The
boot camp guards videotaped kneeing and punching a
14-year-old boy who later died had consistently used the
same techniques on other youths, documents show.
Guards Patrick Garrett, Henry Dickens, Charles Enfinger,
Henry McFadden, Raymond Hauck and Joseph Walsh had frequent
physical altercations with detainees, according to the Bay
County Sheriff's Office Boot Camp documents, obtained by The
Associated Press.
Each of the men was involved in the confrontation with
Martin Lee Anderson on Jan. 5.
Anderson died the next morning. Prosecutors said
following a second autopsy this week that the teen did not
die of natural causes. The boy's family, Florida's black
legislative leaders and the NAACP have called for the
guards' arrests.
Late Thursday, the medical examiner for Bay County who
did the original autopsy on Anderson issued a statement
defending his finding that Anderson died a natural death
from sickle cell trait, a usually benign blood disorder many
blacks have.
"My conclusion, based on more than a decade of practice,
is that the exertion from exercise triggered Mr. Anderson's
sickle cell trait which caused Disseminated Intravascular
Coagulation (DIC), resulting in hemorrhaging," Dr. Charles
Siebert said.
Siebert observed a second autopsy done Monday by
Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Dr. Vernard Adams.
Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober took over the case and
requested the second autopsy after the state attorney for
Bay County stepped down citing close ties with law
enforcement.
The five guards shown on tape in the Anderson case, were
involved in at least 63 other instances using knee strikes,
hammer-fist blows, painful pressure point restraints and
other physical encounters with detainees, according to
Florida Department of Juvenile Justice Protective Action
Responsive Reports filed in 2004 and 2005.
Garrett, who has worked at the camp five years, wrote the
report about the Anderson case. He said Enfinger and Walsh
"restrained" the boy against a fence after he refused to run
laps.
"I ordered offender Anderson to stop resisting and relax
his arms. When (he) refused to comply with those
instructions, I applied a knee strike to his left thigh and
escorted him to the ground," Garrett wrote. "After reaching
the ground, I applied a bent wrist to Offender Anderson's
left wrist for approximately 7 seconds."
Surveillance video shows the guards dragging a limp
Anderson as they repeatedly hit and kicked him.
The report of the 30-minute ordeal also details actions
by guard Henry Dickens, 59, a 10-year boot camp veteran, who
poured water on Anderson and later applied a pressure point
to his head. Pressure points to the head were banned by the
state in 2004.
Garrett said officers continued to "counsel" Anderson by
applying knee strikes, pressure point blows and bending his
wrists backward until he "stopped responding."
Daniel Mears, a Florida State University criminology
professor, said he is not surprised by the culture of
physical confrontation at the camp.
"With a boot camp, it's pure power almost 24-7. We tell
you when to get up and if you don't, you are doing push ups.
There is no question there can be a different culture that
occurs in boot camps that allows for more violence than is
needed to occur," Mears said.
Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday defended the state's boot camp
system, noting the number of kids going into the adult
system has dropped 42 percent during his tenure as governor.
"It's up to the Legislature if they want to close boot
camps," Bush said. "This tragic case is something that we
need to look at, investigate, prosecute if appropriate ...
but it doesn't mean that we should get rid of a policy that
has yielded a good result."
The Bay County camp no longer houses any juvenile and is
being closed. Florida has closed a number of its boot camps
in recent years.
One incident chronicled in the Bay County records
involved Dickens and other guards who responded to a June 2
suicide attempt.
A guard wrote that he discovered a youth lying on his
foot locker with a bed sheet around his neck.
The guards immediately began to restrain the boy, using
pressure points to subdue him, and knocking him to the
floor.
In a July 2002 report, Garrett described restraining a
youth on the exercise field and using knee strikes and
pressure points similar to those used on Anderson.
In March 2005, Garrett and drill instructor Henry
McFadden, who was also involved in the Anderson case,
restrained another boy in the exercise yard, applying "a
bent wrist to his right wrist for approximately 7 to 9
seconds," Garrett wrote in his report.
Another March 2005 report reveals details of Dickens,
Enfinger and another guard using the pressure point
procedures on a different youth in the exercise yard.
Mears likened the guards' actions to those of soldiers at
war.
"Working with juvenile offenders is hard. They aren't
going to be nice and they are going to be physically
confrontative. It's a whole different world than working at
your desk," Mears said. "You always have this risk of
becoming violent and abusive."
Each of the guards involved in the Anderson case was
placed on administrative duties out of direct contact with
juveniles after Anderson's death.
On Jan. 27, Hauck was placed on disciplinary probation
for a year following a three-day suspension without pay on
Jan. 30, Feb. 1 and Feb. 8. His personnel file does not
specify the reason for Hauck's suspension or probation.
Hauck's file includes a Dec. 18 police report from the
Parker Police Department about an officer who discovered him
with his car in a ditch. Hauck smelled of alcohol. The
Parker Police chief told the patrol officer to call the Bay
County Sheriff's Office and boot camp Capt. Mike Thompson
came and picked Hauck up, according to the report.