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Gov. Bush Wants Ex-Boot Camp
Chief Fired
By BILL KACZOR, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
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 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 of
complications of sickle cell trait, a usually benign blood disorder.
The Jan. 5 struggle was captured on videotape
and generated protests in the state Capitol. The handling of the
investigation prompted protests and the resignation of the state's
top law enforcement official.
The military-style camp was closed and the
guards involved in the altercation 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 told The News Herald of Panama City
on Tuesday that he had no plans to fire Thompson. McKeithen and
Thompson declined to comment Wednesday, a spokeswoman said.
Ben Crump, a lawyer for the boy's family,
expressed approval for Bush's request to dismiss Thompson, saying
the former supervisor knew or should have known what was going on at
the camp.
The Florida Legislature responded to the death
by closing the four remaining boot camps and replacing them with a
less militaristic program that would include additional support
services and after care
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