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Feb 17, 2006 8:59 pm US/Pacific
Mother Outraged By Boot-Camp Videotape
(CBS) PANAMA CITY, Fla. Guards at a
juvenile-detention boot camp kneed and struck a teenager who had
apparently gone limp while being restrained the day before he died,
a videotape released Friday showed.
The scenes from the tape outraged the parents
of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson. His mother said it proved the
guards killed her son, despite a medical examiner's ruling that
Anderson died from internal bleeding unrelated to the confrontation.
Anderson, who entered the camp on Jan. 5
because of a probation violation, complained of breathing
difficulties and collapsed during exercises that were part of the
entry process. He died the next day at a Pensacola hospital.
The county sheriff's office, which runs the
camp, said Anderson was restrained after he became uncooperative.
But the camp also admitted Friday that mistakes were made, CBS News
correspondent Jim Acosta reports.
"It is very obvious to us that there are valid
concerns raised in some of the procedures that are being used in
this particular incident," said Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen.
On the 1-hour, 20-minute tape, which has no
sound, as many as nine guards can be seen restraining Anderson.
Guards kneed him and wrestled him to the ground, where he was
repeatedly struck by one guard, either on his arm or the side of his
torso, while he lay still. He was limp throughout most of it and
never appeared to offer significant resistance.
"The viewing of this will result in many
questions, concerns and accusations," said Bay County Sheriff Frank
McKeithen.
Anderson's father said his son didn't provoke
the guards.
"He was trying to do what they wanted him to do
but they still beat him, kicked, punched him, and the nurse stood
around there and didn't do nothing," Robert Anderson said.
Anderson's parents watched the tape at their
lawyer's office in Tallahassee as the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement made it public.
"Martin didn't deserve this right here. At
all," said his mother, Gina Jones. "I couldn't even watch the whole
tape. Me, as a mom, I knew my baby was in pain, and I am in pain
just watching his pain."
She said she walked out of the lawyer's office
when the tape showed guards shoving her son up against a pole.
At the beginning of the tape, the guards are
seen pinning Anderson against a pole and striking him three times
with their knees. At another point, a guard struck him from behind,
lifting his feet off the ground.
A woman in a white coat was present while the
guards restrained Anderson and at one point used a stethoscope to
check him. Near the end of the confrontation, guards appear to
become more concerned and several began running in and out of the
scene. A few minutes later, emergency medical personnel arrive and
put the boy on a gurney and take him away.
It was not clear from the tape how hard the
blows were or how long the ordeal lasted. The Department of Law
Enforcement said the tape was edited to conceal other youths'
identities.
News organizations had sued for the tape to be
made public. State police had planned to release it when their
investigation was complete, but said Friday they changed plans "due
to compelling public interest and speculation as to its contents."
County Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Siebert
said the boy's body had some bruises and abrasions, but he
attributed them to attempts to resuscitate the youth.
Siebert said Anderson suffered internal
bleeding because he had sickle cell trait, a disorder that caused
his red blood cells to change shape and produce "a whole cascade of
events" that led to hemorrhaging.
"It was a natural death," he said.
Anderson family attorney Benjamin Crump said he
was skeptical of the autopsy results and expressed doubt that the
sickle cell trait, if it existed, could cause such extensive damage
to the teenager's internal organs.
One lawmaker who saw the tape agreed.
"It doesn't make sense and goes against all the
logic of watching what happened to this young man," Republican state
Rep. Gus Barreiro said.
The Justice Department has said it will
investigate the case, along with the FBI. The sheriff's department
is also examining the case, CBS News' Jennifer Donelan reports.
"Based on fact, any violations of procedures
will be dealt with in a swift and just manner," said McKeithen.
Federal officials planned to focus on whether
camp guards violated Anderson's rights through use of excessive
force or indifference to serious medical need.
Anderson was arrested in June for stealing his
grandmother's Jeep Cherokee and sent to the boot camp for violating
his probation by trespassing at a school.
The boot-camp concept for juveniles began in
Florida in 1993. Five camps now house about 600 boys, ages 14 to 18.
But as Acosta reports, this is not the first
time a teen's death has been connected to one of these programs. In
Florida the case of Martin Anderson has state officials considering
closing down their boot camps for good.
Barreiro, one of two state lawmakers who saw
the tape, says it proves what he's been suspecting for years — that
boot camps are abusing kids, not reforming them.
"The biggest problem is that we have people who
are working with kids that have no business working with kids,"
Barreiro said.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights
Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,
or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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