Ex-Employee: Camp Death Covered Up
By DAVID ROYSE
The Associated Press
November 19, 2006
TALLAHASSEE - A 10-year Department
of Juvenile Justice employee alleged Friday he was fired because
he wouldn't go along with a cover-up about the seriousness of an
altercation between guards at a boot camp and a boy who later
died.
Stephen Meredith, who worked in the inspector general's office
at the department until he was fired in August, said he was one
of the first agency officials to view a video tape of the
confrontation between guards and 14-year-old Martin Lee
Anderson, who died the next day. He said he knew immediately
that policies were violated and that the agency had a serious
problem - but that others didn't agree.
"I believe the reason that I was terminated is because I
wouldn't go along with misrepresentations related to Mr.
Anderson's death," Meredith said.
Agency officials strongly denied the allegation, and said
Meredith was told why he was fired - and that it had nothing to
do with the boot camp case.
"Mr. Meredith's termination by the department was entirely
unrelated to the Martin Lee Anderson investigation," said DJJ
spokeswoman Cynthia Lorenzo.
Meredith, 40, said he and two other DJJ officials who'd viewed
the tape participated in a conference call with DJJ Secretary
Anthony Schembri and other senior staff the day they saw the
tape, which was shortly after Anderson died last January.
Meredith said he told the others that Anderson "wasn't
resisting, and without the assistance of guards it appeared he
couldn't even stand on his own" and that a guard forced an
ammonia capsule up Anderson's nose, which Meredith believed was
a policy violation.
"I'd never seen anything like this, and this is the type of
thing that if a parent had done this to a child they'd be
brought on child abuse charges," Meredith said. He said another
staffer agreed, but the third person who'd seen the video
downplayed the guards' actions.
Meredith said the staffer who agreed with his assessment of how
bad it was has also since been forced to leave the department,
although Meredith declined to name that person.
Department of Juvenile Justice officials didn't immediately
respond to a request for comment.
He said he was never told why he was fired, but that other
employees still at DJJ, whom he also declined to name, have led
him to believe that he was fired because of his characterization
of the seriousness of the altercation.
Meredith said he had no disciplinary notes in his personnel file
and another lawyer, Ben Crump, who represents Anderson's family,
said Meredith was "blindsided" by the firing.
Lorenzo disputed Meredith's assertion that he wasn't given a
reason for being fired. She said she couldn't divulge the
reason, however, because it was department policy not to discuss
such personnel decisions. Lorenzo noted that Meredith's was
considered one in which the employee serves at the will of the
secretary, which means they can be terminated at any time.
Lorenzo also said she couldn't discuss Meredith's employee file.
Meredith, who is black, had initially filed a complaint with the
Florida Commission on Human Relations about his firing because
he believed it may have been race-related, said his lawyer,
Marie Mattox.
While the commission typically investigates discrimination
claims, Mattox said she filed a new complaint alleging
retaliation and said Meredith will await the findings of the
commission's investigation before filing a lawsuit alleging he
was wrongly fired.
Martin Lee Anderson's parents sued in July, seeking more than
$40 million from the juvenile justice agency, which oversaw the
boot camp program, and the Bay County Sheriff's Office, which
ran the camp. Anderson's death and his videotaped encounter with
guards sparked protests and led to the elimination of the
military-style camps.
No criminal charges have been filed in the case.
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