Mark Ober's Slight of Hand

It's amazing what some political pressure can do. Seven guards and a nurse have been charged for aggravated manslaughter of Martin Anderson. That's the good news. The bad news is people involved with covering up Anderson's death are not being charged. State Attorney Steve Meadows was reclused for deleting emails with information on the Anderson case. His replacement, Mark Ober, cleared him under pretenses that don't pass the B.S. test.

"Meadows routinely deleted all e-mail from his computer under the mistaken belief that the e-mail could be retrieved from a backup server if needed. Meadows did not attempt to hide information pertinent to the investigation."

Meadows wanted to save the email. That's why he deleted it. Does Ober expect anyone to truly believe that?

Guy Tunnell was also cleared of accusations that he tried to obstruct the investigation. This is the same Tunnell who emailed FDLE staffers and told them the release of the Anderson videotape "ain't gonna happen." Tunnell also played email tag with Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen. The latter was also cleared by Ober. Jeb Bush's chief of staff Mark Kaplan tried to have Tunnell not release the video. After Tunnell decided to do so.

Ober also cleared Dr. Charles Siefert.

"It is clear from the evidence, however, that Dr. Siebert acted in the good-faith belief that he had the authority to conduct the autopsy in this case as the medical examiner for the 14th District," Ober wrote in his letter to Bush.

Siefert ruled that Anderson died of sickle-cell trait. The Sickle Cell Disease Association of America publicly debunked Siefert's findings. A second autopsy found suffocation to be the cause of death. This cover up has gone all the way to the Governor's office. It's time for the FBI and an independent prosecutor to step in.