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Enhanced video shows guards hitting teen
Early edition: Boot camp staff did not tell emergency rescue workers that they had restrained and hit 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson after his collapse on an athletic field, rescuers say.
By TIMES STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Published March 14, 2007
TAMPA --- Guards at a Bay County sheriff's boot camp did not tell emergency rescue workers that they had restrained and hit 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson after his collapse on an athletic field, rescuers say in sworn statements.
Instead, the guards said they tried to revive Martin with ammonia capsules after he fell.
The statements were released Wednesday with 20,000 pages of investigative reports amassed by prosecutors in the manslaughter case against seven guards who were videotaped manhandling Martin in January 2006 and against the nurse who observed.
The Hillsborough State Attorney's office also released an enhanced version of the video, which shows guards striking Martin with closed fists on his forearm, pinning him to the ground and holding what appears to a white cloth to his face.
The 36-minute video is still grainy and overexposed after a NASA enhancement. It also shows guards repeatedly hauling the boy to his feet and knees at the Bay County sheriff's boot camp in Panama City. They guards haul him up against a pole and apparently throw water in his face.
Investigative reports said the nurse examined him early in the incident and said his vital signs were normal. The tape shows her watching, but she does not appear to give Anderson another close examination until about 27 minutes into the tape.
At that point, guards have stopped hitting him.
Paramedics arrive about 35 minutes into the tape and load Anderson onto a stretcher on Jan. 5, 2006. He died in a Pensacola hospital the next day, starting a case that led to the dismantling of Florida's military-style detention system for young offenders and protests at the state Capitol.
An initial autopsy found Anderson died of natural complications of sickle cell trait, a usually benign blood disorder. But after an uproar and cries of a cover-up from the boy's family, a second autopsy was conducted by another medical examiner, who concluded Anderson suffocated by the guards' hands over his mouth and the "forced inhalation of ammonia fumes."
Anderson collapsed at the camp while doing exercises. The guards said they were trying to revive him, but Anderson's family and others were outraged at the video footage.
The guards and the nurse pleaded not guilty last month. They face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of aggravated manslaughter of a child.
Waylon Graham, the attorney for the highest-ranking guard, Charles Helms, was in court and could not be immediately reached Wednesday, said a woman who answered the telephone at his office.
Telephone messages left at the offices of Bob Pell, the attorney for guard Joseph Walsh, and Robert Sombathy, guard Patrick Tate Garrett's attorney, were not immediately returned.
Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen declined to comment because the investigation is ongoing, said Barbara Bell, his executive assistant.
Dr. Charles Siebert, the medical examiner in six Panhandle counties who did the initial autopsy, said he had reviewed copies of some of the documents released Wednesday, including consultants' reports and a second autopsy, in the last couple of weeks.
But he stood by his original ruling pinning Anderson's death to the blood disorder.
"If he was suffocated by these guards and that's the only reason why he's dead, at this point, how do you explain him collapsing before the guards ever touched him?" Siebert said.
But Siebert didn't rule out the possibility that the guards played some role.
"There's always that question of whether the guards did make it worse," he said. "That's certainly a possibility."
The boy's family sued the sheriff's office and the state Department of Juvenile Justice, which over saw the camp system. A judge ruled last month that the $40 million wrongful death lawsuit must wait for the state's criminal case against the guards to conclude.
The case also led to the resignation of Florida Department of Law Enforcement chief Guy Tunnell, who established the boot camp when he was Bay County sheriff.
He was under fire after being scolded by then-Gov. Jeb Bush for exchanging e-mails with McKeithen, criticizing those who questioned the effectiveness of the boot camp concept.
Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober was appointed as a special prosecutor to investigate Anderson's death.
The state Medical Examiner's Commission found Siebert was negligent in performing 39 of 698 autopsies it reviewed. The review didn't include Anderson's case, but came about after complaints of shoddy work in that autopsy.
