If you don't care to read through this long post, you can find the artcle here:
http://www.sptimes.com/News/022400/Stat ... per_.shtml--- Article Begins Here ---
No charges in camper's death
A grand jury exonerates the camp counselor whose restraint led to the boy's death, but it blasts the justice system.
By CURTIS KRUEGER and JOUNICE L. NEALY
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 24, 2000
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OCALA -- A grand jury decided Wednesday not to bring criminal charges against the wilderness camp counselor who restrained a 12-year-old boy who later died, but instead blamed the state for failing to give the boy proper mental health treatment.
In an unusually quick action, the grand jury issued a four-page report and determined that Joseph C. Cooley, 27, properly followed restraint policies when he pinned down a combative Michael Wiltsie at Camp E-Kel-Etu near Silver Springs on Feb. 4.
Wiltsie stopped breathing during the restraint and died the next day. Autopsy reports showed that the boy died of compressional asphyxiation. Cooley weighed about 300 pounds; Wiltsie about 65 pounds.
Although the jury acknowledged that "the weight used during the restraint, given Michael's size, led to his death," it said Cooley's actions did not give rise to culpable negligence, an element needed to prove manslaughter.
"He followed the procedure which he had been taught and which he and other counselors had used for many years. No one who witnessed the restraint saw it as more forceful or longer in length than other restraints. Under these circumstances, we cannot say Mr. Cooley acted with utter disregard for Michael's safety, as is required to constitute manslaughter," the report said.
Wiltsie's mother, Linda Ibarra, broke down after hearing the grand jury's findings. Reached later at her home in Anthony, she said, "I can sleep at night because I tried to get him help and they can't."
Wiltsie's grandmother, Jacki Miller, was furious.
"He wouldn't have died if he hadn't crushed him to death," Miller said in a telephone interview. "What is wrong with our judicial system these days? All the evidence, it was there that this guy did this. It's not fair. A little 12-year-old boy died from something that wasn't his fault."
Reading from a prepared statement, Eckerd Youth Alternatives president and CEO Karen V. Waddell said "we are relieved that our counselor has not been charged, but this is not a time of celebration for Eckerd Youth Alternatives," the Clearwater-based agency that runs the camp for troubled juvenile boys.
"Our whole organization remains in shock over the loss of Michael Wiltsie and we are in the process of grieving and healing," she said.
For Eckerd officials, the grand jury recommended that "the size of the child be emphasized in determining how to restrain the child and that alternative restraint methods be taught."
Andy Anderson, a spokesman for Eckerd, said it was too early to decide whether any policies would be revised.
In its report, the grand jury slammed the state Department of Juvenile Justice for placing Wiltsie in a program for juveniles with criminal records or behavioral problems in school. The department should have provided him with residential mental health facilities, which previous experts had recommended for Wiltsie, the report said.
Since Wiltsie was 5 years old, his mother has tried to get him help because of his aggressive behavior. She was first told seven years ago to get mental health counseling for Wiltsie.
In March 1995, Wiltsie went to a mental health facility because of "aggressive behavior and suicidal ideation." He was placed on medication and diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and opposition defiance disorder.
The report lists several more cases in which officials identified Wiltsie's mental health problems. After an arrest for burglary in 1997, another mental health examination said "Michael needed immediate residential treatment to protect him and the community."
A second exam at the time recommended drug therapy and behavior modification and possibly residential treatment.
Instead, he was placed on probation.
Wiltsie was arrested several more times for charges that included battery, burglary, trespassing and resisting a law enforcement officer. In November, a mental exam recommended again that Wiltsie receive residential mental health treatment.
But the state Department of Juvenile Justice recommended putting Wiltsie in a "low-risk residential program." The court ordered a medium-risk. The department then sent him to Camp E-Kel-Etu, although some Eckerd officials objected, apparently because of Wiltsie's mental health needs.
"We are very concerned by the fact that Michael had been placed at Eckerd E-Kel-Etu camp. . . . It still is apparent to us that Michael needed to have been placed in a residential mental health program," the grand jury report said.
Because the camp does not accept children who are on medication, Wiltsie had to discontinue taking Ritalin when he came to the camp, according to the grand jury report.
Wiltsie was pronounced dead Feb. 5 at Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The day before he died, Wiltsie got into an argument with another juvenile and "was going after another offender, attempting to hit him," according to a prior report from the state Department of Juvenile Justice.
Wiltsie ignored verbal warnings to stop and, as a consequence, was physically restrained, the report said.
Cooley "placed his body on the ground with his arm over (Wiltsie's) torso. (Wiltsie) then began to say he could not breathe."
Wiltsie had made the same complaint when he was previously restrained by Cooley on Jan. 23, according to the grand jury report.
Cooley then straddled across Wiltsie, "pinning (Wiltsie's) entire body to the ground." After some cooperation, Cooley got off of him. But Wiltsie started kicking Cooley and Cooley straddled him again, according to the report.
During the restraint, Wiltsie "struggled for a while then became still. Mr. Cooley accused (Wiltsie) of "playing possum' and continued the restraint for a short time and then got up."
After that, when Wiltsie didn't move, Cooley turned the boy over, saw that he wasn't breathing and started CPR.
Counselors called 911 and a nurse gave Wiltsie two shots of epinephrine to revive his heart.
"Had he been placed in what we considered the obviously needed program earlier in his involvement in the juvenile justice system, he would not have been in Eckerd E-Kel-Etu camp," the jurors agreed. "We are very concerned that there are other Michaels in the juvenile justice system."
They added, "the system which existed for Michael's benefit failed him, and us."
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