He Offered Her a Settlement Then Refused to Sign It. A Jury Just Handed Her $​​2M

A federal jury deliberated less than an hour before ordering Ed Buck to pay $2 million to the mother of Gemmel Moore, the 26-year-old Black gay man who died of a methamphetamine overdose in Buck’s West Hollywood apartment nearly nine years ago — a death that eventually landed the former Democratic donor in federal prison for 30 years.

The unanimous verdict, returned Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, found Buck civilly liable for Moore’s 2017 death and awarded damages to Moore’s mother, LaTisha Nixon. The jury of five men and three women deliberated about an hour. The two-day civil trial before Judge Wesley L. Hsu concluded with Nixon finally receiving what courts had been working toward since she filed her lawsuit eight years ago.

Gemmel Moore was found dead on a mattress in Buck’s Laurel Avenue apartment on July 27, 2017. Naked. A porn movie playing on the TV. He was 26 years old and had flown in from Texas that same day on a plane ticket Buck bought him.

A year and a half later, Timothy Dean turned up dead in the same apartment. Same setup. Buck got charged with both deaths, convicted on all nine counts in 2021, and sentenced to 30 years. The Ninth Circuit said no to his appeal in 2024. He’s not getting out.

Wednesday’s civil trial worked off a lower bar than the criminal case — Nixon’s lawyers just had to show it was more likely than not that Buck caused her son’s death. Given that a federal jury already made that call beyond a reasonable doubt, this wasn’t a heavy lift. Buck’s people still argued Moore came over voluntarily and used drugs of his own free will. The jury took about an hour to say no to that.

The lawsuit covered a lot of ground — wrongful death, sexual battery, hate violence, human trafficking, revenge porn. Nine years of grief for LaTisha Nixon compressed into two days of testimony — including Nixon on the stand talking about her son and the years since losing him. She got $2 million and, more than that, another jury on the record saying what happened to her son wasn’t an accident.

“I miss my son every single day. There isn’t a moment that goes by that I don’t think about him. This verdict doesn’t bring him back, but it gives me some peace knowing someone was finally held accountable for what happened to Gemmel.” — LaTisha Nixon

Jasmyne Cannick has been on this story longer than anyone. She was writing about Buck when local politicians were still cashing his checks. She shared a statement with WEHOonline. “Ed Buck is already serving time for what he did, but prison was the United States holding him accountable,” she said. “This verdict is about a jury holding him accountable to Gemmel Moore’s mother.” Cannick kept going: “For years Ed Buck moved through Democratic political circles in Los Angeles as a donor and insider while vulnerable Black men were being harmed in his home. Today’s verdict is an important reminder that political affiliation and political money cannot shield anyone from accountability. Gemmel Moore’s life mattered, and his family deserved their day in court.”

Attorney Hussain Turk, who represented Nixon alongside Nana Gyamfi and Seelai Ludin, said the verdict lands beyond one courtroom. “Today’s verdict set a precedent. It’s about holding not just Ed Buck accountable, but West Hollywood accountable for continuing to turn a blind eye to the exploitation of the most marginalized members of the gay community under the guise of ‘partying’ and ‘sexual freedom.’ You can no longer hide behind the lie that just because someone makes themselves available for abuse, it is ‘consensual.’ Your money and power is no longer a defense against predation.”

Nixon’s attorney Nana Gyamfi said the money wasn’t really the point. “Today’s verdict is an acknowledgment of harm — harm done to Gemmel Moore, harm done to his mother and family, and harm done to a community that too often sees vulnerable Black lives treated as disposable. Accountability must include listening to families, confronting exploitation, and addressing the conditions that allow this kind of harm to happen in the first place.”

Worth noting tho, Buck had already agreed to settle this case. By 2024 he negotiated a deal with Nixon, then never signed it. So she had to go through a trial she shouldn’t have needed. His lawyers told the jury she deserved nothing. She walked out with $2 million.

The verdict is the first civil judgment against Buck since his criminal conviction. He faces at least one more civil proceeding: a separate trial in Santa Monica Superior Court on behalf of the estate of Dane Brown, who survived two overdoses at Buck’s apartment, testified against him at the criminal trial, and was found dead on a South Los Angeles sidewalk in November 2024. Court records also show Buck filed motions this past January to vacate and correct his federal sentence — both still pending.

Will Nixon ever see that money?

Then there’s the tougher question. Will this grieving mom ever actually see that money? Buck is 71 and serving 30 years with no income and no money. He made his fortune decades ago, spent years writing big checks to political campaigns, and burned through serious money on his lifestyle and legal fees across multiple cases. His lawyers in the Dane Brown proceeding argued against a financial inquiry into his assets as recently as January which is the kind of move you make when there isn’t much to find. Whatever’s left would also be on the line in the upcoming Santa Monica trial. A civil judgment is only worth what someone can pay. For LaTisha Nixon the $2 million verdict is real. Whether a check ever follows is a different story. 

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