I don't like how any of this went down, but there should not be a penalty on anyone but the attending ref who got caught napping.
When he asked the attending ref what ball Earl had called, the ref told him "I don't know." The thing is, though, that he was inside the arena, so this just doesn't make any sense. By all rights, John should have scolded this referee for not paying attention to the match.
There wasn't a person in the room that didn't realize that Earl made the ball he attempted, although he had considered (and now it seems, called) other options.
To his credit, John fully understood that intent didn't matter here, for he'd have otherwise had no reason to listen to the audio at all. Without proof, John was not in a position to penalize Earl in any way and had no choice but to allow him to continue shooting.
It's a sad occasion that has compromised the integrity of our sport, which really doesn't help any.
Whoever you were cheering for, surely you're not cheering for the ref that wasn't paying enough attention to the match to make the call that would have made all the subsequent nonsense unnecessary.