Thread: Child Boot Camp Death Lawsuit

I know good parents who have had difficult kids. This kid got busted for joyriding in his Grandma's car and tresspassing on his school. Hardly armed robbery or violent crimes.

The $40 Mil number was no doubt derived by the lawyers based on previous decisions. Not necessarily something the parents came up with on their own. After all, they first offered to settle for the County's insurance policy value.

Punitive fines are placed for a reason- if there was gross negligence on the part of the County, the penalty is there to make that point- i.e. they have a responsibility to the people in their charge. There is videotape of the incident, so the facts will come out. If they were beating the crap out of the kid, they need to be held accountable.

Well since this story is from my town, I'll add a few comments

You really need to watch the video. This kid was being abused by , at any time, 3-7 Officers. A Marine DI that did what they were doing to this kid would spend a few years in the brig.

The Ammonia Capsules were not shoved up his nose to try to revive him. It is one of the STANDARD forms of punishment that they used at the camp.

The kid had quit half way through a 1.5 mile run at inprocessing and was complaining that he had difficulty breathing. Thats when the "Boot Camp counselors" placed him in various choke holds and shoved the ammonia caps in his nose. In the video they can be seen hitting,kicking, kneeing and choking him for about 20 min.

The Coroner, who didn't have a license at the time, said he died from Sickle Cell complications.

The Sheriff refused to release the video at first because he said it would "Complicate Matters" and invoked the Sunshine law. Various news agencies filed suit and an edited version was released.

What was the nurse doing during this time? Standing about 10 feet away, watching.

Not only should they get the money but the nurse and the counselors should be charged and do jail time.

The story that ran back in Jan when this took place.

