Devil's Knot_ The True Story of the West Memphis Three - Mara Leveritt [63]
“The Discovery Mess”
Four times between August and November, Damien, Jason, and Jessie were hauled back and forth from the boredom of their respective jail cells to various scenes of fury as they were led into court. Jessie, the smallest of the three, hunched, as though trying to make himself even smaller, as deputies marched him past the crowds. Jason walked head down and silent. But Damien seemed unable to ignore the angry taunts. Onlookers lining the sidewalks at the courthouse remarked that he looked sullen. Lax and Damien’s attorneys warned him that his demeanor could harm his defense. When Shettles visited Damien after one of the hearings, she showed him a copy of that morning’sCommercial Appeal .169Afterward, she wrote:
The picture of Michael which appeared in this paper was very detrimental and depicted Michael looking behind him and giving the appearance he was sneering. I reminded Michael once again the community’s and law enforcement’s perception of him is a major aspect of this trial and pre-trial proceedings and should be taken very seriously. Michael stated a female photographer called his name several times before court began and indicated to him to smile. I advised Michael that in all future proceedings he should make no response. He admitted he had “blown a kiss” to the victims’ family members following court. The family members and their friends were calling him a Satan worshiper and yelling he would burn in hell. He told me they were throwing rocks at him as well. We discussed at length the fact that, although he maintained his innocence, the families had endured tremendous grief and pain and their feelings must be taken into consideration. By reacting in the manner he did, he reinforced the belief he was involved in Satanic activities.
Damien told Shettles that the sheriff’s deputy who’d transported him from the jail to the courthouse and back had been “very kind” to him. Damien chuckled that the media had wanted to take his picture, but that the photographers had seemed to be afraid of him. Recalling how, upon his arrival to court, a “circle of guards” had surrounded him, one with a sawed-off shotgun, Damien marveled to Shettles that he was considered so dangerous. As tactfully as she could, Shettles let Damien know that rather than protecting people from him, the guards had been protecting him.
Later she wrote, “Michael stated that once inside, there was no holding area, and he, Jessie, and Jason were placed in an office with guards. He said Jason smiled and shook his head, but Jessie never looked up at either of them. Once again, Michael did not display open hostility toward Jessie and stated he felt the police had put words into Jessie’s mouth to implicate him and Jason.”
While Damien’s lawyers worried, Jason’s lawyer Paul Ford became furious. During one of Ford’s visits with Jason, the boy had told Ford that Detective Ridge had recently come to the jail, to collect court-ordered samples of hair and blood from him.170The incident that Jason then described struck Ford as “extremely troubling.” Ford fired off a letter to Gitchell, in which he explained:
My client informed me that Officer Ridge began to tell him that I was a nice guy and would try to make him like me; however, that I really didn’t care about him and that I could not be trusted. He further told my client that he knew me when I was an attorney in Wynne and he was a police officer in Wynne. He told my client that I could not be trusted and that I really did not have his best interests at heart. He also told my client that I would not do a good job for him, and that I would ultimately sell him out. He then tried to get my client to come clean, confess, and that he could be trusted to take care of him.
Ford continued:
Immediately upon learning this event, I called John Fogleman to express my anger. He agreed with me that I had