FL officials in boot camp death end meeting before allowing group to speak

By Abbie Vansickle
Published May 24, 2006


TAMPA - Leading black legislators and college students came to Tampa Tuesday, hoping to address the state's medical examiners about two conflicting autopsy results on Martin Lee Anderson, a teen who died after he was roughed up at a boot camp.

But the day didn't go the way the group planned.

Legislators hoped to speak at the quarterly meeting of the state Medical Examiners Commission about the sharply differing autopsy conclusions about what caused Anderson's death.

Instead, the commission wrapped up its meeting before the group arrived, leaving students and legislators frustrated and angry.

"What they did today was very, very wrong," said Gabriel Pendas, Student Senate president at Florida State University. "You should all be mad. I'm mad."

Commission members say the meeting finished before the group arrived, but legislators and students say the day only heightened their concerns that officials don't want to answer questions about the teen's death.

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