They say the actions of the boot camp's guards were brutal. Now, the dead youth's family may sue.
By Associated Press
Published February 10, 2006
TALLAHASSEE - A videotape shows guards brutally beating a 14-year-old boy at a military-style boot camp for juvenile offenders not long before he died, two lawmakers said Thursday.
The state is refusing to make the tape public.
Martin Lee Anderson of Panama City died Jan. 6 at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. He collapsed after complaining of breathing problems while doing exercises that were part of intake procedures at the camp. The Bay County Sheriff's Office has said officers restrained him after he became uncooperative.
State Rep. Gus Barreiro called the videotape horrific, saying he had "never seen any kid being brutalized . . . the way I saw this young man being brutalized."
"Even towards the end of the videotape, where you could just see there was pretty much nothing left of Martin, they came out with a couple cups of water and splashed him in the face," Barreiro, a Miami Beach Republican, said. "When you see stuff like that, you want to go through the TV and say, "Enough is enough. Please stop hitting this kid.' "
An attorney for the family, Ben Crump, said the guards forced ammonia tablets up Anderson's nose, trying to keep the youth conscious.
"We can never ever let anything like this happen again and if we don't get this videotape out, people will never know the truth," said Crump, who demanded the tape's release on behalf of the family at a Panama City news conference Thursday. "I don't think there's any question there was excessive force," said Rep. Dan Gelber, a Democrat from Miami Beach and former federal prosecutor familiar with custody cases, who also saw the videotape.
"I think (the public is) going to be shocked at the treatment of this kid and the lack of attention that was paid to his core health needs," Gelber said. "This is a relatively small kid with a half a dozen of pretty strong men and he seemed to be phasing in and out of consciousness."
Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen issued a prepared statement accusing Barreiro and Gelber of overreacting with "irresponsible, premature and incorrect statements" that "add fuel to an already volatile situation."
Bay County authorities and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have refused to make the tape of the incident public, but Barreiro and Gelber said it would be released soon. FDLE spokeswoman Karen Mason said the tape remains a part of the investigation and doesn't fall under the state's open records requirements. "It's absurd," said Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation. "Technically they may be able to claim the exemption ... (but) this is an issue of critical public concern.."
Gov. Jeb Bush said he had not seen the tape but was aware of the contents. Several of his aides had seen it.
"When you have someone in the custody of the state, irrespective (of) their reasons of being there, who dies, it's a concern," Bush said. "Absolutely we're concerned."
Anderson's family said they plan to sue Bay County and the state Department of Juvenile Justice, which oversees boot camp programs.
