The family of a 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, who died after a manhandling by guards at a juvenile boot camp, are seeking more than $40-million in damages from state and local agencies.
The suit has been filed against the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Bay County Sheriff's Office, which ran the camp under contract with the state.
The teenager's death in January led to protests, the resignation of the head of the state's law enforcement agency and the elimination of military-style boot camps.
Anderson died in Pensacola after his videotaped ordeal with guards in the Panama City boot camp. "As seven guards punished Martin by kicking, punching, kneeing, choking and slamming him while they jammed ammonia tablets up his nose and covered his mouth, a nurse watched him slip in and out of consciousness," the family's lawyer Ben Crump said. "These heinous, malicious, and torturous treatments led to his death."
Crump said he based the $40-million figure largely on a similar Texas case, in which a jury awarded a family $40.1-million after their 18-year-old died while being forced to complete intense physical programs in a boot camp despite pleas for medical help.
I live in Bay County and while I was appalled looking at the video of all this taking place, no amount of money will ever bring the boy back, nor will it ease the pain and suffering that his family and friends are going through. May God bless them!
thats fucking nuts