LOS ANGELES _ The Los Angeles County coroner's office on Thursday identified the man who died this week in the home of Ed Buck, longtime Democratic donor, as 55-year-old Timothy Dean of West Hollywood.
Buck's West Hollywood apartment has been the scene of the apparent overdose deaths of two black men in the last two years, authorities said.
Law enforcement officials have placed a security hold on the case and will release no further details, said Sarah Ardalani, a spokeswoman for the coroner's office.
Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide detectives are investigating Dean's death. His body was found just after 1 a.m. Monday in Buck's Laurel Avenue apartment. An official cause of death has not been released, but Buck's attorney, Seymour Amster, said Dean died of an apparent overdose.
Buck, a 64-year-old white man, previously was investigated in the July 2017 death of Gemmel Moore, 26, a black man who died of a methamphetamine overdose in Buck's apartment, which was littered with drug paraphernalia, according to a Los Angeles County coroner's report. Prosecutors this summer declined to file charges.
Buck is a one-time West Hollywood City Council candidate and well-known figure in LGBTQ political circles. In the past, Buck has donated money to President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, former state Sen. Kevin de Leon, West Hollywood city council candidates and numerous other politicians.
This week, U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., announced he would donate more than $18,000 in campaign contributions he received from Buck to LGBTQ and black civil rights organizations.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Monday that Buck was present at the time of the death _ as he was when Moore died _ and that there would be a secondary review of the Moore case.
Amster said the second man was an "old friend" of Buck's who ingested a substance at another location and "came over intoxicated."
Buck, he said, was not arrested in either case and was cooperating with authorities.
