Video shows boot camp guards beating 14-year-old
TAMPA, Florida — A teen’s beating that led to the dismantling of Florida’s military-style detention system for young offenders can be clearly seen on an enhanced video released yesterday, which shows seven boot camp guards manhandling the limp 14-year-old while a nurse looks on.The grainy, overexposed video shows guards repeatedly pulling Martin Lee Anderson to his feet and knees and then pinning him face down on the ground. The guards push him against a pole, hit him with closed fists and apparently throw water in his face. They also appear to be holding a white cloth to his face.
The teen died in a hospital the next day.
Anderson had collapsed while doing exercises, and the guards said they were trying to revive him.
Investigative reports said the nurse examined him early in the incident and said his vital signs were normal. The tape shows her watching, but she does not appear to give Anderson another close examination until about 27 minutes into the tape.
Paramedics arrive about 35 minutes into the tape and load Anderson onto a stretcher.
The guards and the nurse entered not guilty pleas last month to charges stemming from Anderson’s death. They face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of aggravated manslaughter.
Attorneys for the defendants were not immediately reachable. Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen declined to comment because the investigation is ongoing, said Barbara Bell, his executive assistant.
The tape was among more than 20,000 pages of evidence released by prosecutors in the case against the seven former guards.
An initial autopsy found Anderson died of complications of sickle cell trait, a usually benign blood disorder. But after an uproar and cries of a cover-up, another medical examiner conducted a second autopsy and concluded Anderson suffocated by the guards’ hands over his mouth and the “forced inhalation of ammonia fumes.”
The boy’s family has filed a $40 million wrongful death lawsuit against the sheriff’s office and the state Department of Juvenile Justice, which oversaw the camp system.
