IIRC, Damien was abused and raped by
guards, which is why his suit was rejected by the courts. Does anyone believe that LE officials always tell the truth? Does anyone believe that LE officials don't take care of their own? Just because his suit didn't succeed does not mean that the events he described did not take place. They did, and they are pretty common in prison, whether by prisoners or guards.
As to why LE didn't seek help from outside agencies, they were being investigated themselves by the FBI, so I seriously doubt that they would want to call them in. At the time, the WMPD drug task force was under investigation by the FBI for the disappearance of drugs and money from custody. Some members of the force lost their jobs as a result of the investigation, IIRC.
Probation is
not parole. The judge's language at the hearing was a ten year "suspended sentence." The "SIS" means "suspended imposition of sentence." The point here is that they have no travel restrictions, and they do not have to report periodically to a PO.
Taunting behavior is not evidence of mental illness or of anything other than bad teenaged behavior, as I said before. And bad teenaged behavior is not evidence of guilt. It is just bad behavior.
As to the drugs, his mother maintained that he took the drugs. Damien himself said in his book,
Almost Home, that he took the drugs until he was forced to go off of them "cold turkey" when on Death Row. During the trial, he was taking them but was forced to stop at the time of his incarceration on Death Row.
I don't see what's wrong with his reading lots of books. As to being able to tune out the din around him, he practiced meditation techniques. He has discussed this at some length in letters he wrote from prison which are posted here:
http://www.freewestmemphis3.org/ind...ent&view=category&layout=blog&id=38&Itemid=89
As to the comment about a swanky hotel and celebrities at a party, if it happened, they deserve it. They were just released from prison where they had been for 18 years for crimes that they did not commit. They are entitled to a little luxury.
As to seclusion, with one father threatening Damien on television and having to be thrown out of court during the hearing, I hope they are well protected. There are still a lot of nuts out there that think they're guilty. And, if something happened to them, you can bet your butt that the families would file a wrongful death suit against the State of Arkansas that would be pretty costly. Of course, Arkansas doesn't want that to happen. So, I'm pretty sure that they'll be well protected until they can get out of that State for good!