BOOT CAMP DEATH
Gov. Bush blamed
for alleged boot camp death cover-up
The parents of
Martin Lee Anderson say the governor and a state
prosecutor are covering up the death of their son at
a Bay County boot camp.
BY MARY ELLEN KLAS
November 21, 2006
FLORIDA
DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT
CAUGHT ON
TAPE: In this image taken from video
guards restrain 14-year-old Martin Lee
Anderson, wearing a red shirt, center,
Friday, Feb. 17, 2006 at The Bay County
Sheriff's Department Boot Camp in Panama
City, Fla.
TALLAHASSEE
- After nine months of investigation and
still no arrests, the parents of Martin Lee Anderson
accused Gov. Jeb Bush and the Tampa state attorney's
office Monday of covering up the death of their son
at a Panama City boot camp.
Gina Jones and
Robert Anderson stood outside the governor's office
to remind him of the promise he made to them months
ago when he told them he would demand that the case
was resolved before he left office in January.
''He could have
done more than what he's doing -- a lot more,'' said
Jones, whose 14-year-old son died Jan. 6 after being
punched, kneed and suffocated with ammonia capsules
by guards. The incident was captured on videotape.
CAMPS CLOSED
Bush asked
Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober to handle the
case and backed legislation that abolished the
military-like juvenile justice facilities in
Florida. The boot camp has closed, but the case is
still pending and there have been no arrests.
Bush said the
accusations of a cover-up were ''not true, but I
share their unbelieveable frustration. Mr. Ober: If
you're watching, please let's get this resolved,''
he said.
Assistant State
Attorney Pam Bondi, who is Ober's spokeswoman,
declined to discuss the family's comments Monday.
''It is a very
active, pending investigation,'' Bondi said.
The NAACP of
Florida announced that if the case is not resolved
by the time Gov.-elect Charlie Crist is sworn into
office on Jan. 2, the organization will urge
students from around the state to march on the
capital in silent protest.
`EVIDENT
COVER-UP'
Charles Evans,
president of the NAACP's Tallahassee branch, ticked
off a chronology of events in the case that point to
what he called ''the failure of Gov. Bush'' to
faithfully execute his official duties and an
``evident cover-up by the executive branch of this
state.''
Sen. Frederica
Wilson, a Miami Democrat who has championed the
family's case for months, said she had held her fire
against Bush and Ober to allow the prosecutor time
to thoroughly investigate the killing.
Now, she believes
the delay is no longer intended to give prosecutors
time but politicians cover.
''Someone was told
to sit on this investigation and I'm not sure who
gave those orders,'' Wilson said. ``There has been
so much uncovered that maybe they think it's best to
sit on it.''
She said that Ober
had assured her the case would be complete by the
end of September, then changed that and told her it
would be done by the end of October. Now, with Bush
leaving office and Crist taking over, the governor
is a lame duck and unlikely to force any action, she
said.
''If you go to a
7-Eleven right now and steal a pack of cigarettes
and it's caught on videotape, they come and find you
and arrest you,'' she said. In Anderson's death,
however, ''no one has been fired; no one has been
transferred; no one has been arrested,'' she said.
Video | Bootcamp footage