West Hollywood, CA — The family and friends of Gemmel Moore, 26, are fighting an uphill battle to bring the man they say is responsible for his death to justice. Not surprisingly, the fact that Moore, who worked as a male escort, was found dead at the home of 63-year-old Ed Buck—who's donated hundreds of thousands to Hillary Clinton—has received very little media coverage.
On July 27, Moore's body was discovered inside the West Hollywood apartment of Ed Buck. Buck is a well connected and extremely wealthy political activist who gives massive amounts of money to the Democratic party. His influence is vast as he's given hundreds of thousands to a slew of powerful Democrats including Clinton, Barack Obama, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey and a variety of state and local organizations in California—which likely explains the reason he's yet to be charged with any crime.
According to a Los Angeles County coroner's report, police and paramedics found Moore naked on a mattress in Buck's living room with a "male pornography movie playing on the television." A spokesman for the coroner's office, Ed Winter, said Buck was inside his Laurel Avenue home at the time of Moore's death and that drug paraphernalia was recovered from the scene.
Police found sex toys, syringes and "clear plastic bags with suspected methamphetamine in a toolbox roll-cabinet in the living room," 24 syringes with brown residue, five glass pipes with white residue and burn marks, a plastic straw with possible white residue, clear plastic bags with white powdery residue and a clear plastic bag with a "piece of crystal-like substance."
Even if we ignore the fact that there was a dead prostitute in his bed, the drugs found on the scene alone should've been enough to warrant charges as the multiple plastic bags would land anyone else with not only possession charges but intent to distribute. But there have been none.
According to FOX, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office initially ruled the death an accidental methamphetamine overdose. But the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office Homicide Bureau on Aug. 14 announced they would investigate if there is any criminal culpability, after Moore’s family and friends disputed the initial finding.
The Sheriff's office has told the family that they should have the investigation wrapped up soon. However, they say they are having trouble interviewing witnesses.
“We should have all the information, so we can make a good evaluation of everything that transpired to see if there’s any criminal culpability,” Lt. Joe Mendoza, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office homicide bureau, told Fox News.
While it is entirely possible that Moore was simply staying at Buck's house as a 'friend' and accidentally overdosed while there, the following information paints a far more ominous picture.
One of the witnesses interviewed by police said Moore told her that someone whose name is conveniently redacted tied him up “over a year ago” and “held him against his will at the residence in West Hollywood.”
But that's not all. Moore also kept a journal in which he described in graphic detail how Buck forced him to do meth and got him addicted.
“I honestly don’t know what to do. I’ve become addicted to drugs and the worst one at that,” Moore's journal reads. “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…”
Moore also seemed to think that Buck was trying to kill him which is why he wrote the following sentence in his journal.
“If it didn’t hurt so bad, I’d kill myself, but I’ll let Ed Buck do it for now.”
The damning information against Buck, however, according to his attorney amounts to nothing.
"There’s nothing there. As we always stated, this was an accidental overdose that Ed Buck had nothing to do with and it’s a tragedy," Buck's attorney, Seymour Amster, told Fox News. "The coroner has not changed his opinion from an accidental death. Until that happens, and that’s not going to happen, we’re done."
However, on top of the fact that there is documented evidence of heavy drug use at his residence, illegal prostitution, witness accounts of kidnapping, and Moore predicting Ed Buck would kill him, other witnesses have come forward noting that Buck has a history of doing this to young black men.
As FOX reports, according to Jasmyne Cannick, an advocate for Moore’s family, a number of other gay black men have claimed Buck would invite them to his house, then pay them several hundred dollars to take drugs.
The website has even posted evidence showing that Buck is apparently still out recruiting young black men to bring them to his home and give them drugs.
The family of Moore has set up a website at which former victims of Buck can submit their stories in hopes of getting justice. Whether or not this well-connected millionaire democratic donor will ever be brought to justice, however, remains up in the air.
As for Moore's mother, she remains resolute in her mission which she says is “Getting Ed Buck off the streets and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for preying on and taking advantage of my son and others like him."