Ed Buck convicted in meth overdose deaths of
Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean
Dane Brown, who nearly died of a meth overdose in Ed Buck’s apartment, hugs Assistant U.S. Atty. Lindsay Bailey after a federal jury convicted Buck of every charge in a nine-count indictment. Buck was found guilty of supplying the meth that killed Gemmel Moore, whose mother, LaTisha Nixon, left, is smiling. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
BY MICHAEL FINNEGAN, HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS
JULY 27, 2021 UPDATED 7:16 PM PT
Ed Buck, a longtime fixture of West Hollywood politics, was convicted Tuesday of charges that he supplied the methamphetamine that killed two men during “party and play” encounters at his apartment.
In a gruesome case of an older white man using his power and money to exploit the poverty and drug addiction of younger Black men, the jury found Buck guilty of every charge in a nine-count indictment. Among them were maintaining a drug den, distribution of methamphetamine and enticement to cross state lines to engage in prostitution.
Buck, 66, could spend the rest of his life in prison. His two convictions for supplying the meth that resulted in death each carry a minimum sentence of 20 years.
The verdict concluded a two-week trial that featured harrowing testimony by men hired by Buck to show off their bodies in underwear and get high on crystal meth and the party drug GHB. Excerpts from Buck’s hundreds of graphic videos and photos of the drugs-and-sex sessions left spectators wincing at the trial.
Buck’s obsessive pursuit of his dangerous fetish led to the overdose deaths of two Black men in his apartment: Gemmel Moore, 26, in July 2017, and Timothy Dean, 55, in January 2019.
It was only in September 2019, after a third Black man nearly died of an overdose, that Buck was arrested — a delay that fueled angry protests by activists who accused law enforcement officials of failing to aggressively investigate a politically influential white man. Buck, a onetime candidate for West Hollywood’s City Council, made more than $500,000 in campaign donations over the last couple of decades, nearly all of it to Democrats.
“Ed Buck will never harm anyone else, and I thank God for that,” said Joyce Jackson, who with her sister Joann Campbell flew to L.A. from Tampa, Fla., to join their brother Timothy Dean’s tight circle of friends at the trial.
Dean was an avid basketball player — one friend described his style as “poetic” — who worked as a fashion consultant at Saks Fifth Avenue.
ED BUCK is facing charges of running a drug house where he preyed on vulnerable black men.
Al Seib, Los Angeles Times, CALIFORNIA
The trial wound up giving voice to the men Buck victimized. Some of them were homeless and doing escort work to survive when Buck first invited them over; one lived in a tent under a 105 Freeway overpass. Buck paid the men extra when they let him inject them with meth, they testified. They said he enjoyed seeing them get so high that they lost control.
There is more on this story at the Los Angeles Times.
Journalist & daughter of former Tory MP tweets then deletes
(im)modest proposal
29 Jul, 2021 18:21
After proposing the creation of “entry-level porn” for teens, British journalist Flora Gill deleted her tweets and asked that they be forgotten. As the daughter of former Tory MP Amber Rudd found out, Twitter isn’t very forgiving.
“Hear me out,” Gill tweeted on Thursday, proposing that “Someone needs to create porn for children.” Teenagers are already watching pornography, she argued, but all they see are hardcore, “aggressive videos that give a terrible view of sex,” so they “need entry-level porn!”
In her view, this would look like a “softcore site where everyone asks for consent and no one gets choked,” and so on.
The take was so nuclear – or would that be toxic? – that Gill found herself trending and quickly deleted both the original post and the clarification that she was referring to teens when she said “children.”
“One of the most vile things I’ve read on here,” commented Breitbart UK journalist Chris Tomlinson in response. “Utterly evil.”
Gill also made it on the notorious ‘List’ of people who should get their phones taken away, humorously maintained by US journalist Siraj Hashmi.
Faced with the backlash, Gill said she deleted the tweets so she wouldn’t get “swept up into another twitter cesspool,” adding that her proposal was “Obviously not an actual solution,” to a “real problem.”
That wasn’t going to help make her “stupid” tweet about pornography for children get forgotten, another writer replied.
A lot of the reactions brought up nepotism, as Gill is the daughter of Amber Rudd, a longtime Conservative member of parliament, best remembered as Home Secretary in Theresa May’s cabinet.
Rudd resigned as MP and surrendered the party whip after a debacle between Tory MPs over whether to lean towards a ‘no-deal’ Brexit.
