Gemmel & Tim: The Ed Buck Tragedy | True Crime Documentary

Gemmel & Tim: The Ed Buck Tragedy | True Crime Documentary

(mellow piano music) (people cheer) – [Man] Welcome to West Hollywood
where the women are strong and the men are pretty. – [Man] For this area of West
Hollywood has become the Mecca in the homosexual community. And one of the reasons gay men give for having come here is that
they feel more comfortable. (somber piano music) – [Reporter] Two African-American gay men took their last breaths
in the West Hollywood home of a wealthy Democratic donor. – [Reporter] Ed Buck is
well-known in West Hollywood battling city hall for causes
near and dear to his heart and spending big bucks on
candidates who support his views. – [Reporter] Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean have both died of overdoses
in Buck’s West Hollywood apartment in the last couple of years. – [Reporter] The LA County
Sheriff’s Department says they have found no
suspicious circumstances of foul play. – [LaTisha] We have a lot of
victims who have came forward. ED Buck needs to be stopped. – [Reporter] A loud
call for DA Jackie Lacey to prosecute Buck for murder. (somber piano music) – [Sammy] It’s your cake. Put the damn candles out. – You can come water-
– What are you gonna do? You’re not gonna pour a
cup of water on that cake. What is going on? – Gemmel was a 26 year old young son, brother, friend, trying
to maneuver through life. – After Gemmel was gone,
I didn’t at all think that it was going to be swept
under the rug like that. It was a surreal realization
of how invaluable my life as a black gay man was. – We are his extended family. My love for Gemmel will be endless, and we do wanna make sure
that this never happens again. (somber piano music) – [Danny] Oh, look at me, look at me. I got to get two. – Danny, this was a great meet. – One thing about Tim, he
would step up to the plate when needed. You can call and tell him what you need. A, B, C, D, E, and he’d
follow it to the note. – He was always looking out for people. Tim was a really special
guy, and I really didn’t get to see the 360 view of
him until he passed. – Gemmel and Timothy
had never crossed paths with each other coming together. When you realize how many lives those two individuals
touched and had their life not being as precious as
it was to so many people. We probably wouldn’t be here. (somber music) (melancholic music) – Gemmel and I met when
we both were coming out to explore our gay side and
interact with the gay community. We were both kind of standoffish and that’s kinda how us two
were attracted to each other ‘cause when we would be at events and we both we just kinda
holding the wall up. (people murmur) – He was always like very
mischievous and quiet. – He liked to be in new places
and be where nobody knew him and, you know, be the
boy that was mysterious. He didn’t talk very much and you know, he just kind of give a little bit, give a little bit here
and a little bit there and maybe do a little bit something crazy and then just disappear. He loved doing that. (people cheer) (gentle electronic music) We were part of the house
and ballroom community, which is a sub community
within the LGBT community. (people cheer and clap) – The ballroom is
basically like a pageant. You have different categories. You pick members that are pretty much the best at each category and they compete against each other. – [Gemmel’s House Father] It’s
like a fraternity, but gay. Being black and coming to West Hollywood when you’re not accepted,
they kind of look out for you. – Ballroom and house
community started way back during Stonewall. Being gay was basically illegal. A lot of gays were
ousted by their families and thrown to the streets. They came together in different groups and it was actually a house. – [Gemmel’s House
Father] What a gay family or gay ballroom family would do, we would take you in so you
wouldn’t be on the street. (upbeat music) – I was Gemmel’s gay house mother. Usually we would drink and as we say, Kiki and carry and hang out. He carried a liking for my aesthetic, the fact that I was always
polished and put together. He’s one boy that I
knew that honestly took about the same time to get ready as me. At one point we kind of
like all live together. I had an apartment, I
just never went home. You know, and I think that was just because we were kind of
like all just in love with each other and loving the
fact that our chosen family was just kind of like together and stuck together all the time. Gemmel was a home body. He’s actually really, really funny. Juelz was his alter ego, quiet, and he talked with like a real deep voice. – Often within the house
and ballroom community individuals give their self
aliases, our other names. I think personally it came
from trying to keep your life separate, your gay life
within the community separate from your actual life and your family. – [Sammy] Gemmel walked to school boy and he walked pretty boy too. Looked really young and didn’t look like he was gay or anything, just
looked like a normal person. – [Gemmel’s House Father] He was trying to keep his masculinity,
that was a big thing for him. – Don’t ever put my real name on no cake. I don’t want anybody to know my shit. – He will be like bro,
don’t call me Gemmel. Like don’t call me that. In the community he was Juelz
and nobody really knew Gemmel. – [Sammy] Gemmel is the oldest of his brothers and sisters and they all looked up to him. – [Jerome] Gemmel took the
role of being a big brother very serious, but not
only being a big brother, being a support to his mom. And his mother’s a single mother. – [LaTisha] Gemmel was a jokester. He loved to cook. He was nurturing, he was loving. He was my bookee. I called him bookee. Gemmel came out to me at
17, he was 17 years old. He left home and I didn’t
know what was going on. He called me and he goes, mom,
I got something to tell you. “I’m gay.” And I said, I already knew. Okay, and what’s next? And we all have skeleton. I don’t judge anyone. – [Sammy] She didn’t
really know his life here. He was very compartmentalized
and very, very private. Even his closest friends, he kept his relationships separate. (somber music) – Tim growing up, we had
a lot of similar stories. The laughter, the music, the family. Tim mother, they had a lot of kids. They didn’t have the structure monetarily to be able to raise Tim. So they gave up Tim to some family friends that lived across the street. It was done out of love
but when you’re a child that’s not the first thing you think of when you find out something like that. Growing up black and gay
and having to suppress that ‘cause he was a super athlete. I’ve talked to his family
and they’ve told me, Tim always had greater
ambitions for himself and they knew that he
wasn’t gonna last there. Through high school in
his head he always like, where could I go and just recreate myself. TMD come out to LA and
just be somebody like that. (mellow music) ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ Happy birthday ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ – Tim’s birthday in March of 2016, a couple of players were there and I said we need to go to Paris and we needed to play. I said you, and he goes,
I’m down, I’m down. (whimsical music) – We’re heading into the
opening ceremonies right now. So I’m about to flip you around. (people cheer) – The gay games in ’94 was
my very first tournament and I was shocked ‘cause I
had never been to a gay pride, I had never been to a gay tournament or any kind of gay event. – One, two, three.
