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Update 1: Gov. Bush Wants
Ex-Boot Camp Chief Fired
By BILL KACZOR , 05.10.2006, 02:42 PM
Gov. Jeb Bush has written Bay County's sheriff
urging him to fire the former supervisor of a juvenile boot camp
where guards roughed up a 14-year-old boy who later died.
Bush's letter to Sheriff Frank McKeithen was
released by the governor's office Wednesday. It was written Friday,
when a medical examiner said a second autopsy on Martin Lee Anderson
found that he had been suffocated.
Dr. Vernard Adams said the boy couldn't breathe
because hands were over his mouth as guards forced him to inhale
ammonia fumes. The guards said in a report that they were using
ammonia to revive Anderson. The first autopsy found that he died
naturally from complications of sickle cell trait, a usually benign
blood disorder.
The Jan. 5 struggle was captured on videotape
and generated protests in the Capitol. The handling of the
investigation prompted a protest march to the state Capitol, an
overnight sit-in at Bush's office and the resignation of the state's
top law enforcement official.
The military-style camp was closed and the
guards involved in the altercation were laid off, but the
supervisor, Capt. Mike Thompson, was transferred to another
position.
"When we got this additional information I
thought it was appropriate to request that he be removed," Bush told
reporters Wednesday. "I think there's enough information about how
this boot camp operated that suggests there ought to be a clean
slate."
McKeithen wrote Bush on May 3 that Thompson
"violated no policies, procedures or laws" but that he would take
swift action if a pending criminal investigation implicates him in
wrongdoing.
But Bush wrote Friday: "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 behavioral compliance. Specifically, I
recommend the dismissal of the former supervisor."
Sheriff's spokeswoman Ruth Sasser had no
immediate comment Wednesday, but McKeithen told The News Herald of
Panama City on Tuesday that he had no plans to fire Thompson.
The Florida Legislature responded to the death
by closing the four remaining boot camps and replacing them with a
less militaristic program called Sheriffs Training and Respect, or
STAR, that would include additional support services and after care.
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