Post by The MFA on Apr 19, 2010 0:23:35 GMT -5
www.newsherald.com/news/class-83103-div-morning.html
S. BRADY CALHOUN / News Herald Writer
TALLAHASSEE — The U.S. Attorney’s Office will not file federal charges against the Bay County boot camp employees involved in 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson’s death, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez announced Friday.
Anderson died Jan. 6, 2006, at a Pensacola hospital after collapsing the previous day at the now-closed Bay County Sheriff’s Office Boot Camp. The drill instructors manhandled Anderson, as part of his entry into the program, in an effort to get him to resume a run. A 30-minute video of the encounter shows Anderson became unresponsive, and he was taken to Bay Medical Center.
Two state medical examiners split in their opinion about the cause of his death, with one saying it was from a sickle cell trait, a previously undiagnosed blood disorder, and the other saying the guards smothered him.
In October 2007, a Bay County jury acquitted the boot camp guards, Henry thingyens Jr., Charles Enfinger, Patrick Garrett, Raymond Hauck, Charles Helms Jr., Henry McFadden Jr. and Joseph Walsh II, along with former nurse Kristen Schmidt, of aggravated manslaughter of a minor. Federal authorities then launched an inquiry into whether Anderson’s civil rights were violated. The self-described “comprehensive independent investigation” was closed with Friday’s announcement.
Benjamin Crump, a Tallahassee attorney representing Martin Lee Anderson’s parents, said the family plans to meet with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. in Washington, D.C.
“It’s not over,” Gina Jones, the boy’s mother, told The Associated Press. “It’s not closed and I’m going to make sure it stays open. That was my baby. There was no reason to be beaten like that.”
In a news release, Department of Justice officials wrote they had to be able to show the guards acted “willfully” to break the law — the “highest standard of intent imposed by law” — and that Justice department officials spent “significant time and resources” reviewing thousands of pages of evidence and independently interviewing witnesses.