Dane Brown, the man who survived multiple drug overdoses at the home of former political donor Ed Buck and is in the middle of an ongoing lawsuit against him, was found dead in South Los Angeles last week.
The news comes five years after Brown fled Buck’s West Hollywood apartment, the moment that led to his own conviction in federal court for running a drug den and providing the narcotics that killed Gemmel Moore in 2017 And Timothy Dean in 2019.
Prosecutors said Buck would lure young, gay black men to his home, where he would inject them with increasing amounts of drugs until they fell into comas, all for his sexual pleasure.
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Brown, 43 when he died, was one of those men until he regained consciousness, escaped the apartment and told police what happened.
Read more: The accuser describes “Party and Play” sessions at Ed Buck’s West Hollywood apartment
His friend and journalist Jasmyne Cannick spoke about his death on Tuesday.
“I’m extremely sad. I mean, for me, I see this as Ed Buck’s continued effects on our community,” Cannick said. She believes her boyfriend was never able to escape the impact of what happened to him.
Buck, 70, who was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 30 years in prisonwas also the subject of a lawsuit filed by Brown, which was expected to go to trial in early 2025.
His complaint alleges sexual assault, assault, hate violence, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and human trafficking.
Cannick says the lawsuit will continue despite Browns’ death.
“I don’t know that Ed Buck would have ever been arrested if Dane hadn’t been in the picture,” Cannick said.
She is one of many activists who say Buck’s behavior was ignored for years, even after the two men overdosed and died. They believe this was because they were poor and perceived as drug-addicted prostitutes.
“I don’t want Ed Buck to feel like, ‘Oh, he’s gone and I don’t have to pay.’ No. You absolutely still have to pay for the damage and trauma you caused that man,” Cannick said.
Brown’s lawsuit claims he met Buck in 2019 on Adam4Adam, an online dating site for gay men. Over the next two months, Buck sent carriages to a Skid Row hotel where Brown lived to pick him up. to his apartment.
Upon arriving at Bucks’ apartment, Brown says the two had sex and that Buck provided methamphetamine, which he both smoked and used intravenously, according to the lawsuit. Buck would continue to provide the drugs to Brown he stayed in the apartment from July to September 2019.
The lawsuit further notes that Buck injected meth intravenously into Brown on September 4, 2019, and a week later, both instances causing him to overdose and require hospitalization.
Read more: More details emerge in the story of a wealthy Democratic donor linked to men who overdose in his apartment
Brown’s lawsuit also says Buck gave him the date-rape drug GHB, or gamma-hydroxybutyrate, during the second incident. Buck then allegedly refused to call an ambulance for Brown, forcing him to cross the street to a gas station, where an employee called 911 on his behalf, the lawsuit said.
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He survived both overdoses and testified against Buck at his trial in U.S. District Court in 2021. Buck was found guilty of committing all nine crimes for which he was charged, including two counts of violating methamphetamine distribution causing death consequence.
“When I walked out of that house, I didn’t know what was going to happen next,” Brown said on the courthouse steps after Buck’s sentencing. “I didn’t know any of this would happen. But I’m so happy and so relieved that these families can get the justice they deserve.”
Over the course of his career, Buck ran for a seat on the West Hollywood City Council and ran for office donated more than half a million dollars to the Democratic Party politicians and causes.
