3 prison officers relieved of duty in fight inquiry
By STEVE BOUSQUET and LUCY MORGAN
Published October 28, 2005
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/10/28/State/3_prison_officers_rel.shtml
TALLAHASSEE - Three Department of Corrections employees were relieved of duty Thursday while the agency investigates a slugfest at a prison softball banquet last April.
The three, who work at Apalachee Correctional Institution west of Tallahassee, were placed on administrative leave with pay.
Apalachee is one of 13 prisons in the agency's northern region, from which former director Allen Clark resigned in August amid a widening probe into allegations of misuse of inmate labor and pilfering of prison property.
The three employees sent home Thursday are Col. Richard Allen Frye, 36; Maj. James Bowen, 32; and Bradley Tunnell, 30.
"Richie" Frye is an Apalachee administrator whose Ford pickup truck recently was seized by Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents as part of their investigation. Frye and Bowen both worked under Clark, and both have been active in prison softball.
Before joining the prison system in 1993, Frye was part of a security detail assigned to former President Bush. Frye also supervised Bowen at New River Correctional Institution before both men moved to Apalachee, where they were in Clark's command.
Tunnell, a corrections security expert, is the son of Guy Tunnell, the commissioner of FDLE, the state agency directing a broad investigation of the prison system.
The prison system's decision to suspend the FDLE commissioner's son may signal some of the tension between the agencies.
Corrections Secretary James Crosby, who authorized the actions, reports to Gov. Jeb Bush. Guy Tunnell reports to Bush and the three-member Cabinet.
The three employees got identical letters signed by Clark's successor, Al Solomon: "You are being placed on administrative leave pending investigation of charges which could result in your dismissal. ... You will be notified of your return to work day once the investigation has been concluded."
Prison officials declined to say why they took the action, but all three men were at a softball banquet at the Florida National Guard Armory in Tallahassee the night of April 1, when a fight broke out involving Frye, Bowen, Clark and others.
Investigators said James Edward O'Bryan, a former correctional officer, lost his footing in a puddle of beer and vomit and grabbed the closest person, prison employee Barbara Durrance. The pair fell to the floor and Clark straddled O'Bryan, hitting him in the face, while Frye and Bowen began punching and kicking O'Bryan.
A bleeding O'Bryan refused to press charges. He expressed fear that his wife, Cathi, a prison major, would be fired or transferred to a far-away prison in South Florida.
"Everybody was scared to say anything," O'Bryan told investigators.
Bradley Tunnell was not involved in the fight, but was driving a pickup that pulled up to the armory as friends were leading O'Bryan away. He allegedly used profane language and threatened one of the corrections officers helping O'Bryan to his car.
The incident was described by witnesses in interviews with FDLE investigators.
Crosby said Thursday he has ordered Inspector General Gerald Abdul-Wasi to look into the fracas. Crosby said he took the action because the FDLE completed its work on the armory fight and handed the results to his agency about a week ago.
Crosby emphasized that the action on the three officers is administrative, not disciplinary, similar to a police officer's being placed on administrative leave after a shooting incident.
"Just because you're doing an investigation, you're not guilty of anything yet," Crosby said. "We're just looking into it. It's standard procedure to operate like this. It is not disciplinary action."
Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com or 850 224-7263.
© Copyright 2002-2005, St. Petersburg Times
Panhandle prison employees on leave pending fight investigation
Gainesville Sun
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Three state prison employees, including the son of Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Guy Tunnell, have been placed on paid leave pending an internal investigation of a fight at softball banquet in April.
Tunnell's son, Bradley, 30; Col. Richard Allen Frye, 36, who once had been part of a security detail assigned to former President George H.W. Bush, and Maj. James Bowen, 32, were sent home Thursday from Apalachee Correctional Institution in Sneads, west of Tallahassee.
Frye's pickup truck also recently was seized by FDLE agents as part of an investigation into alleged misuse of inmate labor and pilfering of prison property.
The three employees do not have telephone listings. Guy Tunnell had no comment because of the continuing investigation, FDLE spokesman Tom Berlinger said Friday.
Prison officials declined to say why the three men were suspended, but indicated the men were present for a softball banquet at the Florida National Guard Armory in Tallahassee when a fight broke out involving several people including Frye, Bowen and Allen Clark, former northern regional director for the Department of Corrections. He resigned in the midst of the FDLE investigation.
Bradley Tunnell was not involved in the fight, but was driving a pickup that pulled up to the armory afterward and allegedly used profane language and threatened a corrections officer, witnesses told FDLE investigators.
Corrections Secretary James Crosby said he ordered his department's inspector general, Gerald Abdul-Wasi, to look into the fight after the FDLE turned over the results of its investigation into the fracas.
