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Mr. Moore was found dead in Mr. Buck’s apartment surrounded by sex toys and 24 hypodermic needles, according to court records. In a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in February, LaTisha Nixon, the mother of Mr. Moore, claimed that Mr. Buck bought a plane ticket for her son to travel from Houston. After Mr. Moore arrived in Los Angeles, Mr. Buck injected him with crystal methamphetamine, according to the lawsuit. It was a drug Ms. Nixon said her son had never used.
Families of the two men who died in his apartment have accused Mr. Buck, who is white, of preying upon black gay men. Ms. Nixon said in the lawsuit that Mr. Buck had a “well-documented history of isolating black men for predatory sexual encounters.” Crowds of protesters, too, have gathered outside Mr. Buck’s home this year to demand justice for the men.
“We know that, with the arrest of Ed Buck, that the life expectancy of black gay men in L.A. County has substantially increased,” Jasmyne Cannick, an activist and spokeswoman for the families of the victims, said on Wednesday.
A lawyer for Mr. Buck, Seymour I. Amster, could not be reached, but he has previously denied that Mr. Buck had any role in the two deaths.
In the most recent case, “Joe Doe” visited Mr. Buck’s apartment at least two times. On Sept. 4, he sought medical attention after he was injected with methamphetamine. A week later he returned to the apartment where, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said, Mr. Buck again injected the 37-year-old man with methamphetamine. He then fled and called 911.
In West Hollywood, Mr. Buck was a recognizable figure, a former model who became a fixture in Los Angeles Democratic political circles and who focused on animal rights. In 2007, he made an unsuccessful bid for West Hollywood City Council.
Before he arrived in California, Mr. Buck rose to prominence in Arizona in the 1980s, when he was a Republican and led the Mecham Recall Committee, an effort to remove the Republican governor, Evan Mecham, from office. Mr. Mecham was eventually impeached, accused of fraud and perjury. Mr. Buck later became a Democrat.
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