Timothy Dean, 55, was found dead in Buck’s apartment on Jan. 7, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. In July 2017, Gemmel Moore, 26, also died from an accidental methamphetamine overdose. He was found on a mattress in Buck’s living room, authorities said.
Together, the deaths of Moore and Dean, who were black, raised suspicions about Buck, a 64-year-old white man. The families of both men have accused Buck of preying on gay black men.
Last month, Moore’s mother filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Buck, saying that he had a “well-documented history of isolating black men for predatory sexual encounters,” including administering drugs to them and then watching them “cling to life.”
Seymour I. Amster, a lawyer for Buck, said Monday that Dean was already intoxicated when he went to Buck’s home in January. Amster said no drugs were taken at Buck’s apartment.
Amster said that Buck saw Dean in a “state of arrest” and tried to perform CPR on him. Buck called 911.
“Mr. Buck had nothing to do with the death,” Amster said.
Amster has previously said Buck was also innocent in Moore’s death, and said Monday that he would respond to the lawsuit’s allegations in court.
After Moore’s death, detectives interviewed Buck and considered him a suspect in the case, according to court documents obtained by The Los Angeles Times. But no charges were filed because the police could not prove “beyond a reasonable doubt that suspect Buck furnished drugs to Gemmel Moore or that suspect Buck possessed drugs,” the documents said.
After Dean’s death, the sheriff’s department said it would review Moore’s death and conduct follow-up interviews.
“It is suspicious that this has happened twice now, so we’re going to conduct a thorough investigation to determine if it is criminal in nature,” Lt. Derrick Alfred of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told KTLA-TV, a local television station, in January.
The sheriff’s department declined to answer further questions about its investigation Monday. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said no charges had yet been filed in the case and did not answer further questions on the cause of death.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Dean was described as a fashion consultant and spent many years competing in basketball leagues and the Gay Games, an international sporting event modeled after the Olympics, including in last year’s Games in Paris, according to Mark Chambers, a longtime friend of Dean’s.
Dean had been friends with Buck, Chambers said.
Buck rose to national prominence in the late 1980s, when he led a movement to oust Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham, a Republican, who was later impeached over fraud and perjury allegations.
Buck has given more than $116,000 to Democratic candidates and groups in the past decade or so.
Buck gave about $1,500 to support Barack Obama and $2,950 to back Hillary Clinton, according to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks campaign fundraising. Buck is also prominent in LGBT political circles and ran unsuccessfully for the West Hollywood City Council about a decade ago.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.