Bush wants Bay boot camp supervisor fired

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Posted on Thu, May. 11, 2006

Bush wants Bay boot camp supervisor fired

MARC CAPUTO and CAROL MARBIN MILLER
The Miami Herald


TALLAHASSEE - Hours after a medical examiner determined a boy was suffocated by ammonia-wielding guards at a Panama City boot camp, Gov. Jeb Bush fired off a letter to the sheriff in charge of the facility and asked him to dismiss the camp's supervisor.

"I believe it is essential that you identify and take appropriate disciplinary actions for each individual who may have had knowledge or responsibility for authorizing guards to force youths to inhale ammonia in order to obtain compliance," Bush wrote Friday to Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen.

"Specifically, I recommend the dismissal of the former supervisor of the boot camp who is still employed by your office," Bush added in the letter.

The former Panama City boot camp supervisor, Capt. Mike Thompson, couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday. His boss, McKeithen, said in a brief interview that he's reviewing Bush's letter and will respond soon.

Bush has recently grown more vocal about the highly publicized death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, who was arrested on a charge of joyriding in his grandmother's stolen car. His parents complained to Bush in a private meeting recently that Thompson took part in the "coverup" of Martin's death. No arrests have been made in the case.

Family attorney Benjamin Crump said Thompson told the parents on Jan. 5 at Bay Medical Center, where the teen had been taken, that Martin collapsed while running laps. Crump said Thompson made no mention of the seven guards who beat and choked their son. An autopsy released Friday said Martin was suffocated - in contrast to a previous autopsy that found Martin died naturally from complications of a blood disorder.

The Bay County boot camp was closed April 6 and none of those under investigation for Martin's death work for the sheriff's office any longer, according to McKeithen.

In the wake of the case, the Legislature passed boot camp reforms to make them less physical; a special prosecutor is investigating; Guy Tunnell, McKeithen's predecessor as sheriff and the boot camp's founder, resigned as Bush's law enforcement chief in connection with the case and unflattering descriptions he made about black leaders who were speaking about it; and the doctor who performed the first autopsy, Charles Siebert, is under investigation by the board that oversees medical examiners.

Bush asks for investigation

But Bush wanted more. He asked in a May 1 letter to the sheriff that McKeithen investigate Thompson, whose employment was "strongly" objected to by the boy's family, the governor said.

McKeithen responded three days later in writing to say he, too, shared Bush's "sympathy" for the family, but found that Thompson, who now works in the civil courts division, did nothing improper.

Thompson, a career police officer, has a thick personnel file stuffed with commendation letters and notes of appreciation from citizens who praised him for his administration of the boot camp. A teacher at the camp in 1997 praised him for helping to turn around her teenage son after she caught him smoking marijuana regularly.

But according to attorney Crump, there's a darker side to Thompson.

The captain not only lied to the family about Martin's last moments, he said, but he also cursed in Martin's and his mother's presence when he had a consultation with the boy's mother, Gina Jones, before Martin entered the boot camp.

Thompson warned Martin that he would have to learn to take the yelling by guards and be a "lover or a fighter," Crump said.

"Mama, when I get in the boot camp I'm going to do whatever they tell me. I'm going to just take it," Martin said at the time, according to Crump.

In the caught-on-tape manhandling, Martin appeared to do little to resist when a group of guards kneed, punched, wrestled and pressure-pointed him. The guards tried to revive the rubber-legged boy by shoving ammonia capsules in his face - a practice that another boy from the boot camp said was common.

It proved fatal for Martin, according to Dr. Vernard Adams, Tampa's chief medical examiner, who performed the second autopsy.

"Martin Anderson's death was caused by suffocation due to the actions of the guards at the boot camp," Adams said in his autopsy report.

"The suffocation was caused by manual (blockage) of the mouth, in concert with forced inhalation of ammonia fumes that caused spasm of the vocal cords resulting in internal blockage of the upper airway," Adams wrote.

No charges filed yet

The autopsy conflicted with an earlier one conducted by Siebert, the Bay County medical examiner. Siebert found Martin died naturally of complications from sickle cell trait, a blood ailment primarily afflicting people of African descent. Siebert stands by his autopsy, saying there's no evidence for Adams' findings.

Bush at first couched his concerns over Siebert's autopsy report, but soon said that it "defies common sense." He later said the acts of the guards were "deplorable."

So far, no arrests have been made, though many expect charges to be filed. Robert Allan Pell, an attorney for guard Joseph Walsh, expressed fears that the case has become so "political" that his client will be charged unfairly, despite following the protocols established by his supervisors.

McKeithen, who was appointed sheriff by Bush before winning election in a 2004 landslide, declined to discuss the governor's concerns.

"I'm trying to figure out what's going on. I'm confused about this last letter" asking for Thompson to be dismissed, McKeithen said. He added that he is "talking with our attorney" to draft a response. Four other people who worked at the boot camp at the time also still are employed by McKeithen.

For the family, the Republican governor's involvement is not just helpful, it's surprising.

"It shocked me. It shocked me. But he's sticking with his word, just like he said," Gina Jones said Friday after the autopsy report was released and Bush called the family.

"This is the first step in making sure that justice is served," Bush said he told them.