surrounded by drug paraphernalia, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing a Los Angeles County coroner's report. "Moore had been homeless and had worked as an escort," the Times adds. "Buck, 64, is white." He was present during both deaths, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department said Monday.
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Buck rose to prominence in the 1980s as a former insurance industry multimillionaire who led an effort to impeach Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham. At the time, he was identified as a conservative Republican, but recently he had given heavily to Democrats, mostly in California.
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