I just found a copy of the criminal complaint online. Some very interesting stuff, and some VERY impressive police work.

Basically, Harlow and Joe are fucked.

The police did an incredible, detailed, meticulous job tracing emails sent to Bryan and associating them with IP addresses associated with Harlow's home and Sprint PCS wireless modem accounts, verified the IP address in the router during the search of Harlow's house. The search of Harlow's home found two camcorders - with serial numbers filed off - matching ones that Bryan had owned, that turned up missing in his house after the fire... AND a posting to a message board by Harlow, made from his computer's IP address, saying he "just got this camera (same model as was stolen from Bryan's house and found at Harlow's house) and doesn't have the manual" and asking how to use it, 2 days after the murder.

Not to mention documentation of a disposable cell phone purchased 2 days before the murder and used only to call Bryan, which was activated from a cell tower a couple hundred yards from Harlow's house, and also used a few hundred feet from Bryan's house to call Bryan... a constant stream of emails from Harlow's laptop, including ones to Bryan, *except* during the 2 hours when the murder took place when there were no emails; emails to and from Harlow to Bryan confirming the meeting time and details; emails from both Harlow and Joe to others saying they would be "out of town" for the 2 days before and after the murder, and all the other stuff (the rental car, purchase of the knife, the hotel records.)

How anyone can possibly claim (as one wingnut is saying) that this is a "frame job" with planted evidence is completely beyond me.

The other interesting thing the report makes mention of is the interception of the conversation at the nude beach. Apparently it was done at the Torrey Pines glider port, which is at the top of the cliffs several hundred feet above Black's Beach. About 6 agencies, including the DEA, were involved in the surveillance. I'm guessing they used a parabolic or other distance-sensitive microphone, though one theory is a mike hidden in Brent's sunglasses.

Apparently Harlow and Joe are recorded saying they took all of Bryan's master DV tapes, three of his computers, and paperwork and releases from Bryan's house and destroyed everything (though supposedly there are backups off site.)

And... Harlow is reported to have sent emails to Grant through Myspace saying "When do we start filming, we had an agreement" and "you need to make some kind of contact with us before we tell them you hired us" and "we all know what you said to us at the AVN in Vegas, and we have it on tape, don't fuck with us"

Now... that last part could easily be blowing smoke and/or threatening to get their way... but at the very least, the whole thing really stinks.

So, according to the police affidavit, at least, we have Harlow in premeditation, plotting, planning, taking pains to cover things up (though with gross ineptitude) and then saying incriminating things after the fact. Not only is the guy evil beyond belief, but a complete dumbass to boot.

And to think that he was arrogant enough to think that the only real competition to his dinky company was Cobra.... or that his company even mattered...

The one other part which was, to me, pretty disgusting was that apparently it was Bryan's expectation that this model he was meeting (Harlow), who was supposedly coming for an interview to be a Cobra model, would be staying over and having sex with him that night. Oh, and supposedly he never asked Harlow for his ID, though he did have him sign a release. I guess that just goes to further reinforce what people had been saying about Bryan all along.

So... I guess the jury is still out on whether anyone else knew or hired them, but the whole thing is really sad, and, if what Harlow's emails said are true, definitely doesn't make Brent look good.