Tuesday, March 2, 2021, the judge in Ed Buck’s federal criminal case heard arguments on his motion to suppress evidence on the grounds of an unreasonable and warrantless search and violations of his 4th Amendment rights. Buck’s defense is that sheriff’s arriving at his home the night of the death of Gemmel Moore who observed meth and drug paraphernalia in plain view did so illegally. At the center of Buck’s attorney’s argument was the red toolbox that many of Buck’s victims told me about and that Jasmyne Cannick wrote extensively about. Buck’s victims said that red toolbox was a smorgasbord of drugs. The deputy testified today that drawers were partially open and that she could see drugs and drug paraphernalia. Christopher Darden and his flunky argued that the evidence
seized was the product of an unreasonable search and seizure.
The judge also heard Buck’s attorney’s arguments that a deputy who found a package containing syringes and glass pipes that appeared to have burn marks at the bottom on a ledge outside Buck’s window on the night Timothy Dean died did so illegally. The deputy found this after a woman told the deputy that there was a suspicious package under Buck’s window. Remember, Buck’s lives—no make that lived—on the second floor in his apartment building. His attorneys argued that the window ledge, where the box with the drugs was located, is part of the area connected to his apartment, and is subject to 4th Amendment protection. The US Attorney's office argued he was trying to hide it from the deputies responding to the death of Timothy Dean.
One of the absolute hardest things to witness during the hearing was a video of Gemmel Moore used by the US Attorney's office to show that the red toolbox drawers were in fact open as the deputy testified. In the video, a very much alive Gemmel Moore can be seen smoking what appears to be crystal meth and blowing the smoke into a tube that went into a pair of white underwear he was wearing. As you recall, every person Jasmyne Cannick interviewed about their time with Ed Buck said that he had a fetish for Black men in white underwear. When Gemmel blew that smoke into the tube his penis became erect. It’s at this exact point that the video is stopped and for about two minutes attendees had to look at Gemmel’s erect penis with a red toolbox behind it. It just didn’t seem right and it just seemed to add to the further objectification of Black men and their bodies that has been at the center of this entire case.
But Buck’s two Black attorneys didn’t even seem phased by it. And why should they be? Darden was too busy giving his client peace signs at the beginning of the hearing. I guess as long as the checks clear, they could care less.
The judge is going to come back with her ruling next week.