TALLAHASSEE-Although a pair of special masters had recommended to the Florida State Legislature that the claim of a family of a teenager who died last year at the hands of guards of a state-operated boot camp should be cut in half, a state Senate committee refused to accept the recommendation.
The Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee said the parents of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson should receive the full amount of $5 million. Anderson died of suffocation at a Bay County boot camp last January, allegedly at the hands of seven sheriff's officers and a nurse.
The committee unanimously voted to give the family $4.8 million as the state has already paid $200,000.
Anderson had been sent to the boot camp for a probation violation for allegedly stealing his grandmother's car for a joyride.
The full Senate is expected to vote on the issue as early as Friday and the matter would then proceed to the house.
Saying it was the "right thing to do", in March Florida Gov. Charlie Crist asked state legislators to authorize a $5 million settlement to Anderson's parents.
The first day that Anderson was at the boot camp, he collapsed during a run. A video shows the guards striking Anderson with fists, pinning him down and holding a white cloth over his face. Seven former guards at the now closed Bay County juvenile boot camp and a nurse have been charged with aggravated manslaughter in Anderson's death.
The initial autopsy conducted by Bay County medical examiner Dr. Charles Siebert, former Pinellas County ME, determined that Anderson had died from complications from sickle cell trait, a blood disorder.
But Anderson's family refused to accept Siebert's finding and charged that a cover up existed in the boy's death. Siebert continues to stand by his original determination.
After a videotape surfaced showing guards hitting and kneeing Anderson at the military-style facility while he was being restrained, they had the boy's body exhumed. A second autopsy conducted by Dr. Vernard Adams determined that Anderson had died by suffocation at the hands of sheriff's officials who had shoved ammonia capsules up the boy's nose, blocked the boy's mouth and forced him to inhale the ammonia that caused his vocal cords to spasm, blocking his airway.
On Tuesday, Anderson's parents agreed to a $2.25 million settlement with the Bay County Sheriff's Office which operated the camp for the Juvenile Justice Department.
Benjamin Crump, attorney for Anderson's parents, Gina Jones and Robert Anderson, said they would give up all the money if they could see their son again. "Martin's legacy will be that no child will be killed in a detention center or in the custody of the state of Florida", Crump said.
He said that the parents didn't want to go through trials that would relive the traumatic events that surrounded the death of their son, that they wanted it resolved now.
The payout was made from a state sheriff's self-insurance fund and was less than the policy's $3.3 million limit. 4-25-07
© 2007 North Country Gazette
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