Rally Against Bootcamp

Forums: News
Email this Topic • Print this Page

'Don't let this murder be a coverup,' mom tells crowd
Fueled by outrage, hundreds gathered to support Martin Lee Anderson's family, hurling questions but finding no answers.
BY CARA BUCKLEY
[email protected]

PANAMA CITY - The dead boy's mother gripped the podium and stared fiercely at the crowd, her voice rising, swelling and finally cracking with bitterness, rage and loss.

''This is my son Martin Lee Anderson on January 3 -- before he went to boot camp,'' said Gina Jones, holding up a photo of a grinning Martin, 14, to a church packed with supporters Saturday.

Jones held up another photo, this one of Martin's body, dressed in a black suit, lying in an open casket. ''This is how he came out,'' she continued. ``Don't let this murder be a cover-up. Don't let my baby's death be in vain.''

The crowd, brought together by the NAACP and word of mouth through local churches, sat rapt, hushed but for a few sniffles, still but for the motion of tiny packages of tissues passed along the pews.

Jones' talk formed the emotional, mournful epicenter of an hours-long, impassioned town hall meeting that drew some 300 people to a Baptist church to protest Martin's beating and death in early January while in custody of a Bay County sheriff's boot camp.

No official linked to the boot camp, however remotely, escaped the crowd's derision or wrath. For the gathering's overwhelmingly black attendees, the official handling and response to Martin's death was suspect and botched.

Benjamin Crump, a lawyer representing Martin's family, questioned how the drill instructors, seen in a video repeatedly striking Martin, by then slumped and listless, still had their jobs. ''If that was Gov. Bush's child, how long would it have taken for those enforcement officers to be arrested?'' he asked.

Of a boot camp nurse, seen in a video standing aside as drill instructors bore down on Martin, Jones spat, ``I hate her. She stood by and watched my baby get abused and tortured.''

Of the drill instructors, Robert Anderson, Martin's father, said in a raw, tremulous voice, ``I wish I could go there and kill all of them. Every single one.''

Of Gov. Jeb Bush, Adora Obi Nweze, Florida president of the NAACP, said, ``I've concluded that he loves racism. If he didn't, he would stamp it out.''

The crowd roared its approval, but the afternoon yielded no answers to their seemingly endless, agonized questions. Few local officials were in attendance -- none of them linked to the boot camp. And the organizers, gathered from the state and local NAACP, Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the ACLU, among other civil rights and religious groups, could only urge the crowd to channel their fury into pushing for changes both lofty and small. Among them: voting out the county sheriff, Frank McKeithen, and demanding all state juvenile boot camps be shut down and stamping out institutional racism.

''Let's be clear about this,'' Nweze said. ``We're in a war.''

Martin's death is being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which has requested his body be exhumed for a second autopsy. In the first autopsy, county Medical Examiner Charles Siebert concluded the boy died from complications arising from a sickle-cell trait.

The findings sparked outrage, as the video showing Martin being swarmed and hit hours before his death already had been released. Martin's parents are wrestling with the wrenching decision of whether to allow the exhumation.

''Sometimes it is all right to exhume a body so the record all time will be set straight,'' Bill Proctor, a minister and commissioner for Union County, said. ``Medgar Evers was exhumed. Emmett Till. Jesus Christ, on the third day, his tomb was exhumed.''

At that, the hundreds gathered filled the place with cheers and applause, and Martin's mother slowly nodded her head. But the family hasn't arrived at their decision yet. They plan to pray about it today at church.

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 0 • Views: 1,528 • Replies: 15

No top replies

0 Replies

News Release
FDLE Investigates Death of Martin Lee Anderson

January 6, 2006

At the request of the Bay County Sheriff's Office and the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting an inquiry into the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson. Anderson was transported from the Bay County Sheriff's Office Boot Camp facility on Thursday, Jan. 5, to Bay County Medical Center. Anderson was later transported by air ambulance to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. On Jan. 6, Anderson passed away.

Anderson was committed to a Department of Juvenile Justice facility on Jan. 4 by court order. The Department of Juvenile Justice facility remanded Anderson to the Bay County Sheriff's Office Boot Camp facility early Thursday morning. He was at the facility for approximately two hours before being transported by emergency medical services.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is responsible for determining the facts and circumstances surrounding the death. Mr. Anderson has been transferred to the 14th Fourteenth Circuit Office of the Medical Examiner. The Bay County Sheriff's Department and the Department of Juvenile Justice are cooperating fully. The Honorable Steve Meadows, Office of the State Attorney, will review the facts and circumstances surrounding Anderson's death once the FDLE inquiry is complete.

