D'Camera joined the Odenton company at age 16 and devoted his life to firefighting. He worked for the county Fire Department overseeing equipment and supplies and served on the boards of the county and state volunteer firefighters association. He was inducted into the Anne Arundel County Volunteer Firefighters Hall of Fame in 2003.
That year, one of the two plaintiffs, who are identified in the suit as John Doe No.1 and John Doe No. 2, joined the fire company at age 19. D'Camera lured him to his Piney Orchard apartment as a "rite of passage" and ordered the man to undress and masturbate in front of him, the suit claims.
The man was assaulted 15 more times, typically in a private engineman's room, the suit says
In late 2003 or 2004, the man says in the suit, he told a captain about the assaults. He claims that the captain told him not to tell anyone else, and that he would handle the situation.
After the man filed a police report after the last incident in June 2005, the suit alleges, Rose and Chief Charles Rogers told him to "get over" what happened. He says in the lawsuit that another captain told him in January 2006, "It's time for you to leave OVFC."
"Although largely unjustified, you have accumulated a lot of adversaries at Odenton. Your safety and reputation are potentially at risk," the officer told him, according to the suit.
The man said he resigned at the end of the month.
The second plaintiff joined the company in September 2004 at age 16 as a cadet and alleges in the suit that the first assault occurred that fall, when D'Camera called him into the engineman's room to discuss his report card. The suit says he asked the boy why he didn't talk much, and he said he was shy.
According to the lawsuit, D'Camera told the boy to think of the most embarrassing thing he could think of to overcome his shyness - D'Camera suggested undressing - and then instructed him to walk around the room nude while D'Camera scolded him about his grades.
The boy resigned from the company in July 2005 and returned in February 2006 after D'Camera's death. But he left again in March last year, after members of the company retaliated against him for filing a police report against D'Camera, the lawsuit says.
He was given undesirable riding assignments, and assigned to ride on the "tower" truck despite a fear of heights, the suits says. He also alleges that he was given a disproportionate number of chores around the station house.
