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July 19, 2001
Affidavit
Says Teenager Sent to Boot Camp Died in Bathtub
Phoenix -- A
14-year-old boy who was sent to a boot camp for troubled youths
drowned in a motel bathtub, vomiting mud, after he was made to stand
in the sun because he said he wanted to go home, according to a
court record released Wednesday.
Authorities are
investigating the July 1 death of A.H., who was attending a boot
camp run by the America's Buffalo Soldiers Re-enactors Association.
The document released to The Associated Press was an affidavit the
sheriff's office submitted for a search warrant of camp founder
Charles Long II's home and property. Neither Long nor any others
associated with the camp have been charged with any crime related to
Anthony's death.
The results of
an autopsy have not been released, but the affidavit cited
preliminary results showing A.H.died from drowning. He also was
dehydrated, the document said.
The Medical
Examiner's Office would not comment on the information in the
affidavit because the case is pending, spokeswoman Gayle Millette
said. According to the affidavit, campers told investigators that
supervisors began beating them two days after the five-week camp
started June 25. They said they were whipped, kicked, stomped on and
forced to put mud in their mouths.
On July 1,
campers were allowed to say they wanted to go home. A.H.and others
who said yes were made to stand in the sun as punishment for being
"quitters," the affidavit said. Temperatures reached 114 that day.
A.H.began
hallucinating and refused to drink water, the document said. When he
became nonresponsive, camp supervisors took him to a motel and left
him in the tub with the shower running. They returned to find
A.H.with his face in the water. The affidavit said supervisors
called Long and were told to bring A.H.back to the camp because Long
thought the child was faking.
When he was
returned to the camp, he wasn't breathing. Camp supervisors then
called 911, but A.H.never regained consciousness and was pronounced
dead later that night.
A man who
answered the phone at Long's house referred calls to Long's
attorney, David Burnell Smith, who didn't immediately return a
message Wednesday afternoon. When sheriff's detectives searched
Long's home July 6, they seized more than 100 videotapes and files
of the association.
Maricopa County
Attorney Rick Romley didn't immediately return a message Wednesday.
Anthony's father, G.L.H., Jr., said, "If the child was disoriented
and unaware of what was going on around him, why did they take him
and put him in a bathtub and go off and leave him?"
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