0 Replies

Indexed on Feb 26, 2006
At least part of this is happening correctly (Reg):A Florida sheriff ordered the closing of a boot camp for young offenders Wednesday as the investigation into the death of a 14-year-old detainee widened and critics demanded all such facilities in the state be shut down. In early January, Martin Lee Anderson died after an altercation with guards at the Bay County Sheriff's Office Boot Camp in Panama City, in the Panhandle. A surveillance camera videotape, made public last week, shows the guards dragging the limp boy around the grounds, kneeing and striking him several times.
Continue reading...

0 Replies

2d autopsy finds teen didn't die of natural causes
Fla. boot camp closed amid probe
By Mitch Stacy, Associated Press | March 15, 2006

TAMPA -- A second autopsy shows that a 14-year-old youth who was punched and kicked by guards at a juvenile boot camp did not die of natural causes as a medical examiner initially ruled, prosecutors confirmed yesterday.
Alerts Martin Lee Anderson was sent to the Bay County sheriff's office boot camp on Jan. 5 because of a probation violation. A surveillance video showed guards kicking and punching him after he collapsed while exercising on his first day at the camp. He died at a hospital early the next day.

A noted pathologist who observed Monday's 12-hour autopsy on behalf of Anderson's family said it was clear that the teen did not die from sickle cell trait, as the medical examiner for Bay County had determined, or from any other natural cause.

Pam Bondi, a spokeswoman for Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober, confirmed that assertion by Dr. Michael Baden but would not elaborate, saying it will be months before the investigation is complete.

0 Replies

If it is found that the boy died from a beating, I would expect that charges would be brought against the perpetrators.

0 Replies

Quote:

Autopsy: At least doc got gender right
By CARL HIAASEN, columnist for the Miami Herald

The good folks of Panama City can rest easy, as long as they don't die.

Dr. Charles Siebert has renewed his license to practice medicine.

He's the medical examiner who recently ruled that 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson expired of ''natural causes'' after being kneed, choked and punched by guards at the Bay County Boot Camp.

Previously, Siebert had signed an autopsy report on a woman named Donna Reed in which he described her appendix, gallbladder, ovaries and uterus - organs that had been surgically removed years earlier, according to her mother.

As a bonus, Dr. Siebert also awarded Ms. Reed a prostate gland and two testicles, a mistake he attributed to conducting the autopsy during a storm-related power outage.

<snip>

Quote:

Dr. Siebert's license to practice expired Jan. 31, though he kept working until he got it renewed in late February.

The doctor has said he didn't see the boot-camp video before finishing Martin's autopsy. After viewing the tape, he now acknowledges the possibility that the clobbering by guards ''played a bit of a role'' in the teen's death.

Right. In the same small way that John Wilkes Booth contributed to Abe Lincoln's headache.

truly disgusting

0 Replies

I can't believe that I'm even more disgusted by this now than I was initially.

0 Replies

These boot camps or "wilderness therapy" camps are a plague.

At least 30 kids have died in these things over the last decade.

Parents are attracted to them because they think it's a "quick fix" for problematic children.

Because they are set in remote areas, i.e. the middle of the desert, and because of the way the contracts are drawn, the organizations are hardly ever held responsible, even in instances of extreme negligence or abuse.

Google this name: "Steve Cartisano" and you won't believe the horrors you'll uncover. This jerk is the ringmaster. In fact, I believe the FBI is after him. He has since moved to Central or South America and started more rogue camps. Recently, two boys were discovered in the back of his Jeep, bound and gagged.

I wrote a short story based on the death of Aaron Bacon.

Google his name and you can read excerpts from his diary he wrote shortly before he died.

Sad.

0 Replies

It's time they were all shut down.

0 Replies

TAMPA, Fla. - The parents of a 14-year-old boy who was kicked and punched by guards at a juvenile boot camp expressed relief at a second medical examiner's conclusion that their son died because the sheriff's officials suffocated him.

Gina Jones and Robert Anderson said the new autopsy findings vindicated their campaign for a thorough investigation of their son's death. The initial autopsy blamed the death on a usually benign blood disorder.

"All you do bad, the good will come out. And so the truth is out now," Jones said.

No one has been arrested in Martin Anderson's death, which sparked protests at the state Capitol, forced lawmakers to scrap the military-style camps and led to the resignation of the state's top law enforcement officer.

The new autopsy findings were announced Friday as part of an investigation by Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober. Gov. Jeb Bush appointed him in February to investigate the death after the teen's family disputed Bay County medical examiner Dr. Charles Siebert's findings. Ober asked Dr. Vernard Adams to do a second autopsy.

"Martin Anderson's death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards at the boot camp," Adams wrote in a statement.

He said the suffocation was caused by hands blocking the boy's mouth, as well as the "forced inhalation of ammonia fumes" that caused his vocal cords to spasm, blocking his upper airway. The guards had said in an incident report that they used ammonia capsules to keep Anderson conscious.

The autopsy report draws no conclusions about whether Anderson's death was a homicide or an accident.

