No official ruling

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

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Anderson's mother, Gina Jones (left), listens as Dr. Michael Baden talks about the autopsy.

Martin Anderson's parents say you need to only look at the videotape of their son's beating to know exactly what killed him.

Anderson, 14, died in a Panama City boot camp after a guard takedown that was captured on tape.

Renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden found fault in the way Bay County Sheriff's deputies handled Anderson at the boot camp.

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	Click here for a Viewer Center about this issue. Click here for more stories about the case. Click here to watch a 32-second excerpt of the tape.

"When you look at that video, what impressed me most was how he was almost a rag doll," Baden said. "Somebody should have known that there was something wrong."

Baden said preliminary autopsy reports show Anderson didn't die from a sickle cell trait or natural causes. Baden observed the 12-hour-long autopsy, but because he is not licensed in Florida, he could only watch the examination and offer input, not physically perform it.

Baden said, in his opinion, the medical examiner who performed the first autopsy made a mistake when he indicated the teen died from sickle cell trait, a blood disease. Baden said the medical examiner in the second autopsy discovered breathing obstruction and blunt trauma to Anderson's body.

Anderson's family has called for the arrest of the people on the tape.

Anderson died shortly after this guard takedown.

"Now the truth is out and I want justice," said Anderson's mother Gina Jones. "I want the guards and the nurse to be arrested. It's time now."

But Bay News 9 legal analyst Joe Episcopo said there's not enough evidence on the tape for an arrest.

"I don't think it's enough to arrest someone," Episcopo said. "And it's certainly not enough to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt."

Episcopo said no one should make a decision about the cause of Anderson's death until the entire autopsy report is released.

"I think they first of all have to come up what was the cause of death," Episcopo said. "We know what it wasn't, but we don't know what it is. Then, probably a grand jury [would] listen to the evidence."

But Episcopo said the video is useful and could lead to criminal charges against the boot camp guards, if supported by the autopsy.

"It could support a manslaughter charge," Episcopo said. "I don't think that there was any intent on the part of these guards to kill this boy. They're not going to be charged with murder."

Anderson died on Jan. 6, the day after the beating.

Anderson's mother would also like to see the nurse who watched the guards as they surrounded Anderson arrested. But Episcopo said she wasn't directing the guards and probably doesn't have the authority to stop sworn law enforcement officers.

Under Florida law, a nurse is a bystander like anyone else, and is not obligated to intervene and save someone.

Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober is not saying Anderson was beaten to death.

Ober's office said he will not comment about Martin's death until final autopsy results are delivered and his own investigation is complete. That could take several weeks.

Baden said more than 100 microscopic tissues were taken from Anderson's body to do microscopic slides, which will help confirm the specific cause of death.

Since January, the Anderson family has blamed his death on the guard takedown.

A number of groups, including the NAACP, the Sickle Cell Disease Association and Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition have rallied behind the Anderson family.

An NAACP spokesman said he was encouraged by the second autopsy.

"The words from the lawyers are very encouraging based on this second autopsy," Dale Landry of the NAACP said.

Anderson was arrested in June for stealing his grandmother's Jeep Cherokee and was sent to the boot camp for violating his probation by trespassing at a school.

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