Anne Arundel County To Pay $321,000 To Victims

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that the Anne Arundel County Fire Department will pay two men $321,000 as a result of a sexual harassment suit filed against the County and the Odenton Volunteer Fire Department. The settlement, while not admitting any wrong doing, includes $175,000 for the victims and $146,000 for their legal fees.

The suit stems from allegations that the former chief of the fire department (and County Fire Department Quartermaster), Louis D’Camera sexually abused the two members. The two victims tried to handle the incidents in house by reporting the actions of D’Camera to superiors, but they allege that the fire department looked the other way.

The abuses began in 2003 and 2004 according to the victims. D’Camera had been charged with a 3rd Degree sex offense against an Odenton volunteer firefighter in 1998. In June of 2005, he was charged by Baltimore police for indecent exposure after being witnessed by police performing a sex act on an 18 year old male.

In early July 2005, the two victims in this case came forward to police shortly after the Baltimore charges became public. About a week later, Chief Louis D’Camera committed suicide in southern Anne Arundel County.