Details surfacing in teen’s death
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Relatives say boot camp inductee’s face was bruised, bloodied; attorney planning to announce lawsuit today
By Anthony Cormier
News Herald Writer 522-5134 / acormier@pcnh.com
PANAMA CITY
Martin Anderson’s friends walked by the little yellow house just before sundown, lingering for a moment in the street, waving to his mother on the porch. Gina Jones waved back, told them to be good, to keep out of trouble.
Teenagers all, most younger than her son, the group milled at the edge of the lawn, unsure whether to stay or go, to speak or keep quiet.
“You see that?” Jones asked, simmering defiantly on a folding porch chair. “They come by every day since my baby died. Every day. They’ve all been crying, but I told ’em to keep their heads up.
“They know what happened to my baby ain’t right.”
New details emerged Monday in the death of the 14-year-old boot camp inductee who collapsed and died about two hours after he was enrolled for a six-month stint at the Panama City facility.
While state and local investigators continued their probe of Anderson’s death, relatives issued a stinging indictment of the multi-agency review that began after the teenager was restrained, complained he was short of breath and quickly went unconscious after arriving at the facility.
“One (agency) is blaming the other,” said Anderson’s father, Robert Anderson.
Among the insights gleaned from interviews Monday with law enforcement and juvenile justice officials and family sources:
Martin Anderson had bruises on his face, a bloody nose and bloody lips when family members saw his body, according to relatives. Benjamin Crump, a wrongful death attorney representing Anderson’s family, scheduled a news conference for today to announce a lawsuit in the case.
“I think we have some sources,” Crump said Monday night during a phone interview from Tallahassee, “that can show he was restrained in a very unusual way. This was more than the normal restraint.
“The crux of the matter is this: You have a vibrant young man who was supposed to leave there stronger and more disciplined. Instead, he will never be leaving. They took away a life that they were supposed to be developing.”
Martin Anderson was restrained by multiple drill instructors after arguing with staff during the physical assessment that is part of each admission. Martin was held face-first against a wall, although a Bay County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman could not specify what type of restraint was used. The Sheriff’s Office said that the identities of the drill instructors, as well as personnel files for each, would be made available today.
Anderson was given an EKG, or electrocardiogram, to rule out heart problems before he was admitted to the boot camp. Cynthia Lorenzo, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), said EKG results would have been sent to the boot camp staff to review before Anderson was admitted.
Anderson was sent to the boot camp by a juvenile justice judge after reportedly violating his probation on a grand theft charge. Like every enrollee, Anderson would have spent six months at the facility. He would have been released in June.
The Sheriff’s Office, contracted by DJJ to operate the boot camp, has turned over to state investigators a videotape that purports to show what happened to Martin during his final minutes at the camp. Officials declined to release the tape, citing a Sunshine Law exemption for investigative materials.
Anderson may have suffered internal bleeding during his treatment. His mother said Monday that hospital officials told her that medical personnel “nipped something in his neck” while he was being treated. The Miami Herald, citing an anonymous DJJ source, reported Saturday that Anderson’s windpipe was punctured and the teen may have bled to death.
“That’s what they’re trying to say — that he was bleeding inside,” Jones said Monday. “They said that they probably nipped something in his neck. They’re trying to cover it up.”
That allegation was refuted by Sheriff Frank McKeithen, who said Monday that there is no indication that the newspaper’s report is accurate.
“This is the first I’ve heard about paramedics puncturing his wind pipe. I’ve not heard from anybody involved that there is any indication that it happened, that he had any kind of internal bleeding.”
A Bay Medical Center spokeswoman said the EMS supervisor in charge of paramedics found the anonymous report “irresponsible.”
“I spoke with (the EMS supervisor) and this was the first anybody had heard about it,” said spokeswoman Christa Hild. “He kind of thought it was irresponsible and unsupported. But we aren’t able to say anything about it. That’s going to lie with the medical examiner.”
Dr. Charles Siebert, the 14th Judicial Circuit medical examiner, did not return phone calls Monday seeking comment. In a news conference last week, Siebert said he had ruled out trauma or injury as a cause of death. A final autopsy report will not be completed until the return of toxicology and other tests.
Jones, 39, bubbled over with emotion Monday afternoon, recalling her son’s lifelong funny streak — “he was always joking about the size of people’s heads” — and his new job at Burger King.
“He was real funny,” said Arthur Middleton, a 16-year-old neighbor who worked with Anderson at the fast-food restaurant.
Anderson began playing basketball at 8 or 9 years old, Jones said, and had never before complained of breathing problems. Jones did acknowledge a wild streak in her son, but she saw a change come over the teenager recently.
After being sentenced to the militarystyle boot camp, Jones said, her son realized that he had only one choice: Come out stronger than he went in.
The last time Jones saw her son was Thursday morning. He quietly said, “I love you,” and Jones responded in kind. She remembers sitting in the parking lot, tears rolling down her cheeks, the first time in her life that she feared for her child.
“What they did to my baby just ain’t right,” Jones said. “It just don’t make sense.”

Another article about what 2 law makers had to say after watching the video.