– Rock Dogs! – I got ball out. – [Mark] Tim, he came and
he played his butt off. (men shout) – Okay, let me just tell
you what his nickname was. TMD, too much drama. That was his name on the court. (players mumble) – (grunts) Right here, Tim. Nobody’s…(chuckles) – It was about basketball. But if you can really quickly a lot more. I mean, we just had so much in common. He loved fashion and he loved home decor. Tim would travel with candles, fabrics, and him and Walter were
the foo foo masters. – We’d make it look like our apartment. We’d bring books and stuff and flowers and then everybody would
always come to our room and it was just a lot, a lot of fun. – Tim and Walter played on the LA Heat. They would put a boombox
in the middle of the court. It looked like “The
Hoosiers” or something. – They were a train wreck for a long time. (chuckles) They truly were. – I don’t care what they say,
we might’ve been that good, but we were LA. Okay. So when LA come to town, LA gonna show out and our team was very good
looking too, by the way. So everybody wanted to be
like us, you know what I mean, with our style, but it couldn’t
be LA, you know. (chuckles) Even though I thought,
oh, you know, you know, I know everything. I didn’t know everything. I knew what he wanted me to, what he felt comfortable sharing with me. – He needed to fill needs with
different people, you know, and he kind of kept those
people in different boxes. You know, he had Walter and I. He had his work friends. He had a hiking group. (somber music) – Coming to Runyon, you know, five times, six times a week to go hiking, we would come at 5:30 in the morning. I’d go pick him up and
it was about the sunrise and just talking about
just this whole Cuisinart, you never knew which, what
the conversation was gonna be. Talking about boys, just
talking about dating and relationships, just
talking about school and goals. We both had struggled
with certain chemicals and partying and with
Tim, it was just about how we would support each other in that. – You know, a lot of times
Tim would get depressed. He would see the outside world. People seem to have so
much and it comes so easy and he was always going, why is everything so difficult for me? – He was going to school
and he had, he worked. He lived paycheck to paycheck. He was on his own. – Gemmel always talked about like, oh, I’m getting back into school. I’m getting back into work. And that, around that time he
was not doing good in life. He lost his job. Life situations happened. And he did not wanna really
communicate that to anybody because he was very big
on how people saw him. – [Gemmel’s House Father] He saw my life and he knew I was an escort. He asked me about it and I kinda shunned from him ‘cause I know the problems that came along with it. And so, to me being a parent, you don’t want your kids to go
through what you went through so you try to like push it away. But sometimes pushing
it way we’ll make them go straight for that and
that’s exactly what he did. (somber music) – I knew he was escorting. I ensured him to be safe and
cautious and protect himself. Being a black man in this
day and age, you are already, you know, at odds so be smart about it. And I felt like he was being
cautious for quite a while. I didn’t know Ed Buck personally. I did know that it was as a client. – He told me about when
you first started meeting with Ed Buck. Gemmel said he had hit him
up numerous times online, but he never responded. But a friend brought him there. Gemmel was like, oh, you know, you wanna come make like $600. You don’t have to do nothing. You just have to hang out and you know, talk to this guy and for an hour or so and he’s gonna pay. (suspenseful music) – [Reporter] Let’s start at
the beginning, who is Ed Buck? Buck was a well-known activist. Originally from Arizona,
he reportedly made around a million dollars
selling a courier company. – [Reporter] Ed Buck, a
Conservative Republican started the Mecham recall campaign. Buck is also a homosexual. – I mean, there may be widespread disgust with homosexuality in Arizona, but the disgust for Evan
Mecham is even stronger. – Black used to, first it was to be, they called them colored
and then they wanted to be called Negroes and now
they wanna be called blacks. And I call them whatever
they wanna be called. (suspenseful music) – [Jerome] Ed Buck
championed for MLK’s birthday because politically and
socially it looked good to be doing that. (suspenseful music) I believe that Ed Buck
created a mirror person for the public and for the world to see. – [Sammy] When you came out as being gay, he got a lot of slack from
his own Republican party and he switched parties
and became a Democrat. – [Reporter] Buck moved to West Hollywood back in the early 90s. He was a regular donor to a
variety of political campaigns, advocated for LGBTQ issues and once ran for West Hollywood City Council. – [Woman] Ed Buck, volunteer coordinator for the California Healthy
Pets Act and the animal rescue. – Getting rid of fur in
the city of West Hollywood was had big, you know coup for him. – [Reporter] West Hollywood, California is the nation’s first fur free city. – You know, I having been a resident of West Hollywood for a long time and I will tell you that I’m
so proud of my city right now. – [Jerome] He’s well-known
in West Hollywood. He was the vice president
of like the Stonewall, Democratic club. – I met Tim through. They had known each other
for quite a long time, at least 10 years. He worked on a couple of campaigns, pronounced signs, calling. Ed Buck, well he knew powerful people. So Tim attached himself
a little bit to that. That was something that’s
very attractive to him. I would see him out at the gym. But I always tell him, I
said, I don’t know Tim. I said, I don’t know something about him. I don’t know how to explain it, but he just rubbed me the wrong way that I just knew this was not somebody that I was ever going to be friends wet. – Gemmel, he didn’t think that there was gonna be any foul play
initially, you know. As time went Ed begin
to push the boundaries and ask me more and more and more of him and in turn offer more
and more and more money. Around that time when he first met Ed, that was when he first got
introduced to shooting up meth. Can you put these underwear
on and just model these underwear for me? And then it began to be more
degrading and more degrading. What he got off on sexually,
was testing the limits. I mean, literally what he said
as he would shoot them up, your African blood can take it. You know, your nigger blood can take it. – If you wanna call us
something that is the last term that a lot of our ancestors
heard before they died for your sexual gratification, that lets me know your
mental state right there. That also lets me know
how vulnerable Gemmel was. Around that time, I was battling the, I was battling an addiction
that nobody else knew about. I had got severely depressed. My grandmother had died. I was around the wrong people. I started doing coke which
is very big in our community. And that’s some of my biggest regrets ‘cause I think that we both could have helped each other out. I feel that maybe if I would
have been able to be candid and transparent with
what I was going through, he would have felt comfortable enough or okay enough to tell me
what he was going through. – It’s really, really difficult to know that he was doing it
because he looked at me and was like, okay, well,
you know, you’re doing it and you’re okay. And you know, but everything
affects people differently. – I’ve genuinely been noticing the rapid rate of crystal meth and how it’s affecting our community, especially in West
Hollywood on Santa Monica. And it’s just so tragic
