



Joined: Member Since: 1/1/01

Posts: 5173

To clarify, there were initially two separate cases against Cameron. These cases and reports are archived and publicly available, search for Cameron Lee Earle born 1977. I will offer a quick summary to each case below before my reaction to each of the charges and Cameron's alibi.



The first and far more serious was the attempted rape charge. Early morning a girl was loading her car in a public parking lot for work and was attacked by knife wielding assailant. The assailant apparently tried to drag her into her car but she managed to fight him off, he then jumped into his truck and drove away. The assailant was described as tall, slightly built and speaking in broken spanish. Two weeks after the fact she saw Cameron in a parking lot, and convinced he was the one who attacked her followed him to an address, then got her brother who called the police.



I have no doubt this poor girl was assaulted. Whether the assailant was Cameron was a different matter. First it's very important to note that he wasn't the first person she identified, she had followed and called the police on someone else the week prior. Secondly, Cameron doesn't fit the description of being slight or Mexican (he's pretty well built and half asian) and I put his spanish on par with Beavis and Butthead's in that episode they almost get kicked out of school. There was a sketch done that could have resembled him, but no mention or recollection of one Cameron's most prominent features, his gnarly cauliflower ears. And finally, as even Cameron's biggest detractors would admit too, the idea of an "attempted rape" by Cameron seemed ludicrous. The girl was described as being small in stature. There is little doubt in my mind someone as well trained as Cameron would have little trouble controlling an untrained female who was much weaker than he was.



The second case was indecent exposure, and apparently Cameron flashed his genitals to a girl as he was driving by, calling out for her to come here.



In this case there was little doubt that this was Cameron, his car (a buick with the punisher logo painted on the hood) was way too distinct and he admitted to being this person. His explanation however was that instead of calling to the girl he was looking for his dog (Cameron had multiple dog which he loved but did not keep track of very well and they often got out). As far as flashing he claimed he was peeing out of his car which is weird, but not unheard of for him. (He actually once pointed out a bottle of urine in his car as I rode with him, much to my disgust).



When the charges and arrest came out the academy was initially supportive of him because we believed him to be innocent on the basis of mistaken identity and some incredible stupid (for anyone besides Cameron) circumstances. This wasn't just close friends and fans assessment of the situation but even folks who didn't like Cameron and the off the record opinion of a few police officers. His bail was set high, and Ralph himself even initially fronted the bail money until Cameron's girlfriend at the time could raise it, and one of his students even put up his house as collateral. We got him out just in time to compete in ADCC 2005 where he turned in a decent performance, for a man who spent the month prior in jail. Although I saw and talked to Cameron during this time, it was less frequently than years past when were near constant companions as he had long since moved out of my apartment (and I had moved in with my then girlfriend) and was splitting time between girlfriend and students. I was the best man at his wedding, a really quick affair in Las Vegas to a different girl he had only met a month prior.



Cameron was out on bail for sometime as he was fighting the case, which actually took awhile to come to trial and he had some high profile matches in that time with mixed results. He had a public defended on the case, and the strategy was to plead no contest on the lesser indecent exposure charge, and not guilty on the attempted rape charge. The cases were actually combined in court, and after about a week trial Cameron was found guilty on both charges. The judge did not take him into custody right away, but scheduled the sentencing for a month later. So Cameron then skips town.



Which was about the shittiest thing you could do. Firstly, his student's house is on the line, which is a terrible thing to do to a friend. Also, as Cameron and I were close so every one assumed I had something to do with his running, while the God honest truth is that I had no idea where he was. I did tell people I didn't think he was smart enough to stay inconspicuous for too long however (remember what i said about him being practically a savant). I actually tried to find him myself during this time (what I would do with him if I caught him I'm not entirely sure). He was eventually picked up in Oregon going by the name Ryan Garcia (Ryan Gracie Marcelo Garcia) while training at some dojo up there. Word is he tried to pass himself off as a new student, which was quickly figured out and an even darker rumor is that the knew who he was but let him train because he was just too valuable. An interesting coincidence is he got picked up the day before I got my black belt, and tried to call me that morning, to say that day is among the most memorable of my life is an understatement.



I did eventually talk to Cameron on the phone, but failed to see him when he brought back to San Jose. I was more than a bit pissed at him for putting me and everyone else through this, especially when did nothing but try to help him. Furthermore, I still believed him to be innocent (at least of the attempted rape) at this time and figured he could have appealed the case. He could have done a lot of things but he picked the dumbest, shittiest thing to do and it made it very hard to defend his character at this point. The judge was pretty pissed also and gave him the maximum sentence which was about seven years I think. I was still steaming until I finally decided to go see him at jail, by that point he was already transferred into the prison system.



We did keep up correspondence through letters, him about his daily routines and me about news from the outside. About a year later, his case is actually heard and conviction is overturned by the California State Supreme Court. This was a pretty landmark ruling in the judicial system because to my knowledge this had never happened in California before for these types of charges. It's also worth noting that the reason wasn't because they thought Cameron was necessarily innocent, but because combining two separate charges from two separate incidents in one trial was grossly unfair I believe what ruling said.



I got a call from a reporter from the San Jose Mercury news and I'm initially elated (again, I had thought Cameron innocent this whole time) when he dropped this bombshell on me: that Cameron's DNA proved a match for a cold case for rape unrelated to these two cases. Apparently a man masked man broke into some poor woman's house on Christmas Eve, raped her knifepoint, ejaculated in her hair and stole a coffee pot. The DNA turned out to match Cameron Earle's. Worst feeling ever, and however I rationalized his not being responsible for the first two instances, there was no way I can refute DNA, with this evidence there is no doubt in my mind that he is guilty.