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Information from: St. Petersburg Times,
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051028/APN/510281006
And the case that preceeded Guy Tunnel's resignation from FDLE:
Tense Moments After Boot Camp Acquittal
Gina Jones, left, her lawyer Benjamin Crump and Robert Anderson, right, prepare to make a public statement concerning the verdict in the Martin Lee Anderson trial Friday. Jones the mother of Martin Anderson has alleged that her son was murdered by employees at the Bay county Sheriff's Boot Camp in January 2006. However, on Friday a jury acquitted all the defendants. (AP Photo/Robert Cooper, Pool)
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — Tensions ran high after eight former boot camp workers were acquitted of manslaughter in the death of a 14-year-old inmate who was videotaped being punched and kicked.
The case sparked outrage and spelled the end of Florida's system of juvenile boot camps, but it took a jury just 90 minutes Friday to decide that the death of Martin Lee Anderson was not a crime.
Anger over the verdict was obvious outside the courtroom, where bystanders screamed "murderer" at former guard Henry Dickens as he described his relief at the verdict.
"I am truly, truly sorry this happened. Myself, I love kids," said Dickens, 60. He said Anderson "wasn't beaten. Those techniques were taught to us and used for a purpose."
Anderson died a day after being hit and kicked by Dickens and six other guards as a nurse watched, a 30-minute confrontation that drew protests in the state capital.
The defendants testified they followed the rules at a get-tough facility where young offenders often feigned illness to avoid exercise. Their attorneys said that Anderson died not from rough treatment, but from a previously undiagnosed blood disorder.
The boy's mother, Gina Jones, stormed out of the courtroom. "I cannot see my son no more. Everybody see their family members. It's wrong," she said.
Anderson's family repeatedly sat through the painful video as it played during testimony.
They had long sought a trial, claiming local officials tried to cover up the case. The conservative Florida Panhandle county is surrounded by military bases and residents are known for their respect for law and order.
"You kill a dog, you go to jail," said Gina Jones' lawyer, Benjamin Crump, outside court. "You kill a little black boy and nothing happens."
The guards, who are white, black and Asian, stood quietly as the judge read the verdicts. The all-white jury was escorted away from the courthouse and did not comment.
Special prosecutor Mark Ober said in a statement he was "extremely disappointed."
"In spite of these verdicts, Martin Lee Anderson did not die in vain," the statement read.
"This case brought needed attention and reform to our juvenile justice system."
The defendants faced up to 30 years in prison had they been convicted of aggravated manslaughter of a child. The jury also decided against convicting them of lesser charges, including child neglect and culpable negligence.
Officials from the Department of Justice in Washington and U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida announced they were reviewing the state's prosecution. Defense attorneys, however, said they considered a federal civil-rights case to be unlikely.
"The Department of Justice has yet another opportunity, unfortunately, to demonstrate to America's minority populations that law enforcement officials acting outside the laws of this nation will be held accountable, that the misdeeds of a few rogue officers won't be allowed to tarnish the good work of the vast majority and that any guilty officers' conduct will be strongly scrutinized and met with remedial action rather than a wink and a nod," said NAACP Interim President & CEO Dennis Courtland Hayes.
"With a 90-minute verdict after a three-week trial (in the state case), it would be the same result," said attorney Bob Sombathy, who represents ex-guard Patrick Garrett.
Aside from hitting Anderson, the guards dragged him around the military-style camp's exercise yard and forced him to inhale ammonia capsules in what they said was an attempt to revive him. The nurse stood by watching.
Defense attorneys argued that the guards properly handled what they thought was a juvenile offender faking illness to avoid exercising on his first day in the camp. He was brought there for violating probation for stealing his grandmother's car and trespassing at a school.
The defense said Anderson's death was unavoidable because he had undiagnosed sickle cell trait, a usually harmless blood disorder that can hinder blood cells' ability to carry oxygen during physical stress.
Prosecutors said the eight defendants neglected the boy's medical needs after he collapsed while running laps. They said the defendants suffocated Anderson by covering his mouth and forcing him to inhale ammonia.
Anderson died Jan. 6, 2006, when he was taken off life support, a day after the altercation.
The case quickly grew and shook up the state's boot camp and law enforcement system amid the boy's family alleging a cover-up.
An initial autopsy by Dr. Charles Siebert, the medical examiner for Bay County, found
Anderson died of natural causes from sickle cell trait. A second autopsy was ordered and another doctor concluded that the guards suffocated Anderson through their repeated use of ammonia capsules and by covering his mouth.
Anderson's death led to the resignation of Florida Department of Law Enforcement chief Guy Tunnell, who established the camp when he was Bay County sheriff.
Then-Gov. Jeb Bush had been a strong supporter of the juvenile boot camps, but after Anderson's death he backed the Legislature's move to shut down the system and put more money into a less militaristic program.
The Legislature agreed to pay Anderson's family $5 million earlier this year to settle civil claims.
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