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Man who survived 2 drug overdoses sues Ed Buck
Los Angeles Sep 13, 2021
|Photo courtesy of █ Slices of Light ✴ █▀ ▀ ▀ (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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A man who survived two overdoses from drugs allegedly supplied by Ed Buck is suing the former Democratic donor, who was convicted in July of the overdose deaths of two other Black men in his West Hollywood apartment.
Dane Brown’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges sexual battery, assault, hate violence, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and human trafficking. Brown, acting as his own attorney, seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages in the suit brought Friday.
Christopher Darden, an attorney who represented Buck during the criminal case, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Brown and Buck met on the Adam4Adam website in June 2019 and for the next two months Buck often sent a ride-hailing vehicle to a hotel in Skid Row where the plaintiff then lived to bring him to Buck’s residence, the suit states.
After arriving at Buck’s apartment for the first visit, the two engaged in sex and Buck provided methamphetamine to Brown to smoke and to use intravenously, the suit states. Buck continued to provide the drug to Brown as he stayed in Buck’s apartment from July through September 2019, the suit states.
Buck, who sought out Brown because he is Black and gay, also forced him to watch pornography, the suit states.
Buck intravenously injected methamphetamine into Brown on Sept. 4, 2019, and again a week later, causing Brown to overdose both times and have to be hospitalized on each occasion, the suit states.
During the second incident, Buck also gave Brown the “date rape” drug gamma hydroxybutyrate, also known as GHB, the suit alleges. Buck refused to call an ambulance, so Brown walked across the street to a service station, where an employee and a passerby called 911 on his behalf, according to the suit.
Brown survived both overdoses and testified against Buck during a trial in U.S. District Court, where on July 27 a jury found Buck guilty of committing all nine crimes for which he was charged, including two counts of violating distribution of methamphetamine resulting in death.
Buck once was a candidate for a seat on the West Hollywood City Council. He donated more than $500,000 to political candidates and causes, most of them associated with the Democratic Party.
