Second Death in Democratic Donor Ed Buck’s Home Ruled Meth Overdose

LOS ANGELES—Timothy Dean died of a methamphetamine overdose in the home of wealthy Democratic donor Ed Buck, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed for the first time to The Daily Beast.

Dean died Jan. 7 of the same drug that killed Gemmel Moore at Buck’s home in 2017, Det. Quilmes Rodriguez, the homicide investigator on Dean’s case, confirmed.

“Toxicology results are back and the cause of death is an overdose,” Rodriguez said in an email, adding later that methamphetamine was the drug. “We’ve conducted several additional interviews with other witnesses and are pending the final two interviews.”

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office previously declined to press charges against Buck after 26-year-old Moore died at at Buck’s West Laurel Ave. apartment. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department re-opened Moore’s case following Dean’s death.

Investigators are now close to presenting their case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney, Rodriguez said.

“We hope to finish our reports in the near future then will present the case to the [District Attorney's] office for their consideration,” he said. “We just bring forth the facts, and they decide whether to file charges or not,” he said.

Buck has faced allegations of drugging young black men in his second-story apartment and evading prosecution because of his political ties. He has not been charged in either death.

Buck’s attorney Seymour Amster says that Dean arrived at Buck’s already under the influence on January 7. “We stand by our position that Mr. Dean reached out to Mr. Buck on the night of his death and not vice versa,” Amster previously told The Daily Beast.

Five of Dean’s friends previously told The Daily Beast that Dean, who knew Buck for two decades, feared him.

The news that Dean died of a drug overdose came on what would have been his 56th birthday Monday.