http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/13964007.htmPosted on Sun, Feb. 26, 2006
MIAMI HERALD WATCHDOG
Sheriff dodges public and media
As controversy rages over the death of a teenager at a boot camp, the normally camera-friendly sheriff responsible for the camp bows from view.
BY CARA BUCKLEY
[email protected]PANAMA CITY - It's odd for this county's top cop, a man once known as the Big Hurt, an enforcer who carved a reputation for kicking down meth labs, to go into hiding. But in the past few weeks, that's exactly what Sheriff Frank McKeithen has done.
McKeithen is known throughout this small, seaside county as a fearsome if wildly popular law enforcer, one who publicly excoriates offenders and dishes straight talk. But following the early January beating and death of Martin Lee Anderson, 14, a ward at the boot camp his office runs, McKeithen has made a curious retreat.
As news of Martin's death broke and fanned national outrage, ultimately resulting in the decision to close the camp, McKeithen, 53, has been all but absent from public view. He has refused all media requests for interviews, including for this story, instead issuing press releases and announcements through a spokeswoman, Ruth Sasser.
She said the sheriff is only following the rules and could jeopardize the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's investigation of Martin's death by commenting on the case. Still, the silence is unusual for McKeithen and has raised eyebrows.
''I think the sheriff is derelict in duty in not facing the public,'' said Richard Krauth, 41, a postal worker who, like many here, is closely following and debating the Bay County juvenile boot camp controversy. ``When we have a meth lab bust, we don't have a problem parading the deputies and the catch. Why is it a secret who these employees are now? Why are we hiding this?''
Being at the receiving end of intense community pressure and high-profile scrutiny is new for McKeithen. He is a local boy made good, a man whose 30 years of police work in Bay County, an hour south of Alabama, and neighboring Gulf County has won him deep respect among both his peers and, grudgingly, from his detractors.
When McKeithen ran for Bay sheriff in 2004, he handily won with 78 percent of the vote.
Gov. Jeb Bush had appointed McKeithen to be Bay sheriff a year earlier, after picking his predecessor, Guy Tunnell, to head the FDLE. At the time, McKeithen was in his ninth year as sheriff of Gulf County, where he replaced a disgraced sheriff who repeatedly had had sex with female inmates.
McKeithen first joined the Bay sheriff's office in 1974, went on to
head its narcotics investigations and in 1993 was named Florida Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. He became known as a ''lawman's lawman,'' a ''cop's cop'' who still had the street in him.
Officers swap tales of McKeithen closely involving himself in front-line crime fighting, unusual for a sheriff: of beating deputies to crime scenes, of personally dismantling crystal methamphetamine labs, of once, while buying toys for the department's annual Christmas gift drive, stopping a shoplifter in his tracks.
''He is viewed as an aggressive, go-get-'em cop,'' Sam Slay, a former local police chief who ran against McKeithen in 2004, said. ``This is how Bay County likes their sheriff.''
Within weeks of becoming sheriff, McKeithen launched an all-out assault on what he maintained was a crystal meth epidemic in Bay County. He assembled a task force to track down and tear apart home labs, rout dealers and warn schoolchildren against the perils of the so-called home-brew speed, using catchy slogans like ''tweeker seekers'' and ``you cook, we book.''
At first, critics charged him with being overzealous and crafting his own war on drugs for political gain.
Public defenders felt too many bystanders were snared in his drug sweeps, a sentiment shared by their colleagues who ran up against him in Gulf County, where he was nicknamed the ``Big Hurt.''
''He was that formidable presence. He just was really aggressive in his tactics. We fought like cats and dogs in the courtroom,'' said Janice Scheffer, an assistant public defender in Port St. Joe. ``Yeah, he's overzealous, but I think that's the way with most prosecutorial folks.''
Still, Georgette Beller, an assistant public defender in Panama City, said for all of McKeithen's fervor, he was reasonable in lowering charges for meth users with no prior records.
''He is well thought of,'' said Beller. ``I don't have any complaints.''
After his appointment, McKeithen quickly earned trust in Bay County. Where Tunnell had been accused of racism for targeting a black beach club, McKeithen promoted black officers to lieutenants and sergeants, a first for the department.
When drug dealers accused an officer of pocketing some of their cash, McKeithen quietly investigated, setting up a sting that proved the dealers right. The officer was fired and charged with grand theft.
McKeithen also stood behind three deputies involved in a splashy 2004 jailhouse shooting that injured two inmates and a hostage: The officers were later exonerated by a sheriff's office review board and the FDLE.
In the aftermath of Martin's death and ongoing controversy over the boot camp, residents in Bay County have waged bitter, agonized debates over who should be held responsible. Dismay over the teen's death runs deep. But while McKeithen was quick to acknowledge that the surveillance video that captured Anderson's beating would arouse anger -- and went on to ban instructors from using force unless necessary for self-defense -- critics questioned how he could not have known of potential abuse. Allegations of abuse in the boot camp have surfaced before but were investigated and dismissed.
Others, like Benjamin Crump, the lawyer representing Martin's family, wonder why McKeithen didn't fire or suspend the drill instructors in question. But Sasser said McKeithen was, again, only following protocol. The instructors have been reassigned jobs in the boot camp, she said, and will not be reprimanded until an FDLE investigation or a prosecutor concludes they have done wrong.
''The average citizen might be puzzled, but I wish people would understand,'' said Sasser.
``This is not a manner of cover-up, it's a request to hold your opinion until the facts come out, and to trust.'' :flame:
Trust?
?In the end, residents here remain divided over how much blame, if any, rests with McKeithen.
''It's a tragedy that a 14-year-old is no longer with us. There's really no good that can come from this,'' said John Van Etta, police chief for Panama City. ```Any time you're in charge of something, and a tragedy occurs, everyone looks to the CEO for being responsible.''
But in Bay County, some wonder where exactly their leader is.
Miami Herald staff writer Marc Caputo contributed to this report.
Real criminals walk free every day to rape, rob, and murder again because the courts are so busy finding consensual criminals guilty of hurting no one but themselves.... To free cells for consensual criminals, real criminals are put on the street every day.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0931580587/circlofmiamithem' target='_new'>Peter McWilliams
