HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Team 4 has learned that the commander of Pennsylvania's Region 4 EMS Strike Team and an assistant fire chief in Leetsdale, Allegheny County, was recently charged with rape of an unconscious person in connection with a hotel incident that happened one year ago.
State police troopers in Harrisburg filed charges in July against Amos P. Cameron, who's also a top official with Emergency Medical Service Institute -- an agency that works for the state Department of Health to inspect ambulance companies in western Pennsylvania.
Team 4 investigator Jim Parsons reported that the alleged victim is the director of operations for a Philadelphia-area nonprofit consulting company and is considered a statewide expert on emergency medical services.
The alleged victim was one of the speakers at Pennsylvania's annual EMS conference at the Holiday Inn Harrisburg-Hershey on Aug. 11, 2008. It was at that same conference that the woman claims she was raped.
Cameron's lawyer, Steven Townsend, told Team 4 that he thinks the case is flawed and he wants to know why it took police almost a year to make an arrest.
"Something didn't add up, and it still doesn't add up today, and I think that's why it took them 11 months," Townsend said. "And I give the state police all the credit in the world for doing their due diligence, but sometimes when you have a case like this -- especially a sex assault case -- you don't want to tell a victim she's not a victim."
In an affidavit of probable cause, state police said the woman was having dinner and drinks with colleagues at the hotel bar when she began to feel nauseous. On the way to her room, she said she ran into several acquaintances, including Cameron, who she said offered to walk her to the room.
According to the affidavit, the woman told police that Cameron entered her room and gave her a drink after she vomited, and her next recollection was waking up on the bed as Cameron was on top of her having sex with her.
"She tried to stop him and push him off of her, but she 'went blank' again," the affidavit said. "Later that morning, (the woman) woke up at approximately 0530 hrs. lying naked in her bed, covered by a sheet, her clothes folded neatly on the side table."
According to the affidavit, she then remembered what happened earlier in the morning.
The woman drove to Milton S. Hershey Medical Center for an examination and filed a report with police, who said Cameron later told them that the sex was consensual, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit is signed by Trooper Brian Krause and says that Trooper Michael Peterson of Trevose conducted the initial investigation. It also says that Cameron was interviewed three months later by Pittsburgh-based Trooper Pierre Wilson.
Cameron agreed to two police interviews and passed a polygraph test, according to his lawyer.
"Any time someone is accused of a sexual assault of this nature, it doesn't take 11 1/2 months for them to be arrested," Townsend said. "They get arrested immediately. You go to court and ferret out the facts and you move forward. It's taken almost a year now, so I think that it's a fair assumption that he's not a threat to anyone."
State police and the Dauphin County district attorney's office declined Team 4's request for an interview to ask why it took almost a year to bring charges against Cameron.
Cameron, 47, of Leetsdale, is free on $200,000 bond and is still on the job at Wilkinsburg-based EMSI. His next court appearance is scheduled for October in Harrisburg.
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