to see the kids roaming in the daytime. (somber music) – Crystal meth is really dangerous. And it’s not just any drug. It’s a drug that really
attacks your nervous system and your physical and your
mental state of being. – [Gemmel’s House Father]
When I take meth helps me get into a sexual character, things that I will probably never say or do or allow to happen, I can
give a performance of my life. – [Sammy] At first it’s
that Superman feeling and you feel invincible. But then your body
becomes dependent on it. You need it just to get out of bed. – It amplified fear,
paranoia, shame, regret. It is so strong that diction of it. And even when I say it like
the movie like the movie “It” like that clown would sit in
the sewer and lure you in. Crystal meth destroys you. (somber music) I believe that it is true
when you are vulnerable and especially a lot of us men, we don’t like being vulnerable. People sniff you out. (somber music) The only time that Tim and I
actually had a conversation about Ed Buck, I’ll never forget. He looked right at me and he said, don’t you take your ass over there. And I said, I’m not going over there. And then you know, kinda
snickered ‘cause he’s like shit, I ain’t going over there. And Tim’s phone, it was all these messages that he never responded to. He went like this, look. I’m not going over there. When somebody can go
like this on their iPhone and it swipe and it rolls
like the prices right wheel. He’s like, look, I aint
trying to end up dead. – Gemmel and I, you know,
we started falling out. – He started getting skinny. He stopped coming around as much. And it was just kinda like, (mumbles). This is not Gemmel. – I didn’t sugarcoat anything with him. I let his ass have it. It was like, bitch you need to fucking get your shit together. Like this is disgusting
and it’s ridiculous. And I will be a part of your life you know, if you want me to be here. But I can’t be a part of
what you’re doing right now, you know, to yourself, like I can’t, I can’t watch you go through this. I took his keys and I told
him that he can not stay here. That’s when he’s like to
me to go stay with Ed Buck. – I can’t, I can’t. Sorry. (sobs) – Gemmel stated, “I pray that
I just get my life together and make sense. I help so many people, but
can’t seem to help myself. I honestly don’t know what to do. I become addicted to drugs
and the worst one at that. Ed Buck is the one to thank. (sobs) He gave me my first injection
of crystal sick meth. It was very painful, but
after all the troubles, I became addicted to the pain
in the fetish and fantasy.” I feel like I’m reading my own story, ‘cause this is what I was going through. – [Gemmel’s House Father]
“But slowly my brain, my mind and actions change. I am not the same person I was born to be. I felt as if I sold my soul to the devil.” Oh god… “I want to be back in God’s hands.” – [Sammy] “I want to be healed from drugs, poverty, and troubles.” – “I just hope the end
result isn’t my death. Someone needs to save me soon. The only person in my corner is the person who turned me this way I feel right now.” – [Gemmel’s House Father]
“I honestly don’t care to live this life anymore. I don’t wanna die. I feel like I’ve done way too much that this lifetime allows.” – “If it didn’t hurt so
bad, I’d kill myself.” – “But I let Ed Buck do it for now. I miss my grandma.” – I was talking to his mom. She was like, where is he? Like, he’s not talking to me like Sammy, like what’s going on? You know? And I just straight up told her, you know, he’s fucking addicted to drugs. So she came down here. She just got to spend time with him. And he just got to spend time with her and be his mom’s baby. – [Gia] Life had beat him up. He went home to be with his
mom and his grandma’s there. He loves her. And I’m like, oh, he’s with his family. I just felt like he was in a better place. – [Sammy] One of the most shocking things I found out about meth is
like if you take a drug addict and every day, this drug addict shot up underneath the train
and the train passing, the train passing; they
can be clean for years and years and years. Just the memory of a train passing, literally their body will
release those endorphins. and you will instantly feel that high. Although Gemmel had been
sober and clean for a while, he had gotten any of
the tools to understand like what this had done to his mind. (somber music) – The weekend of July 27th, I woke up at like the early in the morning. My partner was in the
bed looking on his phone. And he said, have you talked to anybody? And I said, no, why? And he said, I think Gemmel is dead. And I’m like, what? Get outta here. We started checking social media. I started reaching out
to some of my friends and right away, I thought
about Gemmel’s mom ‘cause I knew how much he loved his mom. And I knew how much she loved him. So I hurried up and sent her a message and she responded that she loved me and that’s what was my
confirmation that, yeah. – [Gemmel’s House Father] When he died, I didn’t know that they
were talking about my Juelz. I thought they were talking
about some guy named Gemmel who I didn’t know who he was. – I just, I didn’t even know he was here. Yeah, I didn’t even know he was here. – I knew it was true and I
just didn’t know what happened. There was like a thousand stories. – I didn’t know about Ed
Buck paying for the flight or Ed Buck being involved at all. – My name is LaTisha Nixon. I’m Gemmel Moore’s mom. I’m calling out the West
Hollywood Sheriff’s Department to please launch a thorough investigation into the supposedly
accidental death of my son. I’m wondering why wasn’t
Ed Buck held accountable for the California Drug
Dealer Liability Act. (sirens wail) (suspenseful music) – There was a 911 call that
somebody was in distress, 911 arrived and that person was deceased. And 911 decided to just take
that body out of the home and go on as business as usual. (suspenseful music) – The sheer quantity of drugs, I mean, everywhere, like a shrine. – Had one sheriff that
night did their full job and picked up that backpack, opened that backpack and
just looked at the first page of his journal. You didn’t have to look through it. You didn’t even have to
open it because it’s already open to that page. (somber music) – [Reporter] Nixon said
she was flabbergasted when she saw the surveillance
images Fox 11 obtained exclusively from Buck’s apartment building the night her son was found dead. They allegedly show
another young man trying to get up to Bucks
apartment while deputies were still on scene
before he’s shooed away. – So when they were taking
Gemmel’s body out of the house, the police was forcing the
next victim to not come in. And to me, that might, if that I, to me, the police should have question that. – Thank God, for the apartment manager ‘cause he put out the video, showing the police standing
there talking with Ed Buck for hours. He was never put in
handcuffs, nothing was done. – I’m calling on the leaders. I’m calling on anybody who will listen. You know, it seems like
everyone’s turning a blind eye because my son was a gay black man. – This fight, I didn’t
think it was worth it ‘cause as a gay black
man, I had already felt that nobody cared about what was going on. – Disturbing story out of California. Joining us from Skype is
Los Angeles journalist Jasmyne Cannick. Jasmyne, are you concerned at
how police are investigating what took place at this home of Ed Buck? – We’re all concerned because you know, as I’ve been telling
people only a white man could have a dead black body in his house and explain you the way to the police, have them say, okay, nothing to see here, pack it up, let’s take
the body and move along. – Jasmyne Cannick.
