Tag: crime

Grand Jury Charges Ed Buck with Four Additional Felonies, Including that He Enticed Victims to Travel Interstate to Engage in Prostitution

A federal grand jury today returned a superseding indictment charging Edward Buck with four additional felonies, including that he allegedly enticed victims – including a man who died at his West Hollywood apartment after he administered drugs to him – to travel interstate to engage in prostitution.

          Buck, 65, was arrested in September 2019 after being charged in United States District Court with providing methamphetamine to a man who died after receiving the drug intravenously. Since that time, federal authorities have continued to investigate Buck for additional crimes.

          The four additional counts charged today – bringing the total number of charges in this case to nine counts – include one count alleging that Buck knowingly enticed 26-year-old Gemmel Moore to travel to the Los Angeles area to engage in prostitution. Buck allegedly provided methamphetamine to Moore, who overdosed on the drug and died on July 27, 2017.

          Buck also is charged with another count of enticing another man to travel with the intent of engaging in prostitution.

          The superseding indictment also charges Buck with one count of knowingly and intentionally distributing methamphetamine, and one count of using his residence for the purpose of distributing narcotics such as methamphetamine, and the sedatives gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and clonazepam.

          Last year, a federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment charging that Buck “engaged in a pattern of soliciting men to consume drugs that Buck provided and perform sexual acts at Buck’s apartment,” which is a practice described as “party and play.” Buck allegedly solicited victims on social media platforms, including a gay dating website, and used a recruiter to scout and proposition men.

          Once the men were at his apartment, Buck allegedly prepared syringes containing methamphetamine, sometimes personally injecting the victims with or without their consent, according to the indictment. Buck also allegedly injected victims with more narcotics than they expected and sometimes injected victims while they were unconscious.

          Another victim, Timothy Dean also suffered a fatal overdose in Buck’s apartment, on January 7, 2019, the indictment alleges.

          Buck is scheduled to go to trial in this matter on January 19, 2021. His arraignment on the first superseding indictment is expected in the coming weeks.

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Homeland Security Seized $2 Billion in Cash From Travelers at U.S. Airports

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other Department of Homeland Security agents seized more than $2 billion in cash from travelers in U.S. airports between 2000 and 2016, according to a new report by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm.

The institute’s report is the first to comprehensively analyze the use of civil asset forfeiture by federal law enforcement in airports, where multiple news investigations have revealed horror stories of passengers having their money taken even though they weren’t ever charged with a crime.

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4 Get Slap on the Wrist For Paying Homeless People To Sign Ballot Petitions And Voter Registration Forms

Four men have admitted their role in a scheme where money and cigarettes were offered to homeless people on Skid Row in exchange for false and forged signatures on ballot petitions and voter registration forms.

Richard Howard, 64, and Louis Thomas Wise, 37, pleaded no contest Friday to one felony count each of subscribing a fictitious name, or the name of another to an initiative petition and registration of a fictitious person. Christopher Joseph Williams, 41, and Nickey Demelvin Huntley, 45, each pleaded no contest to one felony count of circulating an initiative or petition containing false, forged or fictitious names.

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Tennessee lawmaker used federal funds to pay for wedding, lavish lifestyle, feds say

A Tennessee state senator was charged with swindling $600,000 in federal funds to pay for her wedding and finance a lavish lifestyle, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

From 2015 to 2019, state Sen. Katrina Robinson is accused of stealing the money that was granted to The Healthcare Institute — a company she directed, according to prosecutors.

In addition to covering her wedding costs, Robinson, a Democrat from a Memphis district elected in 2018, is charged with using the funds to pay for her honeymoon and pay legal fees for her divorce, the feds charge.

With the stolen money the lawmaker also paid for her daughter’s 2016 Jeep Renegade, home improvements, a $500 Louis Vuitton handbag and invested in a snow cone business run by her children, prosecutors and the FBI said.

Robinson was charged with theft, embezzlement and wire fraud.

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Unhinged Woman Pepper Sprays Man For Not Wearing Facemask In Public Park

As the debate over mandatory mask orders continues as American’s coronavirus summer of discontent grates on, one woman was allegedly caught on video pepper spraying a stranger after confronting him for not wearing his mask outdoors in a dog park.

Nevermind the fact that the coughing and tearing induced by pepper spraying a subject would only serve to spread the virus, there aren’t really any defensible reasons for confronting somebody for not wearing their mask outside. Somebody throwing a tantrum after being asked to put on a mask is one thing; but a man minding his own business being suddenly attacked? That doesn’t exactly paint the hard core “wear your mask or else” crowd in the best light.

According to KTVU, a San Diego woman posted a video of a stranger attacking her husband with pepper spray for allegedly not wearing a coronavirus mask at a San Diego dog park while having lunch.

“That is me crying hysterically in the background because my innocent husband just got maced for no reason,” Ash O’Brien said in a Facebook post sharing the video.

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