Fatal 'restraint'

We now know that Martin Lee Anderson died after being attacked and restrained by guards at the Bay County, Fla., boot camp. Period.

Thank goodness a second autopsy was ordered. Officials can now call a homicide a homicide -- and move toward making some arrests.

On Jan. 5, 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson entered the camp for violating probation ordered after his arrest in June for stealing his grandmother's Jeep Cherokee. He was sent to the boot camp for violating his probation by trespassing at a school.

Anderson died the next day at a Pensacola hospital.

Part of the camp's admission process is to have juveniles do exercises that include running laps and doing sit-ups and push-ups. Anderson complained of breathing difficulties, then collapsed, the Associated Press reported.

The sheriff's office, which runs the camp, said force was used on Anderson because he was uncooperative.

An 80-minute videotape, which had no sound, was released on Feb. 17. It showed as many as nine guards restraining Anderson, who was limp throughout most of the tape and never appeared to offer significant resistance. He was kneed and wrestled to the ground, where he was repeatedly struck by one guard while he lay still, the AP reported.

After the tape surfaced, the teen's body was exhumed and County Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Siebert ruled Anderson died of natural causes -- complications of sickle cell trait. Though Anderson had been repeatedly struck by one guard while he lay motionless, Siebert attributed internal bleeding to sickle cell.

It's doubtful many people believed those findings.

After a second autopsy, one of Siebert's colleagues disputed those findings, AP reported. Dr. Vernard Adams said Anderson's death was the result of maltreatment by guards.

Adams said the teen died of suffocation, caused by hands blocking his mouth, as well as "forced inhalation of ammonia fumes" which caused vocal cords to spasm, blocking his upper airway, AP reported.

The guards -- the same boot camp officials who said they had to knee and wrestle and kick and punch Anderson into submission -- state in an incident report they used ammonia capsules to keep the teen conscious.

They broke the cardinal rule of attempting to cover your backside after the fact: Keep your lies straight.

So far the death has not been ruled an accident or homicide. But there's no way a teen accidentally dies after being set upon by nine people.

Adolescents who have behavior problems and run afoul of the law may need discipline and structure. But before any of that takes place, they need physical and psychological evaluations. Boot camps run by adults who may themselves need psychological evaluations can compound the teen's undiagnosed issues.

Plus, boot camps are as likely to attract guards with anger management and control issues as youth programs are to attract pedophiles.