He pled guilty to those charges--as he says he does with every crime he actually commits.

"If I did do it, I'll plead [guilty], but if I didn't do it, I won't plead guilty," he says.

He earned his high-school equivalency diploma while in prison, he says.

After his release, he headed into the mountains with friends where they spent a month camping. Then he did the same thing for another month outside Boulder, Colo.

Over the summer, he visited family in Chicago to tell them he planned on coming to Boston to settle down.

"They won't be happy to find out that I'm settling down in prison," he sighs.

A New Start?

Bargeil's been in Cambridge for about a month, living at a makeshift campsite down by the Charles River. According to the Massachusetts State Police, about 10 people live at the campsite.

Bargeil says he loves Harvard Square for its laid-back atmosphere, but is sometimes frustrated by dealing with Harvard students.

In the month he has been here, he has gotten into shouting matches with numerous students, and a couple have even taken swings at him, he says. When that happens, he says, his fellow friends in the pit are left with few options.

"What are we supposed to do?" he asks. "We could call the police, but they show up, look at us and tell us that we started it."

"It's a no-way street for us. For a Harvard student, they have every avenue," he says.

On the other hand, he has made friends with some students--one of whom even put out a flyer in Bargeil's defense after the assault.

Entitled "What If?," the flyer attempts to tell Bargeil's side of the story, and was handed out in the Square last week.

Bargeil also says he has more of a reason to settle down and end his drifting days now. He recently met a woman who works in the Square.

Wearing a gray jumpsuit, white socks and black sandals--all prison-issued--and sporting a beard and full head of chestnut hair, Bargeil speaks lovingly of his relationship with his black girlfriend, June, who he has been dating for about two weeks.