California as an “in-your-face” Democratic activist and booster of animal rights and LGBTQ causes. In the last decade, he has donated money to all but one member of the current West Hollywood City Council, as well as candidates for the Los Angeles school board and California Senate.


In that same time frame, prosecutors say, Buck was luring young, disadvantaged men to his home with the promise of drugs and money.

One man, who was homeless and sleeping in West Hollywood’s Plummer Park in 2011, told investigators that he had never used methamphetamine before he heard that Buck was “well-known for compensating male prostitutes with drugs and money,” according to the complaint. The victim agreed to take a “small amount” of drugs at Buck’s behest but said Buck then emptied anentire syringe into his arm.

Several other men said Buck wanted to watch them use drugs while they wore tight underwear, according to the complaint, adding that he became insistent and sometimes forceful if they refused to ingest more narcotics at his command. Two men alleged that Buck had injected them with drugs while they slept on his couch, and others suggested he was surreptitiously giving them unknown substances that made them sleepy or weak.


One man told investigators that Buck hired him as an escort in late 2018. After drinking a “clear soda” provided by Buck, the man said, he felt “sleepy and began to lose control of his physical movements,” according to the complaint.

“When he awoke, Buck was approaching him with two additional syringes loaded with methamphetamine,” the