Death Suit With Boot Camp Settled

Associated Press/March 7, 2002

Phoenix -- A settlement has brought an end to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of a teen-age boy who died at a boot camp for troubled youths last summer, according to the parents.

The boot camp near Phoenix was shut down after Anthony Haynes, 14, died there July 1 of complications of dehydration and near-drowning. Two counselors had put him in a bathtub to cool down after he collapsed in triple-digit heat.

``Justice is justice, no matter what form it comes in, but there is nothing on earth that will bring my son back and nothing that will ease the pain,'' Anthony's father, Gettis Haynes, said from his home in Hannibal, Mo.

Haynes would not discuss the terms of the settlement.

The lawsuit named the boot camp, its director, Charles F. Long II, and other staff and counselors as defendants. The camp was operated by the America's Buffalo Soldiers Re-enactors Association.

Long, reached at his home Wednesday, declined to comment and referred questions to his attorney, David Davis. The lawyer did not immediately return messages left Wednesday.

The lawsuit didn't ask for a specific amount of money but asked that an award cover medical and funeral expenses plus compensation for suffering.

Long pleaded innocent last month to a second-degree murder charge filed in Anthony's death. He was released on $100,000 bond.

As part of a plea agreement, one of the counselors, Troy A. Hutty, will be sentenced to probation on a negligent homicide charge in return for telling prosecutors what he knows about Long. Hutty was originally charged with manslaughter.

Two other boot camp staffers had also been arrested. Ray Anderson, 39, was charged with child abuse for allegedly spanking, stomping, beating and whipping more than 14 children.

A 17-year-old counselor was charged with child abuse.