In December 2020, an Albuquerque woman accused Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, Rafael Barata Freitas of sexually assaulting her. According to the woman at the time, she had fallen asleep whilst he was teaching at her house, and had performed a sex act on her whilst she slept.
Within a week, the attorney of Freitas claimed that the charges were false and that they would battle these accusations in court. Fast forward to 2021, and Freitas was found not-guilty of raping his client. In a statement from his attorney, it read “Comes now the State of New Mexico by and through its Deputy District Attorney, Allysa Gambarella, and enters a nolle prosequi without prejudice in the above captioned case. While probably cause existed at the time of arrest, additional investigation has revealed that, at this time, there exists an insufficient factual basis to meet the State’s burden at trial. Nolle prosequi means that the state will no longer prosecute. In this case it means that De Freitas’ two charges of criminal sexual penetration in the third degree have been dismissed.”
For those wondering, Rafael Freitas is best known in the BJJ world for inventing the ‘Baratoplata’ which is a variation of the Omoplata shoulder lock. He has also won Pan-Ams and Worlds as a black belt.
