Martin Anderson-Boot Camp Death
Martin Lee Anderson, age 14, died within the first few hours at a boot camp in Panama City, Florida on January 6, 2006. Anderson collapsed during exercise and camp officials forced him to continue. Force was used on Anderson by drill instructor including holding Anderson by the arms, take-downs, pressure point applications, and covering his mouth while forcing him to inhale ammonia. The episode lasted approximately 20 minutes. Anderson became unresponsive during the incident and eventually died.
The investigation was the collaborative effort of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, The state Department of Juvenile Justice, and the Bay County Sheriff’s Department.
State Attorney Steve Meadows reported to Governor Jeb Bush that he had “close ties” to FDLE chief, Guy Tunnell, who opened the boot camp while, serving as Bay County sheriff. Meadows appealed to the governor for the case to be reassigned from his office. His request was approved and Bush appointed Mark Ober, Hillsborough County State Attorney, to oversee the case.
On Nov. 28, 2006, seven guards and a nurse were charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child. This is a felony charge.
On Jan. 9, 2006, officials announced that Anderson’s autopsy ruled out “trauma or injury” as the cause of his death.
In mid February the Bay County Medical Examiner, Charles Siebert, announced that his first autopsy determined that the teen died of complications from sickle cell trait, a common condition among African Americans. The body was returned the body to the jurisdiction where the incident occurred.
On March 12, 2006 Anderson’s body was exhumed and a second autopsy was conducted by the coroner of Hillsborough County, Dr. V. Adams. Several other forensic pathologists were attending as consultants to Dr. Adams, including Dr. Michael Baden.
The second autopsy concluded that Anderson’s death was caused by suffocation due to the actions of the guards. Adams said the suffocation was caused by hands blocking the boy’s mouth, as well as the “forced inhalation of ammonia capsules and fumes, used five times to gain his cooperation. This blocked his vocal cords to spasm, blocking Anderson’s upper airway.
There has been much criticism by the Anderson family of the youth advocates, civil-rights and anti-detention groups as well as state and national media outlets.
Dr. Baden said, “Preliminary findings indicate the boy did not die from sickle cell trait, nor did he die from natural causes.” He said that sickle trait by itself does not cause death, and further explained that a “sickle cell crisis” is a sickle cell disease and not the same as sickle trait. Baden explained that by itself, the sickle cell trait is not harmful. People with sickle cell trait can lead perfectly healthy lives. He said, hospital records indicate Anderson’s blood was not sickled until the moment at which he started to die.Dr. Jon Thogmartin, the Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner said, "Michael Baden saying it [sickle cell trait] does not harm you -- considering the literature, he may as well have walked out and said the world is flat."
However, it has been established that people with sickle cell trait have a four thousand percent increase with sudden death when put in a boot camp environment.
(KK, Nishimura KD Martin Army Community Hospital, Kerle Fort Benning, GA 31905, USA: The most serious complication of sickle cell trait (SCT) is sudden death during exertion. SCT often remains unrecognized in the 2.5 million African Americans affected. Exertional collapse and sudden death associated with SCT is characterized by rhabdomyolysis, heat stroke, and cardiac arrhythmia. There is a 40-fold increased risk of sudden death in affected soldiers during military basic training and there are many cases reported in athletes during preseason training. There have been no cases reported in soldiers beyond basic training. In the case presented, a soldier with 3 years of military service succumbed to SCT-associated sudden death during physical fitness testing.
Siebert, the medical examiner that did the first autopsy and found “no foul play”, has been under investigation for negligence after they Medical Examiners Commission found that Siebert showed such negligence in at least 35 out of the 698 cases reviewed. One case involved a 34 year old woman, who he reported that the testicles and prostate gland were “unremarkable”.
On August 3, 2007, Dr. Vincent DiMaio, retired Chief Medical Examiner stated that Dr. Siebert’s conclusions were scientifically valid and that Dr. Adam’s was not. This was echoed some weeks later by Fr. John Hunsaker, former President of the National Association of Medical Examiners, in a radio interview. Dr. Randy Eichner, team doctor for the University of Oklahoma Sooners and expert on exertional deaths, called Dr. Adams conclusions “fantasy.”
FDLE Commissioner, Guy Tunnell, also came under fire for alleged conflicts of interest because of interest in the boot camp. Tunnell resigned from his post as FDLE chief in April 2006 after comments reportedly made by him about Sen. Barack Obama and Rev. Jesse Jackson were leaked to the press. In the comments he compared Jason to Jesse James, and Obama to terrorist Osama Bin Laden. He was later rehired to work on “cold case” files.
