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McCollum Says He's Done What He Can In Boot Camp Case

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The Associated Press

Published: November 14, 2007

Florida's attorney general said Tuesday his office cannot take any further legal action in the case of a teenager who died after he was roughed up by guards at a boot camp for juveniles.

A jury in Panama City acquitted seven guards and a nurse of manslaughter charges Oct. 12 in the death of Martin Lee Anderson, 14, after the altercation at the camp in that Florida Panhandle city.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum issued a joint statement with Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Anderson's parents, Robert Anderson and Gina Jones, saying his office has no further civil or criminal recourse.

In the statement, though, McCollum said he is asking state licensing authorities to begin or continue investigations "that will hold the parties at fault, particularly the guards and the nurse, responsible for their actions."

"I believe there is more than can be done to give Martin Lee Anderson's family and loved ones the justice they deserve," McCollum said.

The U.S. Justice Department also is investigating whether Anderson's civil rights may have been violated.

The case led to the demise of Florida's juvenile boot camps, and the jury verdict resulted in protest demonstrations and allegations of racism. Anderson was black and the guards are white, black and Asian.

An all-white jury acquitted nurse Kristen Schmidt and guards Henry Dickens, Patrick Garrett, Raymond Hauck, Charles Helms Jr., Hendry McFadden Jr., Charles Enfinger and Joseph Walsh.

"We intended to pursue every possible consequence for the individuals who were involved in this situation, including the guards, the nurse and the medical examiner," Crump said.

The Florida Medical Examiners Commission has filed a complaint against Charles Siebert, the district medical examiner who performed an initial autopsy. Siebert found the teen died of natural causes from sickle cell trait.

A second autopsy by another medical examiner resulted in a different conclusion, attributing the death to suffocation due to the guards covering Anderson's mouth and forcing him to inhale fumes from ammonia capsules.

The commission found discrepancies in Siebert's autopsy including misrepresenting data and failing to perform certain dissections and examinations.

Siebert disputes those findings and is set for a hearing before an administrative law judge Jan. 15 in Tallahassee.

The commission also removed Siebert as chief medical examiner for a six-county district but allowed him to remain on an interim basis, pending the appointment of a replacement. Siebert is one of three applicants for the position.

Officials with the Department of Health, which licenses nurses, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which certifies correctional officers, did not immediately return calls seeking comment on McCollum's request.

Department of Juvenile Justice spokesman Kevin Cate said the agency, which oversaw the boot camp, is conducting a review to make sure its policies and procedures, which still apply to other programs, are current and clear.

The department cannot take action against the Bay County Sheriff's Office, which ran the facility, or employees because the boot camp program has been dissolved, Cate said.

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