Gill’s Twitter biography lists pronouns and bylines in outlets like GQ, The Sunday Times Magazine, Evening Standard, and a podcast on Radio Times, among other things.
A pinned link leads to a Times article about nudism from May, while a tweet from June features a photo of her brother with a phallic-themed cake.
Good grief!
Prince Charles' ex-aide denies introducing Jeffrey Epstein victim
to paedophile
Eileen Guggenheim, pictured left, and Brooke Shields (Image: Getty)
EXCLUSIVE: Former Prince’s Foundation vice-chair Eileen Guggenheim, now dean of the New York Academy of Arts, is alleged by a former student to have introduced her to Epstein, who later abused her
By Christopher Bucktin, United States Editor
Chris White, 14:43, 26 Aug 2020
A former aide to Prince Charles has denied claims by a victim of Jeffrey Epstein that she introduced her to the billionaire paedophile.
Former Prince’s Foundation vice-chair Eileen Guggenheim, now dean of the New York Academy of Arts, is claimed by a former student to have introduced her to Epstein, who later abused her.
Lawyers for Guggenheim have vehemently denied the accusations.
Maria Farmer, 50, alleges she flew to his New Mexico ranch in 1995 for a study trip where she was encouraged to flirt with him as he was a big NYAA donor.
She claims she and her younger sister, Annie, were later abused by him and his alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell.
A report by the NYAA insists Guggenheim, 69, played “no role” in introducing the Farmers to Epstein, concluding there was “no evidence to credibly support” her claims.
Maria Farmer alleges she flew to Epstein's New Mexico ranch in 1995 for a study trip where she was encouraged to flirt ( Image: CBS/YouTube)
Another student who went to Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe in 1995 said the young women were pressured to play games that involved “sexual objects” with Epstein and Maxwell. Guggenheim denied being present.
Three ex-students confirmed the meeting, one calling it the “weirdest dinner party I’ve ever been to”. Guggenheim had denied ever being in the ranch.
When Farmer, Ursula Ruedenberg, and one other went public with their claims, Guggenheim said she saw the property under construction but “did not visit any home there or have a meal there”.
Her lawyers said: “Ms Farmer’s claims with regard to the ranch are inconsistent and have changed over time.
“Ms Guggenheim’s visit was very brief; she took a tour of the grounds with the former students and left shortly thereafter. That explains her initial failure to recollect having ever travelled to the ranch.
Sounds like Guggenheim's claims have changed over time.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell ( Image: Getty)
“It was only after seeing a photograph which depicted Ms Guggenheim, Ms Farmer, and three former students during the daylight... on the grounds, that she recalled her brief visit.
She does not recall being inside any building on the property, anything out of the ordinary occurring, nor any of the students reporting an incident to her.
“Ms Farmer has said she found her visit unsettling, which she has attributed to the presence of Epstein and Maxwell.
Notwithstanding her explanations long after the event, in the context of how events transpired, she subsequently accepted a job with Epstein.”
Guggenheim said: “Had any student expressed to me their personal discomfort over actions by Mr Epstein I would have immediately addressed the situation and offered my support. At that time neither I nor anyone at the NYAA had any knowledge of Mr Epstein’s predatory behaviour.”
Farmer claims Guggenheim “asked me to sit on his lap and flirt with him... ‘Do it for the academy, Maria’.”
Guggenheim’s lawyers said: “The allegation Ms Guggenheim encouraged Ms Farmer to flirt and sit on Epstein’s knee is categorically denied and completely baseless."
Bill Clinton and Eileen Guggenheim ( Image: Getty)
Zorro Ranch, one of the properties of financier and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein ( Image: Reuters)
In a report commissioned by the NYAA, lawyer Jim Walden – who was previously the Academy and Guggenheim’s personal lawyer – found there was no evidence linking Guggenheim to any of Epstein’s abuse.
No chance of any bias there!!!
The report said: “It is difficult to give any credence to Farmer’s claim that Guggenheim was in any way responsible for Annie Farmer’s meeting of Epstein or her sexual abuse by Epstein and Maxwell.”
Several NYAA board members quit over the response.
An open letter signed by nearly 100 students and alumni last month slammed its “victim-blaming rhetoric” and a “focus on discrediting Farmer’s testimony rather than delving into Epstein’s involvement with the NYAA board, financial ties to the school or his relationship to Guggenheim”.
The Academy’s executive committee apologised to Farmer and vowed to give £22,650 to a charity for victims of sexual assault.
The board said: “Some conclusions in the report blamed Ms Farmer, and we regret they were included.”
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