Parents of a 14-year-old boy who died after a violent struggle with guards at a Florida juvenile boot camp have agreed to a $2.25 million settlement with the sheriff’s office that ran the camp, the Miami Herald reports. The settlement with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office would come on top of $5 million Gov. Charlie Crist has proposed the state pay the parents for the role the state played. The teen’s death led to major reforms, a high-profile resignation of a top law-enforcement officer, and criminal charges against the guards.
The youth, sentenced for stealing his grandmother’s car, died hours after he was admitted to the camp Jan. 5. He stopped breathing after a 30-minute manhandling by guards. The guards’ attorneys say their clients were following boot-camp procedures and were trying to revive the exhausted boy with the ammonia. They thought he was refusing to run laps after grueling exercise.