Ed Buck To Remain Jailed After Judge Denies Request For Bail
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A judge Friday denied a request for bail for Ed Buck, stating that she felt his release would pose a danger to the community.
Buck's attorneys filed the motion, arguing that the 66-year-old should be released pending his January trial due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and its current spread through jails and prisons.
Buck offered to put up a $400,000 signature bond and submit to electronic monitoring and home confinement, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Rozella A. Oliver found the conditions insufficient to ensure Buck would appear at trial — given the incentives to flee.
As for the threat of Buck contracting COVID-19, Oliver said the defense attorneys failed to show that the medical staff at the Metropolitan Detention Center were incapable of handling Buck's medical needs. She also said Buck did not appear to have any medical conditions that would put him at an elevated risk for the virus aside from his age.
"Ed Buck was asking to be confined to his home," Jasmyne Cannick, an advocate for the victims, said. "Home is where his crimes were committed. Home is where his drugs were delivered to. Home is where he was injecting people and sexually assaulting people. Home is where two Black men died. So we're excited and happy that the judge saw fit to deny his bail."
Buck is scheduled to go to trial in Los Angeles federal court next year on nine counts with federal prosecutors alleging he has a history of injecting men with drugs and paying them for sexual activity. He also faces state charges of running a drug den.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