– Jasmyne Cannick. – Jasmyne Cannick. – Jasmyne Cannick,
journalist and activist. – [Reporter] Social and
political commentator, Jasmyne Cannick. – [Reporter] From Los
Angeles, Jasmyne Cannick. a syndicated columnist and a lesbian. – Jasmyne grew up as a black lesbian woman in a time when West
Hollywood was just racist. – It’s an American, I’m also a lesbian. And quite frankly, the
campaign against propositioning was poorly run. – Black LGBT people had
to create their own clubs in undesirable areas, in warehouses. That’s how Black Pride came about because we could not go party out there. And she grew up in the trenches of that and she understood what
it was to have to fight through those hurdles and
fight through those barriers. And now she looks at our generation and she wants to make
sure that we have somebody that’s gonna teach us how to
push through these barriers. – If the roles had been reversed and Ed Buck had died and Gemmel had lived, Gemmel would have been in jail. – She was able to get the
point across, you know, and I think that’s where
she were very instrumental because to me, she went out there, she did the interviews and
she kept the word out there about this injustice. – You have to get in these
the elected officials faces and you have to make them
uncomfortable in their spaces. Okay? – If they don’t care, make them care. That’s just been her
attitude from day one. And after that we said
that we wasn’t gonna let this go away. So Jasmyne started telling the story and I started doing the street work. How do you move on without your son? I started organizing and I
started getting folks together. I started making noise in
rooms that they didn’t want noise to be made in. No black question… We were was harassing Ed Buck. That’s Ed Buck right there. Excuse me, you’re his neighbor. You know this man is a sexual deviant. Ed Buck you are a sexual predator. Gemmel Moore’s live matters! Anything to make people listen. And people started listening. – When deputies got there,
it appeared that he was, had died of an overdose. The coroner’s office additionally stated that it was deemed as an overdose. So in an abundance of
caution, Homicide Bureau is doing a further investigation on it. As far as suspects, as
far as who is involved, that part, I don’t know. – [Reporter] So the only
thing that’s changed is the attention that this case is getting toward this further investigation? – Yes. (somber music) – When Gemmel died, Timothy
explained a lot up here on the hill where we would hike about his involvement through the years. The temptation of all the
money that he would offer just to go and get high with him. He was trying to distance
himself from those situations. – We had many conversations about it. He felt like he could handle himself and whatever crazy situation went down. But the young man he felt
was taken advantage of. He said Walter, Ed Buck is the devil. – He thought he was the devil. – A monster. – He’s going to hell, Walter. But to the police, nah, I said something. He was never gonna do that. We scared of the police. We don’t want to be, they might think we’re coming in for the
wrong damn reason okay? We’re not going to the police. – When do we want it?
– Now! – What do want?
– Justice! – When do we want it?
– Now! – We would love to see an investigation. And once that investigation is concluded, we would love to see justice brought. – Ed Buck was in a lot of trouble. He was being brought to the City Council at West Hollywood and his
behavior was being questioned. And so Ed was calling
Tim to vouch for him. And I’m like, girl, you can’t, you can’t. This is wrong what he’s asking you. – Ed Buck is a harmful
threat to our community, to black men and he needs
to be brought to justice. There’s nothing stopping
you with those allegations for asking for a federal investigation. If Jackie Lacey doesn’t wanna
deal with it and talk about, go to a federal prosecutor. They’re right there, Hall of Justice, you ain’t got to take a far trip. I’ll pay your gas money. Thank you. – We have a lot of victims
who have came forward. We have more information, but we need immunity for these people because some of the
charges by them testifying they can be felonies. I’m asking for justice for my son, regardless to the fact of
whatever he did or you know, the meth or whatever, he still was my son, he still was a person. You know, that’s all I’m asking for. – [Man] Thank you very much. And thank you for coming tonight. (audience claps) – I’m sorry. I wasn’t gonna speak on this tonight, but I have to now add something being a criminal defense lawyer. Before anybody speaks to
the Sheriff’s Department, you need to be aware that
the Sheriff’s Department does not grant immunity. The West Hollywood City Council
does not grant immunity. The only agency that grants immunity to a witness is the
district attorney’s office. – The former Mayor John Duran
was Ed Buck’s personal lawyer and he used the City Council chambers, the seat that we pay for to
basically threaten witnesses, tell them be careful, don’t go and telling the police nothing ‘cause
you can go to jail. – Our Homicide Bureau is
investigating this case thoroughly, but however, they can’t move forward without witnesses coming forward and giving them information. – [John Duran] Before you
do anything, transparency doesn’t always work with
the criminal justice system. Transparency can subject
you to criminal arrest and prosecution. – [Reporter] Ed Buck’s
attorney tells NBC 4 tonight, “The public has got to
stop buying into this and demand evidence. If you’ve got something,
bring it forward.” – I’ve been to these, you know drug houses, flop
houses, what trap houses, looking for victims of Ed Buck and so many of them are out there. You have no idea how many
boys are scared of this man. When Jasmyne first spoke with me I told her that I could get the full story and I can find other people. I know that he’s done
this to other people. (somber music) – [Jerome] Ed Buck has a lot of victims. I cannot even tell you how
many people we’ve talked to about their interactions with Ed Buck. – Just photos, video,
people taking pictures of all his stuff. I mean, it’s all there to see. (TV blares)
(suspenseful music) – [Blake] So you can’t send me an Uber? – [Ed] No, actually. I was thinking you spend
two hours to get here. – [Blake] You said, “Do another point.” You didn’t say that? No? You didn’t say that? You made the point so you didn’t say that? – [Ed] No. – [Blake] Honestly, be
honest with me please. You didn’t say, let’s do another point? No. Yeah, you wanna see it? (suspenseful music) – I’ve had to do so much. I had to make a fake profile
on one of the dating websites so I can track him. I mean, these are the things
you go through, right, you know when you’re really, you know, I. You know, I feel like I
need to be on the payroll at the Sheriff’s Department. (suspenseful music) – I liked N words. I like party and play. Party and play it’s a term to use drugs. No other, we’re not going to
party and play on the swings. No, party and play is a term,
underground term for drug. And we reported some of his pages. Those pages are still up
and standing to this day. – [Jasmyne] We are waiting
for the Sheriff’s Department to build a case that the DA’s
office can move forward on. So we’re in this holding pattern. (suspenseful music) – Ed buck was weird as
hell, to tell you the truth. Well, first of all,
he’s used to be so high and stoned out that he
was just throwing money. He was throwing money left and right. He was like, here, get this or do this. And it was easy money at the time. It was like, okay, do
I need any pocket money to rent a car or whatever
