Lawmakers: Video shows guards beating boy at boot camp

BRENT KALLESTAD / Associated Press | February 10 2006

A videotape shows guards brutally beating a boy at a military-style boot camp for juvenile delinquents in Panama City not long before the teenager died, two lawmakers said Thursday.

The state refuses to release the tape to the public, but the Bay County sheriff on Thursday characterized the lawmakers' description of it as overblown and blasted the two lawmakers as "loose cannon politicians" interfering with his investigation.

Martin Lee Anderson, 14, of Panama City, died Jan. 6 at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. The youngster collapsed after he complained 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, R-Miami Beach, 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," he 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 would force ammonia tablets up Anderson's nose in efforts 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. "Police brutality is unacceptable at any time."

"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 viewed 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."

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 would not be released Thursday because it remains a part of the investigation and doesn't fall under the state's open records requirements. Bay County sheriff's officials referred questions to FDLE.

"It's absurd," said Barbara Petersen, president of the Tallahassee-based First Amendment Foundation. "Technically they may be able to claim the exemption ... (but) this is an issue of critical public concern. Kids are dying.

"We can't see the tape?" Petersen asked. "What sense does that make?"

Once a record that is exempt is released to someone who is not specifically authorized by the law to have it, the record loses its protected status, Petersen said. The question is whether that includes videotape that hasn't been "released," but has been viewed.

"That's a question for a judge," she said.

Gov. Jeb Bush, who was in Orlando, said he had not seen the tape but was aware of the contents. Several of his aides had seen the tape.

"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."

Barreiro said the beating could be considered worse than the Rodney King case in the 1990s in Los Angeles.

"Rodney King lived. This kid didn't," he said.

Anderson's family said it plans to sue Bay County and the state Department of Juvenile Justice, which oversees boot camp programs.

The department gave the Bay County camp a good review in a June 2004 quality assurance report, listing it in full compliance with state standards.

---------------------------------------------------

Get Alex Jones and Paul Joseph Watson's books, ALL Alex's documentary films, films by other authors, audio interviews and special reports. Sign up at Prison Planet.tv - CLICK HERE.

FAIR USE NOTICE