Captain Jimmy Stanford was accused of cover-up with the Sheriff, Frank McKeithen. The special prosecutor cleared the agency.
On April 17, 2007, it was reported that Martin Lee Anderson was tested for sickle cell trait at birth and was found to carry the trait, a fact that may have been known by the parents. The boot camp's admission form was checked "no" where it asked whether Martin had sickle cell disease. This information was released after the Governor offered to settle with the family and as of 04/20/2007 has not been mentioned in the Senate that is contemplating the bill to pay $5 million that accuses the guards and boot camp authorities with the responsibility for Martin's death. A trial date has not been set on the criminal complaint against the guards and the nurse at the Boot Camp.
There was a sit’-in and “march for justice”. On April 19 and 20, 2006 a group of college students staged a sit-in taking over Governor Bush’s public waiting room. They demanded that Bush, among other things, order the arrest of the guards who beat Anderson. They also wanted him to issue a public apology for delays in the investigation.
On April 21, 2006, more than 2,000 protesters staged a rally outside of the Florida State Capitol. They were joined by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. They were calling for the arrest of the guards and for changes in the state correctional system.
On July 12, 2006, Robert Anderson and Gina Jones filed a $40 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Bay County Sheriff's Office. Anderson's parents claimed civil-rights violations were committed by both agencies and that both had conspired to cover up significant facts in the investigation, in addition to charges of negligence.
Anderson and Jones offered to settle with the sheriff for $3 million, the maximum allowed under the agency's insurance, but McKeithen refused the offer, calling a settlement "premature" before an investigation was complete. The case is pending; under state sovereign immunity law, if Anderson and Jones win their case, the state's damages would be capped at $200,000.
Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, commenting on the case the same day, said that a $3 million settlement "might not be enough."[
On Oct. 18, 2006, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle set a trial date of April 16, 2007. In the same ruling, the judge dismissed the civil-rights and conspiracy charges against the Department of Juvenile Justice and Bay County Sheriff's Office, and ruled that they would not be responsible for punitive damages.
On March 14, 2007, Gov. Charlie Crist recommended that the state agree to pay $5 million to Anderson's family, in a deal that would allow the Anderson Family to pursue another $5 million from Bay County. The recommendation still has to pass the Florida legislature. Also on March 14, a copy of the video, enhanced by NASA was made public.[
On March 28, 2007 Bay County agreed to settle with Anderson's family for 2.4 million USD.
On Nov. 28, 2006, seven guards (Henry Dickens, Charles Enfinger, Patrick Garrett, Raymond Hauck, Charles Helms Jr., Henry McFadden Jr., and Joseph Walsh II) and a nurse, Kristin Schmidt (who was present during the incident but took no action) were arrested on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child, a felony. When the eight defendants were arraigned on Jan. 18, 2007 they entered "not guilty" pleas. Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet set a pre-trial hearing date for Feb. 22, and they are free on $25,000 bail.
When Martin Anderson died, about 130 youths in Florida were incarcerated in state-run boot camps. Before Anderson's death, the state had received more than 180 complaints about excessive force at the Panama City boot camp.[34]
In mid-February, Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen ended his office's contract with the state to operate the Panama City boot camp where Anderson was beaten. In a letter to Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) head Anthony J. Schembri, McKeithen wrote, "I believe the integrity of the boot camp in Bay County has been compromised, leaving the effectiveness of this program virtually paralyzed."[35]
McKeithen also immediately banned the use of ammonia-inhalant capsules at the Panama City boot camp. McKeithen's announcement came about three weeks before Anderson's body was exhumed for his second autopsy, which uncovered that the teen died from ammonia fumes.
At around the same time, DJJ ordered state sheriffs to do away with violent measures such as punching and kicking at the state's boot camps, and directed nurses to call 911 at the first sign of a problem.
In late April, the Florida Legislature voted to close the state's five juvenile boot camps. The camps were replaced by a less-militaristic program called STAR, which prohibited physical intervention against juvenile inmates. The STAR program had been almost 80 percent effective in test runs around the state at preventing recidivism among inmates.
The bill that enacted the STAR program was renamed the "Martin Lee Anderson Act" by the legislature. Bush signed the bill into law on June 1, 2006.
On October 12, 2007, the jury deliberated for less than 2 hours and found all eight defendants Not Guilty of any charges
The parents have now received more than $7,000,000 in damages.
Researched by Cloey 10-02-07
Research from:
Some areas were copied directly from Wikipedia
ABC New.com
And various other news articles