University students stage sit-in in governor's office over boot-camp probe

BY MARC CAPUTO

mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com

TALLAHASSEE - About 30 college students began a sit-in this morning in the office of Gov. Jeb Bush to protest what they say has been a cover-up and a slow-footed investigation into the death of a 14-year-old boy who was beaten Jan. 5 by guards at a Panama City bootcamp.

''There has been a systematic cover-up, from the claim that the young boy died of sickle-cell trait to the body being moved from Pensacola to Bay County for the autopsy to be done at the sheriff of Bay County's request,'' said Gabriel Pendas, a 23-year-old Florida State University student from Miami.

''It has been one thing after the other,'' he said. ``There have been no arrests made. There's a videotape of seven guards -- and the nurse standing by -- beating the young boy to death, and no one has been arrested.''

Dressed in business suits and bearing laptops and peanut-butter sandwiches, the students say they won't leave the office until the following demands are met:

• The release of the results of Martin Lee Anderson's second autopsy, performed at the direction of a special prosecutor, that were expected to have been made public by now.

• That Florida Attorney Charlie Crist file a civil-rights suit against Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Guy Tunnell and Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen. Tunnell, former Bay County sheriff, founded the boot camp, hired many of its guards and was recently removed from investigating the case by prosecutor Mark Ober after The Miami Herald revealed a string of friendly email messages Tunnell sent McKeithen. Crist said Tuesday that he might still enter the case, but didn't want to get in the way of Ober.

• The arrests of the guards and nurse.

• The license revocation and removal of Dr. Charles Siebert, Bay County medical examiner who performed the first autopsy. Siebert has stood by his autopsy and said he was part of no cover-uo.

• A change of location for the future trial of the case from Bay County to another jurisdiction.

• That Bush, Crist and Tunnell publicly apologize to Martin's parents, Gina Jones and Robert Anderson. Crist privately met with the parents Tuesday, and said he was sorry for what happened, but said he would not appear publicly on television and ''interfere'' with the case.

Bush, who was in Washington, D.C. today and was expected to return to the Capitol this afternoon, has also expressed sorrow over what happened. Meantime, the Senate unanimously approved the Martin Lee Anderson Act designed to reform Florida boot camps.

The students, who are also helping organize a Friday march on the Capitol headlined by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, said they organized the sit-in on their own and that they'll be resupplied by a number of their peers who did not come with them so as not to over-crowd the entrance to the governor's office.

Ahmad Abuznaid, a 21-year-old FSU student from Fort Lauderdale, said the sit-in was well planned because organizers such as himself sit on student government.

''We realized we needed to do more than just organize events on campus. We can't ignore it,'' Abuznaid said. ``And the Legislature and the governor can't ignore it any more. They think we're just students who don't vote and don't pay attention. Well, we do.''

Shortly after noon, an assistant for the governor told the students that Bush would meet with three of the students privately in his office.

But Ramon Alexander, 21, student body president at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University from Tallahassee, said they would only accept the offer if they could bring a reporter with them or if Bush spoke to the students in his outer office, in the presence of the media and the rest of the student activists.

Bush's assistant said that wouldn't work, and Alexander told her the group would continue to wait.

''We hope that hearts will change as the day evolves,'' said Alexander, surrounded by fellow students sitting on the plush green carpeting of Bush's outer office. ``If you're a public official, you should be publicly accountable to all.''

The students tinkered on laptops and cellphones and looked through newspapers while passing around granola bars and cups of water. As they waited, they took turns reading old civil rights speeches, including Martin Luther King's ''I Have a Dream'' speech. At the top of every hour, the students stood and read a proclamation listing their demands.

An FDLE Capitol officer asked the students to clear their legs and belongings from a section of the floor so as to allow for access for those who have business in the office. By 10 a.m., the sit-in had become a spectacle, causing a line of about 35 members of the Florida Osteopathic Medical Association to form outside the office where they would have been were it not for the sit-in.

The students, reading aloud their demands and Martin Luther King's ''I Have a Dream'' speech, said they thought of the protest after the widely publicized sit-in in 2000 by senators Kendrick Meek of Miami and Tony Hill of Jacksonville, who opposed affirmative-action changes. Bush was caught on tape at the time saying, ``Kick their asses out.''

''We can be silent no more,'' Alexander, the FAMU student, said. ``The time for diplomacy is over.''

Herald staff writer Evan S. Benn contributed to this report.