I needed to do at the time. And it was just me
running an errand for him. Like, go get this or pick
up some and that was that, you know. – When I first met him, I didn’t get high. I wasn’t dibbling and dabbling
in that drug at that time. But then the second time I came back, is when the first time
I got high off of meth. The day I went there, it
was like a couple of days after my birthday. I was broke, completely
broke, sad and depressed. So he hit me up like randomly
and it was like right on time. So I said I’ll come over. And he was like, yeah, are
you gonna get high this time? And I said, yeah, of course
I’m gonna get high this time. Like it’s whatever you want. Like, I’ll do whatever you
need me to do right now because I need this money. I went there on a mission so I knew what I was doing before I got into it. I thought I did. (suspenseful music) The first time I walked into the apartment I thought I was walking into a maze. Long dark hallway, neon lights. As soon as you close the
door right behind the door, it’s like flames on the side,
popping up right at you. It’s like 3D or something. There’s a big TV, probably
about 10 foot in height and mirrors shadowing over you. And they’re like all over the wall. There were three or
four crates that he had with like different types of
jock straps, underwear, thongs. – [Witness] Piles and piles of underwear. I mean, like 200-300 pairs of underwear. And it was also a fog machine. – [Witness] There was a red toolbox that he kept his drug paraphernalia. He had Viagra, CLS, needles, meth, coke… – [Witness] Whips, dildos, they had all kinds of weird shit in it. And he kept it in a closet. And the closet, you
didn’t know it was there. It was a hidden behind a curtain. The curtain that would look like flames. I guess he kind of went
to remind you of hell. – He looks like the devil. Like he starts to look like evil once you look at him for so long. He asked, did I want to do some F now? And I’m like, yeah, I’ll do it. He blew it in my mouth,
he just kept on blowing and blowing and blowing. He wanted me to get higher and higher. I was high and I wasn’t
trying to let it get to me, but it was kinda getting to me. (suspenseful music) He asked me that I want
to shot like in my penis to get my dick, for my dick to stay hard because I did so much cocaine and the meth it’s like, I guess it’s
not interacting right or reacting right on me, so he shot me. He wanted me to come in the room and I wasn’t trying to come
in the room and do my drugs. And he was mad at me
because I wasn’t trying to do what he wanted me to do, I guess. He kicked me out, I left. And I come back home, the
next morning I wake up, my dick is hard as rock. Had to get surgery. They had to scrape the
blood because it was dry. One of the worst feeling in my
life, worst pain in my life. After me going to the hospital, I haven’t seen him ever again. (suspenseful music) – There are many Ed Bucks. There are many. It’s just that his name
happened to be attached, to being a Democratic donor. – Political donor-
– High profile political donor.
– The prominent political donor.
– Well-known political activist.
– Ed Buick, Buck excuse me, a high
profile Democratic donor. – It was always about
this thing about Ed Buck, the big Democratic donor. You know, that queen lived in
a rent controlled apartment in West, how rich could she be? – He is supposedly a millionaire
who donates thousands of dollars to the Democratic
Party and certain candidates. And yet he lives in a
very modest apartment unit right here in West Hollywood. No fancy car, no exotic vacations, just a A list of political
contacts, if you will. – We did a deep dive into those records, found out a lot of information. Buck has definitely spread the wealth. – [Woman] He has given more
than half a million dollars to various candidates. Notable Democrats like
Congress member Ted Lieu. – The maximum contribution
that a donor gives in West Hollywood is $500 an election. I mean, seriously for
$500 this is not something that I’m going to get involved in for a $500 contribution
once every four years. That’s the facts. – [Reporter] John Duran
received $12,500 from buck in various campaigns
without offering specifics. Duran said most of the money was spent and some was donated to charity. – To me, that’s is all bullshit anyway. I’m sorry, oh, I’ll
give you the money back. What’s your opinion about it? – And full disclosure I have
not received contributions from that individual,
but I wanna state clearly that it shouldn’t matter who the subject of an investigation is. An investigation must
be conducted thoroughly and without prejudice. (suspenseful music) – Having a statement to say about it, the actual thing that you’re
giving the money back for, taking a stand on that and
what you think should happen. (suspenseful music) – For $2,000 really? – Not for a thousand dollars. No. I think the system protected Ed Buck. It gives him more chances
than other people. – We did not ask for a million dollars. We didn’t ask for them to go flip West Hollywood upside down. We asked for an investigation. – [Reporter] The District
Attorney Jackie Lacey is offering immunity to potential victims of Democratic mega donor Ed Buck. – [Jackie Lacey] Very
grateful that these young men have started coming forward. And so right now in Los
Angeles they’re currently in the middle of this
homicide investigation and we’re gonna see what comes out of it. – The DA just ruled no
charges will be filed. CBS 2’s Tom Wade is live
in West Hollywood tonight with more of the story. Tom.
– And Jeff, the family of this young
man says he did not get a fair shake because he
was both black and gay. But the DA’s office and the
Sheriff’s Department say there was a thorough investigation. – For her to do that it was
like a slap in the face. – A few people came forward and said, Hey, this happened to me back in 2013. And when you get a witness
like that, that’s helpful If you can corroborate their credibility. – You took one or two
statements out of the 30. And the ones that they
took a statement from these were people that were also had more extensive criminal records. – Imma be the first to tell
you, I’m never gonna get tired. You’re gonna get tired of fighting me until Ed Buck is brought to justice. I’m gonna show up at every campaign, I’m gonna show up at every rally. I’m gonna show up at
every sheriff department. I’m gonna make sure that
everything you do is tampered with just like this investigation
was tampered with because I am Gemmel. So while you’re waiting, I’m waiting until it’s time for you to be reelected. ♪ We won’t stop till he’s in prison ♪ ♪ We won’t stop till he’s in prison ♪ ♪ We won’t stop till he’s in prison ♪ ♪ So police arrest him ♪ ♪ We wish Ed Buck was in prison ♪ ♪ We wish Ed Buck was in prison ♪ ♪ We wish Ed Buck was in prison ♪ ♪ For 25 to life ♪ – Yeah! (somber music) – For five years, two
weeks before Christmas, we would go get his Christmas tree. We would go to the lot. He knew exactly which tree
because he had already chosen it. It had to be perfect. And then off to go get Thai food. – We had just went to Alex’s on Christmas. We had a great time. And then as is customary with both of us, we started planning for the new year. You have your aspirations. What’s gonna be different? – I believe that even with Timothy surrounded by all these
people that loved him so much that I think truly what he wanted was to be in relationship. – He always wanted a boyfriend,
but as soon as he got one, they would drive him crazy. And he was like, (sighs). – Like, why did y’all break up so fast? What happened? But finally he started getting
