By Bill Cotterell
DEMOCRAT POLITICAL EDITOR
A pathologist who observed Martin Lee
Anderson's second autopsy told a House committee Friday that the boy
was probably "mostly brain dead" from lack of oxygen by the time
guards at a Panama City boot camp put him on a stretcher.
Dr. Michael Baden, a New York physician who
over the past 30 years has helped investigate hundreds of deaths of
prison inmates and suspects in police custody, said the boy was
healthy when he entered the boot camp. Pending the outcome of
laboratory tests on more than 100 tissue samples taken Monday, Baden
said he believed Anderson died because he could not breathe while
being restrained and struck by officers. The incident was caught on
the boot camp's security video system.
Rep. Gus Barreiro, R-Miami Beach, said it was
"irresponsible" and "inexcusable" for the Bay County medical
examiner, Dr. Charles Siebert, to insist that Anderson's death was
caused by sickle cell trait. Visibly angered, Barreiro said he will
call Siebert before the Senate Criminal Justice Appropriations
Committee to justify his findings.
"It's clear to me that he died because of what
happened on that video. He came into the boot camp healthy," said
Baden, testifying by telephone from New York. "During the take-down
and during the punishment phase, a number of things happened that
caused bruises on his body. There were many blows to him."
Baden said he and State Attorney Mark Ober of
Tampa, who was assigned to investigate the case by Gov. Jeb Bush,
sat through the entire 12-hour second autopsy. He said he also
consulted with Siebert, who cooperated in the inquiry.
"I stand behind my findings," Siebert said in a
statement issued Thursday night. He said doctors sometimes disagree
and that he welcomed "the opportunity to review the findings and
conclusions of the second autopsy."
Barreiro said, "I would love to find out why he
thinks the way he thinks" about his sickle-cell verdict.
"I want to ask him to come here. To me, it's
irresponsible," he said. "For this individual, Dr. Siebert, to
continue to say that is the cause of death for this young man, to
me, is inexcusable."
Referring to the videotape of the Jan. 5
incident, Baden said guards held ammonia under Anderson's nose and
put a hand over his mouth while restraining him after he refused to
run laps with a juvenile troop. He said the boy was struck on his
arms and legs and that pressure on his back after a "take-down"
could have stopped his breathing.
"And remember, he's only 14 years of age, he's
a child, he's 5-foot-11...." Baden said. "He looks like a rag doll,
compared to the guards, who stand much taller than he is."
Black legislative leaders, the NAACP and the
boy's parents have called for arrest of the guards involved in the
incident. State Rep. Curtis Richardson, D-Tallahassee, has called
for closing all juvenile boot camps in the state.
Baden said that after talking with Ober and
other state officials, he does not believe there have been any
attempts to thwart the investigation. He said he knew Anderson's
family believes there has been a "cover-up" attempt.
"I don't think there's a cover-up," he said.
But unless the laboratory tests on tissues show
otherwise, Baden said he believes the restraint and striking of the
child doomed him before his limp body was put on a stretcher and
taken to a hospital. He died the next day.
"With ammonia in his nose and hands over the
mouth, and you can see that on the video, he can't breathe - he
can't get oxygen," Baden said. "I think that when he leaves on that
stretcher, he is already mostly brain dead. He's got a little bit of
his brain that's functioning, but he's irreversibly brain-dead."
The Bay County boot camp is being shut down.
But officials in some other counties believe they can play a key
role, along with education, drug treatment and family counseling for
teenagers.
Several sheriffs, boot-camp teachers and
counselors and a couple of former boot-camp inmates from Polk,
Manatee and Martin counties vouched for the system - which they said
involves much more learning and counseling than calisthenics and
discipline. Martin County Sheriff Bob Crowder said the Bay County
incident will lead to reforms in training and standards throughout
the system.
"The death of Martin Lee Anderson has hit the
juvenile-justice system in Florida like a thunder clap," Crowder
said.
"We have to learn lessons from this," Barreiro
said.
ON THE WEB
To see the videotape of the guards hitting and
restraining Martin Lee Anderson, go to www.Tallahassee.com.
Contact Bill Cotterell at
(850) 671-6545 or bcotterell@tallahassee.com.
Originally published March 18, 2006
