TexAgs,
I don't feel the need to defend Damon other than to say I want good things for him. And, for me that's this: I hope he gets the help he needs, I hope he is able to face his deeds head-on and repent, and I hope he is someday reconciled with his family, his boys, and the people here that he has injured.
I think many here would agree, Damon wasn't always the guy in the recent mugshot. He was a obnoxious personality for sure, but he was endearing at the same time and seemed to generally care for others. There are numerous posters here that considered (and still consider) him a friend. That wasn't because of what he posted here, but because of the many personal interactions over the years. Damon was a good guy, with a big heart and he created a lot of real-life friendships with TexAgs others on this site.
Most of us knew of troubles for Damon in his personal life: His first marriage falling apart (and then his second), his drinking to excess, etc. I wasn't aware of everything that was going on because he would let me know only what he wanted me to know. He probably did this with numerous friends only letting them in on parts of his story that were advantageous.
The best I can remember, Damon and I were in good personal standing into 2013. In fact, I encouraged a family member to use him for legal counsel toward the beginning of that year. They did and Damon performed the legal work he was retained to do. However, in 2014 things seemed to fall off a cliff for Damon when it came to light that he busted for running drugs and some money related problems with a couple posters surfaced. It's at that point sometime late 2014 - that I began to put some distance between Damon personally and professionally. It's quite possible (and likely) this type of stuff was going for some time before 2014, but I was not aware of it.
I say all the above to help make this point: Damon wasn't always what can now be captured in an arrest report. We can all see now how far he has fallen and how deep his transgressions go. If I knew things were headed to this (or even on this road), I would have never been involved with Damon nor allowed him to be involved with this site.
With that, here is an accounting of what I knew about Damon and how he was involved with TexAgs over the years:
Damon was contributor to TexAgs Radio via the fan show segment starting in 2009 (when it was only a podcast) and ending in 2014.
Damon was a volunteer junior moderator from 2009 until August 2017. He was recruited to moderate because we needed someone familiar with Rivalries forum. As a junior level moderator he only had permissions to remove/edit topics and posts. He never had the ability to ban/warn/reinstate users. He moderated Rivalries, General, and Texas A&M Football initially and expanded to all forums (but not Varsity) in 2013. He was demoted back down to only Rivalries in early 2016 and removed all together as a moderator in August 2017. Most of Damon's moderation occurred before 2014 and his participation feel off considerably after that. For example, he moderated a total of 4 posts in 2016.
At no time did Damon have access to personal information of users. His involvement with TexAgs was limited to his TexAgs Radio contributions and his volunteer moderating. Damon was never an employee or paid staff of TexAgs.
As of Saturday, Damon account has been permanently suspended and all subscription levels removed. He will not be allowed back here until he has fully reconciled with users he has defrauded and otherwise injured.
What I knew (to best of my recollection):
2013 - Damon was a handful, but I fully trusted him into 2013.
2013 - Later in the year I learned that Damon had been arrested for drug possession.
2014 - In October, a topic appeared on Varsity in which the OP accused Damon of scamming him for $1200. The OP had retained Damon for legal work but a) Damon did not perform in a timely manner and b) Damon had had his license suspended due to the drug related charge above. Damon came on and posted a lengthy confession in which he admitted the drug related charge, his financial troubles, his disbarment, and claimed that the work had started before his disbarment and that the work in question was being pursued by another firm. He claimed he was too embarrassed to tell the OP previously but confessed to all on Varsity. I left the thread open until all felt like they were heard and most, at the time, seemed satisfied with his response. The OP reached out to inform me that the matter had been resolved and asked me to remove the thread.
2014 - On the same day as above, a varsity user reached out to me and informed me that they too were in conflict with Damon concerning money taken in leu of legal representation. The user wasn't interested in bringing it to forums. In hindsight I should have pushed them to do so or done it on their behalf. At the very least, I should have circled back around and checked-in on what Damon was doing to remedy this. This situation is still unreconciled.
2015 thru 2016 - I don't recall any significant contact with Damon or topics discussing his offsite behavior. No one contacted me about inappropriate behavior on or through the site. I didn't have any personal contact with him (other than maybe a few texts) and He wasn't around much at all. I was hoping he was busy getting his life together.
2017 - A user pulled me aside at our annual kick-off function and shared how Damon had fallen further into substance abuse and was leading this user's family member down the same path. This user also described another family loaning Damon money and money not being paid back. I sent an email at the event to our lead tech requesting that all moderation permissions still in effect be removed.
2018 - I had no meaningful contact with Damon nor was I privy to his whereabouts or dealings. No one contacted me about inappropriate behavior on or through the site.
2019 - A thread was started on Old Rivalries linking to a new arrest report. Some users described numerous other users being scammed by Damon through this site. This thread was left open for a full discussion. That other users had apparently been defrauded was new information to me.
To my knowledge, the admin and moderators on this site have not suppressed any discussion of Damon's behavior. If someone believes that we have, please speak up and offer examples. There are also references to users discussing the many people that Damon has misled and/or defrauded. If that discussion did happen, I'm not aware of it happening here on these forums nor did these users bring it to my attention.
Damon formed personal relationships on this site and other places (like Facebook, etc). How he cultivated those relationships and what he did offline was his own doing and we were not aware of it, other than what has been described above. His online persona was something he created and many persons were attracted to that. We are not in the business of knowing, nor have the ability to know, what those who post here do in the private lives unless they share it publicly or unless they are brought to our attention by other users.
I'll close by restating that Damon is not allowed back onto the site unless and until he is fully reconciled with the posters here. I wish him the best in his attempts to get his live together and I hope that he is successful in doing so.
