Founder of Teen Boot Camp Probed
by GIOVANNA DELL'ORTO Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press, July 20, 2001

PHOENIX (AP) -- The founder of a desert boot camp for troubled youngsters where a 14-year-old died has become the focus of an investigation that authorities say could lead to criminal charges.

Court records obtained by The Associated Press reveal more information about Charles Long, 56, the founder of the camp Anthony Haynes was attending when he died July 1.

Preliminary autopsy reports show the boy was dehydrated and died from drowning. He had been left in a bathtub after hallucinating while being forced to stand in the desert sun as punishment for wanting to go home.

Long's history and the camp's practices are part of an ongoing investigation into Anthony's death, County Attorney Rick Romley said. He said the investigation could lead to criminal charges.

In an affidavit requesting a warrant to search Long's Scottsdale home, sheriff's investigators said the former Marine and his group abused the campers, deprived them of adequate food and water, denied them medical care and caused Anthony's death.

During the search, detectives seized a pornographic pamphlet, a video about growing marijuana and two pairs of handcuffs, court records show. They also seized more than 200 videotapes and boxes of paperwork about the group that runs the camp, the America's Buffalo Soldiers Re-enactors Association. Long founded the group in 1990.

Other court records show Long has had several run-ins with the law involving his own son, including refusing to return the boy to his mother in 1994 when the boy was 5. The judge ordered police to take the boy and turn him over to child services.

Long has refused to speak to reporters about Anthony's death. His attorney, David Burnell Smith, didn't return messages seeking comment, and Long's friends said they have been told not to talk to the media.

Allegations of abuse at the boot camps first surfaced last year, though no charges were filed following a federal investigation.

Parents still praised a weekend program run by the group.

Among them was Anthony's father, Gettis Haynes. Haynes said his son, who had been arrested for shoplifting and had slashed the tires on his mother's car, was becoming more respectful after attending the camp.

Anthony completed all but one of 13 weekends in the Buffalo Soldiers' ''Right of Passage'' program but didn't want to attend the final weekend. That's when his parents sent him to the five-week boot camp.

Chris Hanner, whose 14-year-old son, Brandon, also attended the camp, said parents had been told there would be no physical contact. He and Haynes said they didn't know the camp had no running water or medical care and that participants slept in sleeping bags lined up on a cement slab in sweltering heat.

The Web site promoting the Buffalo Soldiers' weekend and summer programs makes no secret of Long's tough approach.

Long wrote on the site: ''America's youth are running wild like undomesticated horses on the plains. Before wild horses can ever be of real service, you must corral and saddlebreak them or they will continue to run astray.''


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