Author Topic: Martin County Sheriff, Robert Crowder making hay out of Mart  (Read 2638 times)

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Offline Antigen

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Martin County Sheriff, Robert Crowder making hay out of Mart
« on: March 16, 2006, 03:36:00 PM »
Martin boot camp to benefit from Panhandle program's closing
By Mike Bender

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, March 16, 2006

TALLAHASSEE ? The Martin County boot camp for juvenile delinquents stands to benefit from the failure of a similar program in Panama City where guards punched and kneed a teenager.

At the insistence of lawmakers, a state Department of Juvenile Justice official promised Wednesday to infuse the program run by the Martin County Sheriff's Office with the money left over from the closing of the Bay County boot camp, where Martin Lee Anderson, 14, was beaten the day before he died in January. That could be as much as $900,000 for this year.

But Sheriff Robert Crowder said the extra cash does not guarantee the Martin program will remain open past June, when it is scheduled to close because of insufficient money.

"This is like sunlight breaking through the clouds," Crowder said. "I hope this is an omen of better things to come."

Crowder, adorned with a yellow Harley-Davidson tie, was the star Wednesday at the House Juvenile Justice Committee, which is investigating the statewide boot camp system after Anderson's death.

Lawmakers credited Crowder for producing the No. 1 boot camp in the state and praised his demeanor during the hearing.

"There's an urgency among all of us to try to keep this program going," said committee Chairwoman Faye Culp, R-Tampa.

The yearlong program in Martin County has the lowest recidivism rate in the state; almost 80 percent of the juveniles who complete the program stay away from further trouble with the law. The 12-year-old program has an annual budget of about $2 million, but Crowder told lawmakers he needed $3.8 million to run it properly.

The program has been underfunded year after year, Crowder said, and that has led to inadequate staffing and low morale.

The final straw came when an extra $340,000 promised by Rep. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, was not included in a Juvenile Justice budget proposal for next year. Crowder said in December he would close the boot camp in June.

"Who do we blame?" Crowder said. "Well, we come up here at funding time and the fingers get pointed in that triangle: the legislature, the governor and the Department of Juvenile Justice."

But ultimately, he said, the blame rests with the governor.

"As the governor, you don't delegate responsibility, you delegate authority," Crowder said.

Crowder said he respected Bush and called him perhaps the most powerful and successful governor the state has ever had, but he hoped that Bush would shift his priorities this year to improving not just boot camps but juvenile justice.

"I hope he will be the governor who saved and enhanced and made juvenile justice what it should be in Florida, because it's more important than we can imagine just standing here and talking," Crowder said.

Members of the House committee also grilled officials from the Department of Juvenile Justice about why they would allow the successful program to fold.

"It seems DJJ has historically punished success," said Rep. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville. "That's totally backwards."

"We're trying to find out where we need those dollars," said Chris Caballero, chief of staff to Juvenile Justice Secretary Anthony Schembri. "The problem... is that we have so many successful programs that say they're in need of dollars."

Caballero said the department would rather spread the remaining money among several programs, but committee members demanded that the department at least give Crowder any remaining money from the Bay County camp.

"That will get done," he said.
 
Find this article at:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/c ... _0316.html  
 

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Offline Antigen

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Martin County Sheriff, Robert Crowder making hay out of Mart
« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2006, 08:54:00 PM »
Quote

Article published Mar 17, 2006
Pathologist: Anderson death likely asphyxiation

Martin Lee Anderson likely died because he couldn't breathe during a confrontation with boot-camp guards and probably was brain dead by time he was brought to a hospital, a pathologist told lawmakers this morning.

Dr. Michael Baden observed a second autopsy on body of 14-year-old, who was punched and kicked by guards at a Panama City boot camp, on Monday in Tampa. The boy's family had disputed the original autopsy by Bay County's medical examiner, who found the died from sickle cell trait, a usually benign blood disorder many blacks have.

Baden had already said he didn't agree with the sickle cell finding. He gave more details about his opinions of the videotaped altercation during a conference call with members of the House Criminal Justice Appropriations Committee.

''There was somebody pressing on his back while he was on the ground. That prevents the diaphragm from moving and that can cause asphyxia, the lack of breathing,'' he said.
The chairman of a House budget committee says he'll call the Bay County medical examiner before his panel to defend his diagnosis of sickle-cell trait.

Rep. Gus Barreiro, R-Miami, called Siebert's position unbelievable and said he wants his committee to grill the doctor in person.
Several sheriffs and boot-camp counselors from successful programs urged legislators not to close the programs. The sheriff of Martin County said Anderson's death was "a thunder clap" that will shake up the whole juvenile justice system, demanding more state funding of a wide array of education, drug and counseling programs.  :eek:

But he and other sheriffs said there is a lot more to boot camps than calisthenics and military-style discipline. They said teenagers who lack parental control at home, who are often drifting astray with gangs or other bad influences, have been turned around by the intense attention boot cams can give.

For more on this story, read Saturday's Tallahassee Democrat.

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... /603170363

I am sick unto death of obscure English towns that exist seemingly for the sole accommodation of these so-called limerick writers -- and even sicker of their residents, all of whom suffer from physical deformities and spend their time dismembering relatives at fancy dress balls.
--Editor of the Limerick Times
(Limerick, Ireland)

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"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
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Offline Antigen

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Martin County Sheriff, Robert Crowder making hay out of Mart
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2006, 09:34:00 PM »
Sheriff Robert Crowder

http://www.sheriff.martin.fl.us/sheriff.html
"In 1984, St. Lucie County Sheriff-elect R.C. "Bobby" Knowles asked Crowder to serve as his Undersheriff, a position he held for eight years."

I wonder if that was Richard Knowles' dad?

"While serving with the City of Stuart in 1972, Crowder was appointed by
Governor Reubin Askew to serve as Sheriff of Martin County. Crowder became the youngest sheriff in the history of Florida. "

Well, Askew did appoint a special commission to look into the Seed:
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?topic=3445&forum=8

"FBI National Academy, Quantico, Virginia.
Senior Management Institute for Police, North Andover, Massachusetts. Chief Executive Seminar, Florida Department of Law Enforcement "

Wish I had the dates. I wonder if he was in Quantico when the Riddiler was running Straight there or in Andover when Dean Mistrata was running Straight, Stoughton there?

He currently holds a seat on the commission of the notorious Florida Department of Law Enforcement. What's wrong with that? Well, I'll tell you what! FDLE has been a staunch supporter of Straight, Inc (aka Drug Free America Foundation) since before they called themselves Straight--back in the day when Askew was forced to investigate them under the name The Seed!

Again, there is no timeframe. But this would make him a relatively close associate of Guy Tunnell, who established the Bay County Boot Camp.

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.
--Thomas Jefferson

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"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
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Offline Antigen

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Martin County Sheriff, Robert Crowder making hay out of Mart
« Reply #3 on: March 17, 2006, 09:41:00 PM »
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/13964007.htm

Posted 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
cbuckley@MiamiHerald.com

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

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Offline Antigen

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Martin County Sheriff, Robert Crowder making hay out of Mart
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2006, 11:11:00 AM »
Help the sheriff who helps kids
By Sally Swartz

sally_swartz@pbpost.com
 
Find this article at:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/co ... _0322.html  
 


 
 

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Martin County Sheriff, Robert Crowder making hay out of Mart
« Reply #5 on: March 23, 2006, 11:20:00 AM »
Excellent work, thanks.  :tup:
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