Brandon
Link to the original thread: https://texags.com/forums/6/topics/3017353
(edited for formatting issues)
I don't feel the need to defend Damon other than to say I want good things for him. And, for me that's this: I hope he gets the help he needs, I hope he is able to face his deeds head-on and repent, and I hope he is someday reconciled with his family, his boys, and the people here that he has injured.
I think many here would agree, Damon wasn't always the guy in the recent mugshot. He was a obnoxious personality for sure, but he was endearing at the same time and seemed to generally care for others. There are numerous posters here that considered (and still consider) him a friend. That wasn't because of what he posted here, but because of the many personal interactions over the years. Damon was a good guy, with a big heart and he created a lot of real-life friendships with TexAgs others on this site.
Most of us knew of troubles for Damon in his personal life: His first marriage falling apart (and then his second), his drinking to excess, etc. I wasn't aware of everything that was going on because he would let me know only what he wanted me to know. He probably did this with numerous friends only letting them in on parts of his story that were advantageous.
The best I can remember, Damon and I were in good personal standing into 2013. In fact, I encouraged a family member to use him for legal counsel toward the beginning of that year. They did and Damon performed the legal work he was retained to do. However, in 2014 things seemed to fall off a cliff for Damon when it came to light that he busted for running drugs and some money related problems with a couple posters surfaced. It's at that point sometime late 2014 - that I began to put some distance between Damon personally and professionally. It's quite possible (and likely) this type of stuff was going for some time before 2014, but I was not aware of it.
I say all the above to help make this point: Damon wasn't always what can now be captured in an arrest report. We can all see now how far he has fallen and how deep his transgressions go. If I knew things were headed to this (or even on this road), I would have never been involved with Damon nor allowed him to be involved with this site.
With that, here is an accounting of what I knew about Damon and how he was involved with TexAgs over the years:
Damon was contributor to TexAgs Radio via the fan show segment starting in 2009 (when it was only a podcast) and ending in 2014.
Damon was a volunteer junior moderator from 2009 until August 2017. He was recruited to moderate because we needed someone familiar with Rivalries forum. As a junior level moderator he only had permissions to remove/edit topics and posts. He never had the ability to ban/warn/reinstate users. He moderated Rivalries, General, and Texas A&M Football initially and expanded to all forums (but not Varsity) in 2013. He was demoted back down to only Rivalries in early 2016 and removed all together as a moderator in August 2017. Most of Damon's moderation occurred before 2014 and his participation feel off considerably after that. For example, he moderated a total of 4 posts in 2016.
At no time did Damon have access to personal information of users. His involvement with TexAgs was limited to his TexAgs Radio contributions and his volunteer moderating. Damon was never an employee or paid staff of TexAgs.
As of Saturday, Damon account has been permanently suspended and all subscription levels removed. He will not be allowed back here until he has fully reconciled with users he has defrauded and otherwise injured.
What I knew (to best of my recollection):
2013 - Damon was a handful, but I fully trusted him into 2013.
2013 - Later in the year I learned that Damon had been arrested for drug possession.
2014 - In October, a topic appeared on Varsity in which the OP accused Damon of scamming him for $1200. The OP had retained Damon for legal work but a) Damon did not perform in a timely manner and b) Damon had had his license suspended due to the drug related charge above. Damon came on and posted a lengthy confession in which he admitted the drug related charge, his financial troubles, his disbarment, and claimed that the work had started before his disbarment and that the work in question was being pursued by another firm. He claimed he was too embarrassed to tell the OP previously but confessed to all on Varsity. I left the thread open until all felt like they were heard and most, at the time, seemed satisfied with his response. The OP reached out to inform me that the matter had been resolved and asked me to remove the thread.
2014 - On the same day as above, a varsity user reached out to me and informed me that they too were in conflict with Damon concerning money taken in leu of legal representation. The user wasn't interested in bringing it to forums. In hindsight I should have pushed them to do so or done it on their behalf. At the very least, I should have circled back around and checked-in on what Damon was doing to remedy this. This situation is still unreconciled.
2015 thru 2016 - I don't recall any significant contact with Damon or topics discussing his offsite behavior. No one contacted me about inappropriate behavior on or through the site. I didn't have any personal contact with him (other than maybe a few texts) and He wasn't around much at all. I was hoping he was busy getting his life together.
2017 - A user pulled me aside at our annual kick-off function and shared how Damon had fallen further into substance abuse and was leading this user's family member down the same path. This user also described another family loaning Damon money and money not being paid back. I sent an email at the event to our lead tech requesting that all moderation permissions still in effect be removed.
2018 - I had no meaningful contact with Damon nor was I privy to his whereabouts or dealings. No one contacted me about inappropriate behavior on or through the site.
2019 - A thread was started on Old Rivalries linking to a new arrest report. Some users described numerous other users being scammed by Damon through this site. This thread was left open for a full discussion. That other users had apparently been defrauded was new information to me.
To my knowledge, the admin and moderators on this site have not suppressed any discussion of Damon's behavior. If someone believes that we have, please speak up and offer examples. There are also references to users discussing the many people that Damon has misled and/or defrauded. If that discussion did happen, I'm not aware of it happening here on these forums nor did these users bring it to my attention.
Damon formed personal relationships on this site and other places (like Facebook, etc). How he cultivated those relationships and what he did offline was his own doing and we were not aware of it, other than what has been described above. His online persona was something he created and many persons were attracted to that. We are not in the business of knowing, nor have the ability to know, what those who post here do in the private lives unless they share it publicly or unless they are brought to our attention by other users.
I'll close by restating that Damon is not allowed back onto the site unless and until he is fully reconciled with the posters here. I wish him the best in his attempts to get his live together and I hope that he is successful in doing so.
Brandon
Link to the original thread: https://texags.com/forums/6/topics/3017353
(edited for formatting issues)
Gig'em,
Brandon '95
