Email Is Troubling

Jeb Bush on the email exchange between Guy Tunnell and Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen. Tunnell told McKeithen that he had no interest of releasing the videotape of Martin Anderson's bootcamp beating.

"E-mail is a very difficult thing," Bush said. "It's a means of public communication and on matters that relate to investigations I think making sure that people stay focused and disciplined on these things protects the folks that are being investigated and is also more respectful for the people who are grieving."

Email certainly is troubling. Turns out Bush's chief of staff, Mark Kaplan, was trying to get Tunnell to withhold the video. I can't wait for Jeb Bush's next quote on the issue.

Guy Tunnell Update

The Chief of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement had to apologize for playing email tag with Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen. Tunnell wrote "ain't gonna happen" in regards to the chances that he would allow the videotape of Martin Anderson's beating be made public. What makes matters more problematic is that Tunnell and the FDLE were in charge of the investigation and the Florida Medical Examiners Commission. State Attorney Mark Ober removed the FDLE from the case.

''Due to comments expressed by FDLE Commissioner Guy Tunnell in recently released e-mails regarding the Bay County Boot Camp, I have determined that it is in the best interest of this investigation that an independent law enforcement agency assist my office in completing this investigation,''

Orlando Sentinel columnist David Porter noted that Tunnell's son Bradley was involved in a controversy with Corrections Secretary James Crosby.

Bradley Tunnell, who quit corrections, said Corrections Secretary James Crosby tried to pressure him to get his father's agency to back off the investigations.

Crosby was forced to quit by Gov. Jeb Bush. Bear in mind that Bradley Tunnell told the St. Petersburg Times that he got his job in 2004 after his father and Crosby chatted at a Tallahassee social gathering. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Guy Tunnell served on the transition team that analyzed the Department of Corrections for Jeb Bush's second term.

There's nothing like nepotism in the good-ole-boy network.

Tunnell is the former head of the politically-powerful Florida Sheriffs Association. That also explains how a man who was not one of the 28 candidates for the FDLE position got the appointment. Columnist Michael Mayo thinks that might be why the 2 year (and running) investigation into Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne is going nowhere. Sheriff Jenne made over $60 consulting for T&M Protection Resources Inc. Not a bad sum of money for a man already making $156,395-a-year.

FDLE spokesman Tom Berlinger said, "We don't work these cases like they have to be solved tomorrow." Apparently not.

Boot Camp Cover Up

Jeb Bush isn't happy about Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Guy Tunnell playing email tag with Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen. Bush didn't mention that Tunnell was coordinating their efforts to keep the video of Martin Anderson's beating from becoming public.

"Ain't gonna happen," Tunnell wrote in an e-mail to FDLE staffers about the request.

But one of the lawmakers who first saw the video said Tuesday FDLE should've stayed out of the Bay County troubles since the boot camp was conceived by Tunnell when he was sheriff there.

"I encourage the state attorney's office who is investigating this and I know the federal government is investigating this, to look at what potential cover up has been and all the potential players in it," said state Rep. Gus Barreiro, R-Miami Beach, adding that "from day one, there's been a big cover up on what happened to Martin Lee Anderson."

Mike Cazalas of the Panama City News Herald wrote about charges of racism against Tunnell. Cindy Farr filed suit against Tunnell. She alleged that Tunnell was harassing the black patrons at the Sundancer night club.

What gets interesting is that the County Commission offered legal advice to the residents around Sundancer and provided a sample lawsuit. The county voted to file its own lawsuit, with former Commissioner Carol Atkinson dissenting.

“They are breaking no laws,” she said at the time. “Bay County is not some Third-World country where businesses can be shut down willy-nilly.”

The club did shut down. Cindy Farr, the proclaimed owner, filed suit. It was dismissed because a corporation, not Farr, owned the club.

But U.S. District Court Judge Stephan P. Mickle wrote in an order dated May 18, 2000, that most of Farr’s complaints merited being heard by a jury.

Florida Corrections Roundup

I'm glad Sheriff Frank McKeithen had the sense to close down the boot camp after Martin Anderson was beaten to death.

Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen formally informed state juvenile justice officials Tuesday that he was shutting down the camp he operates under contract with the state.

In a short, three-paragraph letter to Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary Anthony J. Schembri, McKeithen defended his youth camp, which has come under heavy fire since Jan. 6, when 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson died hours after a 20-minute altercation with about seven or eight officers.

McKeithen said in his letter to Schembri that the boot camp ``concept is a very good idea.''

See the video at CBS News and judge for yourself if the bootcamp was a good idea.

Jeb Bush has assigned Mark Ober to investigate the death.

The Hernando County jail experienced three suicides within 3 months. I blogged before, how guard were not properly making their rounds, at the time of the suicides. Corrections Corporation of America runs the facility. The company has a history of mismanagement. Warden Arvil Chapman has been transferred to Kentucky. My question is why does he still have a job.