"I assure the family of Martin Anderson and the people of the state of Florida that my office is working diligently to aggressively investigate all aspects of this case," Ober said in a statement. He declined to answer questions about Adams' findings.

Bush, however, said, "I am disturbed by Dr. Adams' findings and consider the actions of the Bay County boot camp guards deplorable."

He later said he didn't think he could suspend Siebert because he wasn't sure if the entire autopsy report was finished. But Attorney General Charlie Crist said that Siebert "should probably be suspended pending further review" and that there "probably will be arrests."

Siebert said Friday that he stands by his findings. If Anderson had suffocated, he said, there would have been higher levels of carbon dioxide in the boy's body.

"I came to my conclusion by valid means," Siebert said. "I've seen no explanation as to how (Adams) came to his conclusion."

Marc Tochterman, spokesman for the Bay County Sheriff's Office, which operated the boot camp, said the agency had no immediate comment.

Waylon Graham, attorney for sheriff's Lt. Charles Helms, who was second in command of the boot camp and present when the teen was beaten, said the investigation has turned into a "witch hunt." He said Helms doesn't believe that the guards caused Anderson's death.

0 Replies

MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida has agreed to pay $5 million to the family of a 14-year-old boy who died after he was beaten by guards in a juvenile boot camp, Gov. Charlie Crist said on Wednesday.

Crist, a Republican, disclosed the settlement with the family of Martin Lee Anderson in a letter to the head of the state Senate, saying a "claims bill" to be submitted for congressional approval had his full support.

Seven guards and a nurse were charged with manslaughter in November over the death of Anderson, whose beating by guards was caught on videotape.

Anderson, who was arrested for joyriding in his grandmother's car, collapsed during an exercise drill on January 5, 2006, a few hours after he arrived at the detention center for young offenders. He died at a hospital the next day.

Reuters Pictures

Editors Choice: Best pictures
from the last 24 hours.
View Slideshow
A medical examiner initially ruled that Anderson died of natural causes, sparking outrage from the boy's parents who launched a multimillion-dollar lawsuit after publication of the videotape. The film showed that he was kicked and beaten repeatedly by guards and then forced to inhale ammonia smelling salts.

A second autopsy found the boy died of suffocation because his mouth was blocked while he was forced to inhale the ammonia, which resulted in a blockage of his airway.

The second medical examiner said Anderson died "due to actions of the guards," who are still awaiting trial.

0 Replies

A verdict in Florida has angered a community and raised questions about race and justice.

A jury has acquitted eight former boot camp workers in the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson. He died one day after his videotaped beating that sparked outrage and brought an end to Florida's boot camps.

But the victim's family is not satisfied with the closing of the boot camps. They are furious over the ruling and say there was more than enough evidence to convict the guards.

"There was enough evidence," Anderson's father, Robert Anderson, told GMA's Kate Snow. "It was there in black and what-- What do you need a rocket science? I'm sick of this crap."

It took the jury just 90 minutes to decide that the kicking and punching of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson by eight boot camp workers, captured on video, was not a crime.

Judge Michael Overstreet of the Bay County Circuit Court delivered the verdict against each defendant: "The defendant is not guilty. "

The seven boot camp guards and one nurse had been charged with manslaughter after Anderson died the day after being kicked and punched by the guards.

The defense argued that the rough treatment was routine procedure in the get-tough juvenile facility, and that the guards implemented it when Anderson was thought to be faking illness.

An autopsy found he had a previously undiagnosed blood disorder. The defense argued that is what caused his death. The all-white jury agreed.

"This is like adding insult to injury," Benjamin Crump, attorney for Anderson's mother, Gina Jones, said on "Good Morning America" of the defense's argument that sickle cell anemia played a role in Anderson's death.

He added that they had hoped for more diversity on the jury -- African-Americans who are familiar with sickle cell anemia and what it can and cannot do.

"You kill a dog, you go to jail," Crump said on the courtroom steps just after the verdict was delivered. "You kill a little black boy, nothing happens."

Anderson was in custody for joyriding in his grandmother's car. His family was devastated by the verdict -- and angry.

0 Replies

this also happens to black motorists pulled over for "speeeding" and "nonworking tail light."

see also "why do people hate the police?" thread. no, not all cops are racist. is it a racist institution? oh yes. that's why they protect the guilty, good ol' boy style.

i don't hate the police, i fear and hate racism and injustice. and what do people think happens when black people realize they can't rely on the police?

and it's appalling, but i'm very glad you keep posting about it edgar, thanks. people should speak out *every time* this happens.

0 Replies

I never will understand why parents send their children to such institutions.
Boot camps are legal torture facilities that serve no purpose other than
humiliating, degrading and violating young people's mind and body.

0 Replies

Rally Against Bootcamp

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know