Testimony continues in boot-camp trial
Posted by ErthAvengr to NDN AIM
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com
Jan.16,2003
By Jim Holland, Journal Staff Writer
RAPID CITY — A former drill instructor at the state-run Patrick H. Brady Boot
Camp said Wednesday he unsuccessfully tried to register a complaint about
what he called "inappropriate" treatment of a cadet strapped to a restraint
board in November 1996.
But the camp's former assistant director said the cadet was strapped to the
board to keep him from hurting himself.
"There was no recourse for our objections," said Frank J. King III of Rapid
City, who was a drill instructor at the camp south of Custer when it opened
for its first cadets in 1996.
King, now editor-publisher of Native Voice, a Rapid City newspaper, said he
contacted a supervisor after seeing cadet Terry Grove, then 16, placed on a
board outside a holding cell at the camp on Nov. 20, 1996.
"I thought it was inappropriate. That's what I told him," King told attorney
Rick Johnson during testimony in U.S. District Court in Rapid City.
Johnson, of Gregory, is representing former boot-camp inmates Terry Grove,
Tyson Hayes and David Pierce, who are asking a federal-court jury for
unspecified damages, claiming their civil rights were violated during
incidents at the camp occurring between 1996 and 1999.
Named as defendants are former South Dakota corrections secretary Jeff
Bloomberg, former boot-camp director Clay Ramsey and former assistant
director Mark Snyder.
An eight-woman, four-man panel is hearing the case in the courtroom of U.S.
District Judge Karen E. Schreier.
Snyder, now administrator of the Custer Youth Corrections Center, which
includes the Patrick Henry Brady Boot Camp, said Grove, then 16, of Sioux
Falls, had been confined to a holding cell because of his continued defiance
of the camp drill instructors.
Snyder said he heard Grove striking his own head against the wall of his cell
and authorized that Grove be strapped to a restraining board to protect him
from self-injury.
"I could hear it (Grove striking his head) from my office," Snyder said. "It
was a sickening sound."
King admitted that he only briefly saw Grove strapped to the board.
"I had no idea of what the circumstances were," he said.
King said he later resigned because of the stressful atmosphere at the boot
camp and because American Indian cadets weren't getting the help they needed.
"I think the program did them some good because it brought some structure to
their lives," King said under cross-examination by Pierre attorney Brent
Wilbur, representing Bloomberg.
"But they were being sent back to the reservation, and that's where the
problems started in the first place," King said.
King also told Wilbur that drill instructors acted properly when Hayes
suffered an asthma attack and when Pierce suffered a knee injury during
strenuous physical training at the camp
Hayes alleged that he was abandoned along a road, suffering an asthma attack
after being ordered to run. Hayes also alleges that he suffered more asthma
attacks when he was forced to participate in exercises, even after a medical
directive.
Pierce alleged that camp officials denied him permission to wear a
doctor-prescribed knee brace and that he suffered permanent injuries.
Both men said they told a camp doctor about their medical conditions during
their induction into the camp.
King said a drill instructor would stay with any cadets unable to run.
"One of us had an inhaler," King said. "There were a number of cadets who had
asthma."
Snyder said Pierce's knee was examined at first by a boot-camp medical
provider, who said he did not need the brace.
Pierce injured the knee during a run and was taken to a doctor and later a
specialist, Snyder said. He also received a test at Rapid City Regional
Hospital, which showed no tears in knee ligaments.
He later was transferred to a chemical-dependency program, Snyder said.
Two other former boot-camp cadets, both now serving felony sentences in the
South Dakota State Penitentiary, testified that they saw Grove confined to a
cell several times and also strapped to the restraining board.
Camp officials said records indicated the restraining board was used only
once on Grove.
Travis Dean Walter, 23, said he and Grove became friends and joked about
deliberately getting sent to a cell to keep each other company.
"He did stuff on purpose to get sent to the cells," Walter said. "He'd sing
to me."
Harold Murphy said he was in or near the cells on three occasions and saw
Grove there each time.
Attorney Matthew T. Tobin of Sioux Falls, representing Snyder and Ramsey,
said Walter and Murphy both testified in earlier depositions about seeing
Grove on the board no more than once.
Both men told Tobin they never witnessed any abuse of Grove by camp
officials.
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