Siebert was disciplined and ordered to work the remainder of his contract, lasting through June, under supervision.
[Last modified March 14, 2007, 15:55:24]
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Comments on this article
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by Che-Che
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10/17/07 01:03 PM
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To me it dont matter if it was Aggravated Manslaughter its still MURDER.They should of neva hit him or even laid one finger on him in the first place...For that they should also be charged with CHILD ABUSE.And they should be given those 30 years
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by Liem
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10/17/07 01:00 PM
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I think that it's horrible that the gaurds even touched the kid. I think they should get a good heap of trouble just for touching him, let alone being a cause in his death.
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by germanana
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10/17/07 12:56 PM
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i think tat the guards did play a role in anderson death if the boy would have got medicial attention right away he woul have lived
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by noel WATup period 4!!
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10/17/07 12:54 PM
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someone comment
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by brandy
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10/17/07 10:49 AM
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lisa and steve are idoits the parents are not the 1 2 blame the tortued this kid so bad that the end result was death i dare u make a comment so uncaring this kid is dead and the gaurds and the nurse played a part in his death
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by kayla
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10/17/07 10:44 AM
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i feel that this cases was very intersting. based on the footage all the people invovled in this situation should be responsable for there actions i feel this ia a hate crime the not only beat the 14 year old but waited 35 min until calling for help
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by lilly
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10/17/07 10:42 AM
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My though about this.. IS i think that was not apporiate for what they did they shud never had hit that kid at all they should not even layed there hand on them yelling at them is okay but to hit the kid was pretty messed up
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by stuupid people
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10/17/07 10:39 AM
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R Tards that kid proboly desevered to get hit
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by James
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03/15/07 09:22 AM
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Semantics.. Bob just semantics...there are cruel people that work in Law Enforcememt as well as any other profession.. what makes it so dangerous here is that our"just" government does little to hold its own employees accountable..even when they kill
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by James
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03/15/07 09:19 AM
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Can it really be true? Am I reading people blaming the parents for this tragedy? That is completely ignorant...
their are many influences in a child's life not all of them good..in a "perfect" world they would all just obey us.. sadly it's not....
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by Michael
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03/14/07 06:18 PM
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Let's hope Charlie Crist stands up for justice and refuses to renew the June contract of Charles Siebert, the medical examiner who apparently assisted law enforcement in their cover up in this defenseless child's death.
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by Bob
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03/14/07 05:28 PM
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Actually GHM, it's Aggravated Manslaughter, not Murder. There is a big difference.
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by Rickster
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03/14/07 05:28 PM
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The comment by steve is probably one of the lowest class things ever written in these forums.
This incident is the first that was captured on videotape. You think the guards and nurses were angelic prior to this horrible disgraceful act of murder?
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by jack s
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03/14/07 05:18 PM
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cont i was sent back out to finish the excersize in the cooler part of the day. Even the marine drill instructors had more sense than the bunch who tortured this kid to the point of death. the charges are fair, they were at best negligent.
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by Lisa
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03/14/07 05:16 PM
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Parents send these trouble maker kids off for the state to pay for because when they can't handle them they want somebody else to do it. Then they try to handle a kid nobody else can and the parents want to blame somebody else.
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by meeee
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03/14/07 05:12 PM
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it doesnt matter how your kids are raised, noone has the rught to KILL them
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by jack s
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03/14/07 05:11 PM
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in 67' while in marine boot camp, i collasped during a 100 degree 10 mile forced march in full combat gear. The drill instructors loaded me into a medivac vehicle where i was treated for heat exhaustion and dehydration. later after i recovered cont.
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by GHM
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03/14/07 04:18 PM
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STEVE, stop being an idiot! Nothing justifies MURDER?
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by steve
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03/14/07 04:02 PM
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why do parents blame "their" kids problems on everyone else?? obviously if the parents had raised him right he would not have been in boot camp...right???
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