- Police Brutality Watch

Florida Attorney General, vying to be the state's next Governor, has asked the Florida Medical Examiners Commission to investigate autopsies conducted by Bay County Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Siebert that may have contained "fundamental flaws". Siebert conducted the first autopsy in the death of Martin Lee Anderson, the 14-year-old boy who died in January at the Bay County Boot Camp. On Jan. 6, Siebert had made a determination that Anderson had died of complications from sickle cell trait which had not been previously diagnosed. Anderson's family has charged that a cover up existed in boy's death and had the boy's body exhumed for a second autopsy after seeing a videotape showing guards kicking and beating the boy while he was being restrained, hiring renowned pathologist Dr. Michael Baden to participate. Guy Tunnell, then commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who had established the Bay County boot camp, tried to prevent the release of the videotape to the public and has since resigned after as a result of his role in the controversy. The state review of Siebert which Crist has requested wouldn't include the Anderson autopsy. Crist made his request to the commission by letter, asking the state agency to determine if Siebert violated state law while performing at least three autopsies "and any other flawed autopsies of which we might not be aware".
Anderson was in his first day at the camp Jan. 5 when he complained of breathing difficulties during exercises as part of the entry process into the facility. He collapsed and died. Reports from the Bay County Sheriff's office said that Anderson was being restrained because he had resisted attempts to get him to complete the exercise and for being "uncooperative." [MORE]