a little bit more, you know, like I got this now. Don’t worry about what I don’t got, worry about what I do have. And what he had was himself. (audience claps) – [Man] Lets give a round
of cheers for our graduates! – He finally graduated
which he was so proud of. When he finally sent me the thing, “Girl, I’m graduating. You got to come to my graduation.” You know, of course I’m gonna be there. – [Man] Timothy Dean, liberal arts, social and behavioral science. We were way in the stands and
you could just see the joy. – He got to baptized, that empowered him. He was like, girl, I’m gonna get baptized. I was like, right on. Why not? You know, okay. – [Alex] He got a break and he
got hired at Bloomingdale’s. He excelled right away. Someone from Saks Fifth
Avenue came up to him and basically kinda poached him. He was really excited ‘cause
he was back in Beverly Hills. For him he was putting
all the pieces together. (mellow music) – [Jeffrey] He had been
at a sports bar all day drinking beers where we’re
watching the Golden Globes. – Welcome to the 2019
Golden Global Awards. – He had strong opinions about fashion and oh girl, what are you wearing? And oh no, she didn’t. Then it was just planning,
okay, I’ll see you, I’ll pick you up and we’ll go
to the Runyon in the morning. – The same night, he used
to give me songs and stuff. I was like I’m jamming
with my Apple Music. Boom. Occasionally he would
like to go down to the bar to play pool there over
here on Santa Monica. Ed Buck lives on the way. – If you spend the whole day drinking, your defenses are down. (suspenseful music) Starting with the morning, getting up, driving over to the
house, him not responding when I said I’m here. The lights on, the windows
open and I’m thinking, oh, maybe he just went
to go have a little, a little (chuckles) rendezvous
with someone, you know? But by the time I got back home, the news was coming in. – [Reporter] For the second
time in less than two years, a black man was found dead
at the home of Ed Buck. – [Reporter] According
to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office deputies respond to the apartment just after 1 a.m. Paramedics conducted CPR on the victim, but he died at the scene. His name was not released. Buck was home at the time. – There was the body that
they brought out the door. And so I took a screenshot of it ‘cause I was sending it to Tim. – I’m texting him and
sending him the articles and going it’s happened again. It’s happened again. – Hey, hey, you working today? Give me a call. The next day I called
again in the morning. I was like, I’m not worried. What the hell? And he would’ve called me about that. And then Alex called me and he asked me, if I had heard from detective. I go for what? In connection to Ed Buck. I had recorded the CNN episode. I pushed back and rewind on it And I looked at the body bag
and I just said, that’s it. That’s him. It didn’t make sense
to me then, that’s him. – [Reporter] West Hollywood
resident Timothy Dean, according to we WEHOville,
he was the man found dead early Monday morning at the apartment of Democratic donor Ed Buck. – That was his body at
the place he told me that he would never, he’s not gonna go. Tim had never not been
a man of his word to me. – As close as we were, it boggles my mind why he wouldn’t talk to me about it. Like we talked, I mean, he
spent Christmas with my family. (somber music) – Alex was in town. We met at Walter’s house. A, to be together and B, how are we going to address this in the media because it’s gonna be a media storm. (somber music) – Even in the press, the small
press them vilifying again, first with Gemmel, the
first boy, and then Tim. (somber music) – This is not a situation where Mr. Buck has caused the death. This is a situation where Mr. Buck has had long time
friends who unfortunately do not handle their life well. – There’s an epidemic in media. When it comes to black men there becomes irresponsible journalism
to give the public a reason of why this person didn’t deserve to live and what they did. They deserve the result. – I didn’t know Tim’s porn name. Did I know he did porn? Yeah, I knew he did porn. – Walter and I knew what he did. When we found out that he was
working in the sex industry, he wanted to keep that
separate from, to us. – Rent is expensive. You fall off for a month or two, and your ass be downtown
on the street, okay? – The escorting, the
porn, all that sex work that isn’t about him being a
bad person or a dark person. It’s survival. – His adopted mother,
she was in a nursing home and he had to pay for the nursing home. – His family, after I
explained it to them, they were really good about it. He was like the only thing that matters is taking care of my brother. – [Reporter] Earlier, confirmation at NBC 4 from his sister in Tampa, waiting for her brother
to visit next month. – [Tim’s Sister] He loved
to come home and eat. He just loved his family and
he really loved his friends. – Tim was loved by his
family, his friends, everybody that he came into contact with. – [Reporter] Mark Chambers
says Timothy Dean, his friend of almost
30 years was educated, athletic and had an eye for fashion. – Tim had his own apartment. He had his own job. He was gainfully employed. He didn’t need pennies from
this man to be who he was. And that was the narrative
I was trying to make sure people saw and heard. – Tim’s gone. That’s a fact. How it happened is to be known. But I just want everybody to
know he was a whole person. (somber music) – After Tim passed,
the voice became louder to get justice for Gemmel. – [Jerome] Arriving on
that street was a lot. It was a lot. It had never really been that chaotic – [Crowd] Arrest him now! Arrest him now! Arrest him now! Arrest him now! Arrest him now! Arrest him now! – I think from the time
I got from the corner to Ed Buck’s house I had got stopped at least 10 times by reporters. Black boys are dying here. This man is a problem not
to our black community but to every community. It clicked on the center of reality to what Gemmel’s family was dealing with and what now this new family
was about to deal with and who is this new family? – We should not even be here. There shouldn’t even be another, a second victim. My son did not OD. He was murdered. – I met Gemmel’s mom. I met the main people from Gemmel’s group. (somber music) There’s a tie that binds us together. It’s like, that pain is everybody’s. Everybody can relate to that. – Ed Buck gets to stay in his house when he’s killed two people and probably will kill more people in the future. – [Jerome] If you could repeat after me and say Gemmel’s name Moore. – [All] Gemmel Moore. Gemmel Moore! Gemmel Moore! – I always thought Gemmel
was destined for greatness. And I always knew Gemmel
would be known worldwide, but then it broke my heart ‘cause I know that he would be so mad at us right now. He would not want all his
business all over the world like this. This man is a danger to our community. – Yes he is.
– We are not even talking about the half of what he’s doing. I felt like I betrayed
my friend ‘cause now his business is really out there. And then I realized like, this
is what we been fighting for. And now we’re gonna get
where we need to get. And I just came at peace with that. We’re gonna be out here every night. Every night.
(people chatter) Every night. – [Woman] Why hasn’t Ed BucK Been arrested yet?
– What do we want? Justice! – What do we want?
– Justice! – – What do we want?
– Justice! – There is not gonna be any
more peace in West Hollywood until Ed Buck is arrested. – [Reporter] For nearly a month, Jerome Kitchen and others in the LGBTQ and black community
have waited for answers. – What do we want?
