I don't think it's a slippery slope here though. This is just how we normally act when hearing credible negative anecdotes about people in the BJJ community. The only difference is when it's a woman saying it, for some reason (at least from what I have seen in the past), we try to ignore it.
The criminal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt is a high bar to clear. But for putting a man in a cage for potentially the rest of his life, that's the right bar to set. However, we aren't talking about putting De La Riva in prison for this. We are talking about adjusting our view of him accordingly. That is a different bar.
I've (unfortunately) seen by now several criminal cases in these situations resolve themselves. The last one I saw up close ended in a conviction. The evidence that it took to convict was three women coming forward about their rapes. There was a ton of digital evidence (resulted in 1000+ felony counts being filed) including actual videos of the rapes in progress. From the timestamps of the digital evidence + the ages of the parties involved, consent was not even litigated. It was statutory rape in all cases.
This guy was so screwed up, he even raped a dog. They found that in the digital evidence too. I can't make this up. They threw on a cruelty to animals type of charge due to that and convicted him on it too.
That is what it took to overcome the beyond a reasonable doubt bar. But again, when talking about criminal convictions and prison time specifically, that is the bar we have.
Adjusting our opinion of De La Riva after this account is a much lower bar. At least it normally is when it's something one man says about another man.
I remember when BJ left Ralph. He described in detail incidents that were criminal assault and battery. I recall people largely considering them credible based on BJ's account. The stories were largely he said/he said stories, but they were then factored in to Ralph's reputation.
What people did not do is demand BJ convict Ralph in a criminal court of law on the assault charges, etc. They held a different bar. And over the years, Ralph's reputation began to reflect these accounts. Especially after he assaulted Bobby Southworth at a tournament. Most especially after he assaulted Flavio Almeida at yet another.
None of us is putting De La Riva in prison for this. Some of us though may adjust our opinions accordingly. And it's a profound negative adjustment.
Personally my view of him is tainted by this. Maybe that will change in the future, but this was a pretty damning account so my view is negative right now. That's not just me believing Claudia purely because she is a woman. That is just me believing the credible, detailed, firsthand account of a well known BJJ competitor. Man or woman I would likely do the same.
We seem to have no issue with the he said/he said stuff in this community. I think anyone being honest with themselves who has been around BJJ for any length of time at all holds a lot of opinions on different figures primarily off he said/he said anecdotes.
Somehow the reaction seems different when it's he said/she said though. As I posted above, the only silver lining I can find is that I feel we've improved a lot on this over time.
