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Saturday, Feb 11, 2006

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Posted on Sat, Feb. 11, 2006

BOOT CAMP DEATH

Earlier cases fault guard

A guard being investigated in the death of a teen at a Panhandle boot camp once was suspended following a similar allegation.

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER AND MARC CAPUTO

cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com

PANAMA CITY - One of the seven guards under investigation in the death of a 14-year-old boy at a Panama City boot camp was suspended without pay in 2004 for failing to ''seek medical attention'' for a youth who accused him of smashing his face into the ground, bloodying his nose.

The officer, Patrick Tate Garrett, also was accused by a youth later that year of being among three guards who ''put their fingers into his throat so he couldn't breathe,'' according to a report that cleared Garrett and the others of any wrongdoing.

Yet another guard, Sgt. Henry Leslie Dickens, was part of a group that ''choked'' a boy during a restraint in March, according to a complaint from the youth that an investigation ruled was unfounded.

Both Garrett and Dickens are among seven officers at the Bay County Boot Camp under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for Martin Lee Anderson's Jan. 6 death. Martin complained at least twice that he could not breathe during a series of controversial restraints at the camp the day before.

The events are detailed in a series of ''incident'' reports written by investigators of the Bay County Sheriff's Office. The Miami Herald obtained the records from the sheriff's office and the state Department of Juvenile Justice. Many of the records portray Garrett, Dickens and the other officers as stellar employees.

Martin, 14, of Panama City, was sent to the boot camp after police arrested him for joyriding in his grandmother's car during a Sunday church service. He was charged with grand theft.

On Jan. 5, Martin arrived at the military-style camp along with several other youths for initiation, which includes a program of strenuous exercise and discipline. Officers have said only that Martin had trouble breathing after guards restrained him for failing to cooperate with orders to perform more exercises.

Martin told the camp's nurse, Kristin Schmidt, ''he could not breathe'' following one of the ''use of force techniques'' officers used on him, but the nurse concluded that he ''appeared comfortable and in no respiratory distress,'' Schmidt told a Department of Juvenile Justice official the day Martin died.

LAST MOMENTS

Some of Martin's last moments at the camp were detailed in the report by the DJJ's chief medical director, Shairi R. Turner, in a Jan. 9 ''youth death report'' obtained by The Herald.

''His breathing was not felt to be labored and his respiratory rate had not changed,'' Turner wrote, quoting Schmidt.

Moments later, however, Martin told boot camp staff ''he could not see and he could not breathe,'' Turner quoted Schmidt as saying. ``He continued to make purposeful movements, then went limp.''

The report says it was almost 20 minutes between when the nurse first ''assessed'' the youth and called paramedics.

The report documented ``profuse bleeding from [Martin's] nose and mouth, requiring multiple units of blood and IV fluids.''

The medical examiner in Panama City has yet to release a cause of death.

Officials have said there was no sign of bruising on Martin's body, but two state lawmakers who viewed a videotape of the encounter have told The Miami Herald that it shows officers punching, kicking and choking the youth, and apparently pushing something up his nose -- identified by an investigator as an ammonia capsule, used to revive unconscious patients.

Martin's parents, who have been denied the right to see the tape, have hired a lawyer and say they fear a ``coverup.''

SUSPENDED

In the previous case implicating Garrett, he was ordered suspended on Aug. 6, 2004, for three days without pay for failing to report to his supervisors an incident that had occurred on July 30 of that year. He also was faulted for failing to request medical attention for the youth in the incident, and failing to use proper techniques for ``motivational physical training.''

In that case, a youth had complained he ''was having difficulty performing pushups when Sgt. Garrett pushed his head to the floor, causing his face to hit the floor and his nose to bleed,'' a report says.

In addition to the three-day suspension, Garrett was ordered to remain in a ''non-contact'' status with youths at the camp until he was retrained in procedures for ''reporting and requesting medical assistance for youths,'' the ''proper practice of approved physical training exercises'' for youths and reporting incidents up the chain of command.

''It is my duty to inform you that any further violations of this nature may result in more severe disciplinary action and/or termination . . .'' said a letter to Garrett written by a camp captain.

Yet Garrett's personnel file, also supplied by the sheriff's office, portrays a somewhat different officer.

His annual evaluation notes: ''Sgt. Garrett exhibits good control over offenders'' and that he can ``be counted on to work extra when details are needed.''

The man who prepared the report: Raymond Hauck, also implicated in Martin's case. In a separate case, a youth said he was ''physically abused'' by Garrett and two other officers ''after he became non-resistant'' during an incident Oct. 30, 2004.

The youth claimed that Garrett and the two others ''continued to put their fingers into his throat so he couldn't breathe'' after he no longer was resisting their use of force, according to a report, which cleared the officers of any wrongdoing.

PRESSURE APPLIED

Dickens, who also received high praise from supervisors, was involved in an incident Feb. 8, 2005, in which a youth claimed he and six drill instructors applied ''pressure to his Adam's apple'' and applied pressure to his throat ``until it began to cut off his air.''

'The staff yelled for the juvenile to say, `Sir, yes sir,' which the juvenile immediately did,'' said the report, which found no excessive force was used.

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