– Justice! – Jerome had his role. I mean, he’s a loud voice and he knows how to make his voice be heard. – The mayor is in the pocket of the perp. We’re gonna turn a blind eye to it all because the mayor is a perp himself. John Duran and an alleged sexual assaultee failed his city with
the Ed Buck situation. And now there’s two deaths. Your first order of
business after your election should be to get John Duran
out that goddamn seat. – Okay? From the big perp, thank you very much. – [Sammy] He willing to
put himself in harm’s way. He was spit on, you know,
and called a monkey. Him and Jasmyne went and they
brought it to the forefront. – [Protesters] Arrest Ed Buck! – [Reporter] Activists
delivered 30,000 signatures to Lacey’s office to call
for Buck’s prosecution. – Nobody’s coming inside of the building. – [Reporter] Lacey refuse
to meet with this group, refused to even let them into the building as they tried to present
her with boxes of petitions. – I have live with this
for the rest of my life. – Everybody got a staff to carry. Jasmyne’s carried it. – Now we have the whole
country’s attention, but we’re going to have a
third one and a fourth one if we don’t stop this man. – Seeing people who didn’t even know Tim or Gemmel take the time to do that and to go out there meant so much I don’t, I mean, I could never pay them for that. – [Reporter] Lacey tells me
she hears their frustration, but it all comes down to this. – We can’t file a criminal case based on who has the loudest voice. If go out there and arrest him now, the clock starts ticking
and it wouldn’t be ethical right now to arrest him until
we really had the evidence. – [Reporter] Well, we now know what killed a man inside Ed Buck’s apartment. – [Reporter] Officials
say Timothy Dean died from a methamphetamine overdose and it was ruled accidental. – It shocked me that he had an objection ‘cause I know for a fact
that Tim didn’t even like to draw blood so. – Doctors, the vampires,
he would call them, he had an aversion to needles, completely freaked out about. This is Timothy. You know, he’s just like, okay, do it. He couldn’t look at it because
he would get sick or faint. – I don’t know a person
can determine whether or not someone injected them. I don’t know. The reason why I believe
people know in this case is because there are multiple stories of young men saying he had to inject you ‘cause that’s how he got off, you know, the sexual fetish of it. It was very specific. – [Reporter] According to
the report Buck says Dean was acting bizarrely, using
clothing to tie a noose around his own neck. Buck says he removed the noose prior to leaving the room to take a shower. He found Dean unresponsive when he got out and attempted CPR for 15
minutes before calling 911. – I didn’t wanna read it after that. I was like… I didn’t need to know how awful it was. It’s awful. – David, what’s new in the investigation. What have we learned tonight? – Well, Jeff, the case against Ed Buck is now in the hands of the LA county district attorney’s office. Buck Hasn’t been charged with any crimes and he hasn’t been asked the
tough questions until now. – [Reporter] While buck
stays mostly in his apartment on this day, our surveillance cameras caught him with this black man, probably in his 20s who
was eating an ice cream. They went inside for about an hour, then left to go to the Beverly Center where we tried to talk with him. – [David] Mr. Buck, I’m David Goldstein with CBS 2 news. Sir, what’s going on
in your apartment, sir? Can you tell us that? Do you think your political
influence is keeping you a free man now, sir Is this is this young
man who’s with you now, is he in any harm? – I don’t feel like he had
any fear of being stopped ‘cause he never stopped. – Can you answer the question, sir? Is it a coincidence that two men have died in your apartment? Why are you walking backwards, sir? – You are, should be ashamed of yourself. – Why should I be ashamed of myself, sir? I’m not touching you at all. – Ed Buck didn’t give a shit. He didn’t care about Tim. He didn’t care about Gemmel. There were, it didn’t even,
he didn’t have any remorse. He didn’t give a shit. – [Reporter] The man he was
with stood off to the side, not wanting to be on TV. – You know, you know who he is, right. That’s okay. That’s all I wanna know. (beep) Why don’t you answer any questions? You have two people
who died in your house. – Because you’re being a (beep). – Sir, I’m asking questions. (somber music) – [Reporter] Today, family
and friends of Gemmel Moore gathered in front of Buck’s apartment to mark the two-year
anniversary of Moore’s death. – Me, Jasmyne, the lawyers
with some of Gemmel friends, we all prayed and I led the prayer. And three things that
I finished with is that we were going to get justice
through Ed Buck’s pockets. We were gonna get justice through our criminal justice system,
he was gonna be arrested and that we were gonna get justice through our elected
officials ‘cause people are gonna be held accountable. And I said that I call
it done and it’s gonna start happening right away. (somber music) – There was a sting going
on by federal agents in West Hollywood, a federal drug sting. One of officers on that federal team heard about Ed Buck’s situation and that two people had died. Another one had escaped, with no arrest. (tense music) – I know John Doe number three. He overdosed twice. Not once, twice. He overdosed, the hospital discharged him. He went back to Ed Buck house. Ed Buck overdosed him again. Just think about that’s how
bad of a situation he was in. – He went to the Sheriff’s Department. Say, hey man, this is going on. They blew it off. The federal agent made it
a point that they went back after that third guy went into the house. Now there’s just drugs here. Those are yours. – [Reporter] Breaking news on CBS 2 News at 11. Perp walked out of his apartment. Former democratic donor
Ed Buck is in handcuffs. – Yeah.
