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Mother of slain boy sues in West Memphis film
This article was published May 17, 1997 at 6:00 a.m.
The mother of one of three 8-year-old West Memphis boys murdered in May 1993 has filed a lawsuit against producers of a television documentary.
The lawsuit said that Creative Thinking, which produced a documentary for HBO, broke an agreement that no graphic material would be shown in the film.
The suit was filed by Pamela Marie Hobbs of Memphis in U.S. District Court. She was the mother of Steven Branch and lived in West Memphis at the time of the deaths.
Steven, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore were last seen riding their bikes May 5, 1993. Their bodies were found the next day in a drainage ditch near their homes.
Damien Wayne Echols, Charles Jason Baldwin and Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. were convicted of the crimes. Echols faces a death sentence. Misskelley and Baldwin are serving life sentences.
The lawsuit says that HBO and Creative Thinking employees, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, breached an agreement in the making of Paradise Lost: The Child Murders of Robinhood Hills.
The movie was shown on HBO a year ago and was recently released on videotape.
Among other things, the suit said Hobbs was asked to sign a waiver of rights Feb. 2, 1994, shortly after she viewed gruesome crime scene photos of her son during Misskelley's trial. Sinofsky and Berlinger said the charge that they asked Hobbs to sign the release on that day was false.
The suit said Hobbs was extremely upset and shocked by the graphic photographs and was not competent to enter into a contract.
The suit also said Hobbs suffered severe emotional distress when she learned that the movie contained graphic scenes that would be viewed by mass audiences.
Creative Thinking is working on an addition to the movie. Berlinger and Sinofsky said the movie was popular around the country and it probably will be broadcast again next spring with the additional footage. The film crew plans to be in the West Memphis area this week ''retracing steps, and talking to those involved.''