Legislator: Boot camp video of teen ‘brutal’
Friday, February 10, 2006
Bay County sheriff says comments regarding treatment of Martin Anderson are premature
By Paul L. Mikolajczyk
News Herald Writer 747-5089 / pmikolajczyk@pcnh.com
TALLAHASSEE
A South Florida legislator who has seen video of drill instructors restraining Martin Lee Anderson last month at the Bay County Sheriff’s Office Boot Camp likened it Thursday to the infamous Rodney King beating.
State Rep. Gus Barreiro, R-Miami, one of two lawmakers to view and criticize the video — which has not been made public — also called the Jan. 5 incident “disturbing” and an “extreme use of force.”
Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen, whose office administers the boot camp for the state, called Barreiro and Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami, “loose cannon politicians.”
“In response to the irresponsible, premature and incorrect statements … I again find myself compelled to respond to these statements even though I am limited in what I can say,” McKeithen said.
“Mr. Barreiro and Mr. Gelber have overreacted and as a result we could all suffer the consequences.
“Inaccurate statements by both representatives have done nothing but add fuel to an already volatile situation.”
Barreiro, for one, did not mince words about what he saw on the video.
“The harshness of it … made it very difficult to watch,” said Barreiro on Thursday from his Tallahassee office. He and Gelber, who both have juvenile justice-oversight responsibilities, were allowed to watch about 30 minutes of video, about 20 of which focused on 14-year-old Anderson’s indoctrination process at the boot camp, Barreiro said.
The two legislators said they saw drill instructors repeatedly punching and kicking the teen as well as choking Anderson and shoving what appeared to be ammonia soaked capsules up his nose.
The recording is of events leading up to Anderson’s unresponsiveness and his transport to a Pensacola hospital, where he died about 15 hours later.
A cause of death has not been released. The Bay County medical examiner has said Anderson’s death was not the result of trauma.
The death remains under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Barreiro said investigators granted him, Gelber and four members of the governor’s staff access to the videotape on Wednesday at the FDLE’s Tallahassee headquarters.
“What this kid went through makes no sense,” Barreiro said. “A kid, no matter what they’ve done wrong, shouldn’t have to go through that.”
Barreiro said the video — which does not include audio — begins with several teens being ordered to perform exercises at the boot camp during the physical assessment period of the program’s enrollment process.
The video is zoomed in on Anderson, who is separated from the other offenders and lying on the ground with his arms extended outward and with two drill instructors holding him down, one with a knee in the teen’s back, Barreiro said.
After a few minutes, Anderson is released, pulled off the ground and ordered to run circles around the boot camp’s sandpit, Barreiro said. While Anderson runs, drill instructors rush the teen, throw him against a fence with his arms spread and force him to the ground, Barreiro said.
After being released and ordered to run again, Anderson starts showing signs of distress, Barreiro said.
“You could tell he was having serious difficulties performing the exercises,” Barreiro said.
Barreiro said the tape shows a drill instructor grabbing Anderson and wrapping an arm around the teen’s throat in what appears to be an effort to choke him. A few seconds later, Anderson is released from the hold and falls down, barely conscious, Barreiro said.
Drill instructors then try to lift Anderson’s limp body back onto his feet, he said.
“He looked like a rag doll,” Barreiro said. “When I say that, it looked like if they weren’t holding him up he would fall.”
Drill instructors respond to Anderson’s apparent unwillingness to complete the physical activities by kicking Anderson’s knees, causing him to fall to the ground again, Barreiro. This is followed by several punches to the teen’s arms and a drill instructor jerking Anderson’s head back with a quick motion in order to put another choke hold on him, Barreiro said.
“It was so surreal watching this,” Barreiro said.
“I was looking at this and I just wanted to be there to ask: ‘When is enough, enough? What more can you do to this kid?’
“I don’t know what they were afraid of. This kid jumping the fence?” Barreiro said.
Barreiro said that Anderson falls to the ground after being released from the choke hold and appears to be unconscious as drill instructors appear to be shoving ammonia capsules up his nose and splashing water in his face.
Barreiro said a nurse — who to this point has stood by and done nothing — makes an assessment of Anderson’s condition and asks for an ambulance.
“It made me sick to my stomach,” Barreiro said about Anderson’s treatment.
He added that the images of the drill instructors beating Anderson reminded him of the 1991 footage of Rodney King being pummeled by Los Angeles police during a traffic stop.
“The difference here is that King lived and this kid didn’t,” Barreiro said.
“No professional can look at this tape and say it’s justified. It’s brutal and excessive.”
Before referring questions about the investigation into Anderson’s death to FDLE officials, Sheriff’s Office officials had repeatedly stated that Anderson was restrained after becoming belligerent with drill instructors. Sheriff’s Office officials said the teen was handled in a manner consistent with the Sheriff’s Office’s use-of-force policy and by using approved techniques.
Gelber, a former head prosecutor with the civil rights division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, did not return calls to his Tallahassee office for comment on his review of the footage. He told The Associated Press, “I don’t think there’s any question there was excessive force.”
“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 told the AP.