– Ed buck arrested after a third man was allegedly overdosed in his West Hollywood home. – I saw on the news of him. He’s sitting in the back of a police car. That was a victory for me. Until that point he had
never been questioned. It’s like they fucking brought him flowers and cookies and candy every
time he killed someone. – Tonight those who stood
up for the victim say they feel vindicated. – And I’m just so ecstatic that finally there is the beginning
of justice in this case. You know, he’s just been arrested. He’s got to go through the process, but this was a long time coming. – I kind of gave up on the
criminal justice side of it. So when I heard that it was happening, I got, I almost passed out. – I am happy. I knew that this day was gonna come. I’m just so grateful that
my team did not give up. – We have reached out to
Buck’s attorneys so far, no word from them tonight. We can tell you that Buck
is due in court tomorrow. His bail set at $4 million. – Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Nick Hanna. I’m the United States
attorney here in Los Angeles. Today I am announcing a federal case against Mr. Buck, charges
that carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 20
years in federal prison and a maximum of life in
prison without parole. Mr. Buck is now in federal custody and he’s making his first appearance in federal court this afternoon. – [Jerome] That day, just
being in that courtroom, it felt like we had came full circle. – [Man] Mr. Buck do you understand? – [Reporter] 65 Year old Ed
Buck stood before the courtroom in what’s called an anti-suicide smock. – Ed Buck walked in there and right away I started feeling hot, emotional. I felt sorry for him too. He looked fragile. He looks scared. He looked unsure and I felt bad for him. But right as I feel bad for him, I wondered how many
young people all right, people felt like that in his house. We weren’t there for Gemmel. We weren’t there for Timothy. We were there for John
Doe victim number three, and we just wanted victim number three, to know like you have this community, you have a support system. – [Witness] I’m glad, you
know, for the first time in awhile that I’ve seen that justice is being served properly. – I hope that he’s getting
the care that he needs. I hope that he’s getting
the therapy that he needs. – Activist Jasmyne Cannick and others are assisting Mr. Doe. They’ve gotten him a room
and gotten him off the street and say, they’re helping him
so he can testify against Buck. – DA Lacey charged Ed Buck
for the victim number three, but she didn’t help victim number three with no housing, no
substance abuse or nothing. No, they let him get
out there on the street in hopes that he can come
back and testify for a trial. – Thank you everyone for
coming and good afternoon. With regard to what the evidence is for the US attorney that
may have been different from what we had. We did not have other victims
who were willing to talk to the prosecutors and
tell us what happened or tell us that they were
injected by Mr. Buck. – They weren’t gonna do anything. You see, they were going
to snatch it from them, make it a federal case,
which would have put would have tainted Lacey and her career and tainted the Sheriff’s Department. – The Sheriff’s Department they saw that Mr. Moore was dead and, but they investigated it
sort of like an overdose. And we, you know, they found some things, but we contend that it’s illegal
how they searched for it. They needed a warrant in
order to get that stuff. So that was the first thing. Evidence found at the scene of drug use in state court could never come in. – It took district attorney Jackie Lacey, feeling like the Sheriff
Department kept throwing her under the bus with the case to say, no, actually we didn’t arrest Ed Buck because the sheriff took a chest out of his house without a warrant and the case got thrown out of court. But just imagine if she would
have had that compassion to tell Gemmel’s mom that on day one. Maybe it would’ve made a little sense. – [Man] Good evening, everyone. City Clerk, may we have
a roll call please? – [City Clerk] Yes. Council member Duran
is absent this evening. – John Duran, apparently he did not wanna be
here to see Gemmel’s mother. He was too cowardly to show up tonight. – This is not a easy journey. I’m a very private person. It’s not easy at all, but we
came forward to save others. – Jasmyne Cannick deserves
a lot of the recognition for her tireless commitment
to shedding light on these tragedies and to Jerome Kitchens who has challenged us to
keep our eyes on the ball. And our eyes never left the ball. – A lot of elected officials feel the heat up under them. John’s Durant’s on the ballot. Jackie Lacey’s on the ballot. Kevin De Lyon is on a ballot. So people realize that one,
we were about serious business and two, now my community and
other black and brown lives realize that we gonna fight for you. – The two years spent
investigating Ed Buck was time well spent and
I hope you’ll agree. – It took me a long time
to clean up his room and in doing so I found a
letter that he wrote me. And it reads, “I don’t
know where to start, but I’m so emotional. Leaving you, I had not seen
my family in four years. You have been my family this whole time. I really and honestly don’t want to leave. I’m scared. I honestly am truly sorry for
everything I hurt you with. Can we forget the past? I don’t know everything. I’m human and I’m trying
hard to be honest. You give me a reason to want to be here. I don’t know what to do with my life. It’s horrible and well
I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. And if I never see you again, just remember your nephew loves you. Please don’t talk shit
about my grammar skills and punctual skills. LOL.” And I never saw him again. Never did. (somber music) – My process with the grief with Tim it’s like, that’s my resistance
to coming back up here because I was so
overwhelmed with feelings. I missed my friend. (somber music) – You know, we all got
to go at some point. He took his trip a little bit
earlier than ours, you know, and we mourn his death. I choose to look at it you know, things that happen in my life and death, that’s just another angel
that I got to call on when I can’t handle shit on earth. And he actually will help. – I had emergency heart
surgeon pretty much. You guys can hear this taking, right? So that’s the costs of
smoking, you know doing drugs. And it caused me to have
a mechanical heart valve, which is what’s keeping me alive today. You never know what kinda
horror film you’re in until you’re in it ‘cause the drugs would take you under and
take you to some dark places that it’s hard to get out of. And I’m still having a
hard time dealing with it. – I’m managing. My penis is fine, but I’m managing. It’s just, it’s depressing. Like it’s a whole lot. It caused trauma. – This crystal meth epidemic
when it comes to my people, we need more counselors that look like us. That’s why it was important
for me to, you know, to get licensed and certified
you know and you know, strategic life coach and
spiritual development, those things, that’s why it was important because it’s healing and it’s not allowing an opportunity for it to
come back into my life. – Whether it’s a gay man or
a trans woman or a woman, that’s a sex worker is really men in power who are allowed to do
these types of things and get away with it. There are so many men out there like that that are not behind bars. – [Gemmel’s House Father]
Clients specifically go out looking for black, young kids
who they can put a spell on. I have another Ed Buck,
Number Two I call him, I actually call him Ed Buck’s twin. He’ll still text me, sending
me pictures of money. He’s trying to lure me in any way he can. And it’s like, what do I do? I have two choices to make. Do I wanna be healthy or
do I wanna pay my rent? – Gemmel Moore. – [Crowd] Gemmel Moore, I say. – Timothy Dean.
– Timothy Dean, I say. – Our criminal justice system, it’s there. It is there and the resources are there. The help is there. It’s all there. They just need to be enforced. – [Reporter] We are live
at the federal courthouse in the federal trial against Ed Buck. He has now been found guilty
of all nine federal charges. (people shout) – [Man] We made it happen. – I thank Jasmyne for
keeping her foot on the pedal and making that noise. But Tim was, he was so close. I have to protect myself. I had to disassociate myself with it. We all have the battles
we wage and we fight and mine is for LGBT basketball. (everyone claps and cheers) – [Reporter] Friends and
family of the victims, cheering, crying, hugging,
celebrating within minutes of the verdict. – My son is more than
a movie or documentary. This is my baby, my son,
who is a human being and he’s loved by lots of people. But, today is bittersweet. Today is the day that my son was murdered when he left my house four years ago. But we got victory today. We got victory in the west today. – This has been an undesirable fight, but it’s totally been worth it. And I often tell people that
we are fighting this fight because it’s worth it and
because it’s important, not for our own self
because if that’s the case, we wouldn’t do it. I call Gemmel a prophet now and a prophet is somebody that comes to earth to awaken us to certain things. (somber music) – I don’t know what justice means for me. I really don’t because
what I want I can’t have. (somber music) (mellow music)

Award-winning true crime documentary GEMMEL & TIM explores the lives and untimely passings of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean, two Black gay men who both died from meth overdoses at the home of West Hollywood politico Ed Buck. Their deaths at the now-infamous apartment sent shockwaves through the LGBTQ+ community.

This documentary looks at Gemmel and Tim’s parallel walks of life through the eyes of their extended and chosen families – memories, correspondence, and things they did and didn’t share with each other. Through intimate recollections of their lost friends, each character exposes their own personal journey in dealing with grief. Powerful and galvanizing, GEMMEL & TIM simultaneously investigates the crimes and offers a cautionary tale to keep these events from repeating.

Director: MICHIEL THOMAS