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Kids Tell of Camp Beatings

Say they were kicked, punched

By Michael Chow for The Arizona Republic
Originally published in The Arizona Republic, July 4, 2001

They say they were kicked, beaten, deprived of water and forced to swallow mud.

Teenagers sent to a “tough love” boot camp as disciplinary cases asserted that things got too tough at the bivouac southwest of Buckeye where one of their campmates, a 14-year-old boy, died Sunday.

Investigators continued Tuesday to gather facts about the death of Tony Haynes.

The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office performed an autopsy, but toxicological testing will delay results for at least three weeks.

Young people who were discipline problems were sent to the camp run by the Phoenix-based America’s Buffalo Soldiers Re-enactors Association by parents or guardians, some of whom paid thousands of dollars.

The parents were given a Parent Handbook describing a “no-nonsense, in your face, tough love” operation “dedicated to building character by supplying a supervised outlet where youth strengthen their minds, bodies and spirits in a highly disciplined arena via a strict honor code.”

The handbook, obtained Tuesday by The Arizona Republic, also warns that those who violate the rules may suffer consequences such as “additional physical training, restrained with handcuffs or rope, corporate (sic) punishment, community service, an at home or school visit, etc.”

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of the boy and the reputed abuse of 44 other campers.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio confirmed that counselors temporarily took Tony to a nearby Days Inn hotel after he collapsed.

“Why would you take somebody who may be sick to a hotel and then bring that person back?” Arpaio asked. “These are questions we have to find out.”

A paramedic who responded to the scene said the boy possibly suffered a heart attack.

“There was some foreign substance around his mouth and his shirt was wet,” said Lt. Mike Linderman of the Buckeye Valley Fire District. “That’s not inconsistent with cardiac arrest. My first thought was he had probably vomited.”

Some of the kids have described what they call a hellish experience at the hands of instructors at the camp.

“We were thrashed around, kicked, punched,” said David Mandraes, 17, of Peoria, even though “nobody had done anything wrong.”

In addition to closed-fist punches, he and other camp participants were “elbowed, kneed, anything you can think of, they did it,” he said.

Food consisted of an apple for breakfast, a carrot for lunch and a small bowl of beans for dinner, Mandraes said, and the camp staff never offered the young people enough water.

Neither Charles “Chuck” Long, the camp president and chief executive, nor his attorney, Larry Hammond, could be reached for comment on those and other allegations. Long was scheduled to meet Tuesday night with about 30 parents of youngsters at the camp, but failed to show up.

“If they don’t have anything to hide … why has he not shown his face?” said Chris Hanner, a parent who appeared for the meeting at the National Guard Armory at 52nd Street and McDowell Road.

Long said Monday that he runs a tough camp meant to instill values such as honor, respect and discipline, and denied any wrongdoing.

Tony’s mother, Melanie Hudson, said Tuesday that she and Tony’s father were trying to absorb the abuse allegations. She said she knew the organization used corporal punishment but didn’t think it would be severe.

“They might have spanked their bottom,” she said. “To me, spanking never hurt anybody. That’s what I thought this was … Now that I’m finding this out, it’s a shock.”

Hudson said she did talk to other parents before enrolling Tony and heard nothing but good things about the program.

“Obviously, they didn’t know, either,” she said.

If she’d known then what she knows now, she said, she would not have sent Tony.

“That’s something I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life,” she said.

Arpaio said his investigators have heard complaints about children at the camp being punished physically and given minimal food and water.

“That’s probably the whole concept of this program, but it doesn’t make it right,” Arpaio said. “You still have to be humane. You’re dealing with kids. You’re dealing with 7-year-olds and up.”

Last year, the Fort Apache Tribal Council ordered one of Long’s camps closed after child-abuse complaints involving a boot camp in White River.

One participant in the camp near Buckeye, Justin Boe, 16, of Phoenix, said drill instructors sometimes forced campers to lie on their backs “in the cockroach position,” with their arms and legs in the air at 90-degree angles.

Boe said the instructors would then stomp the campers’ chests and pour mud on them, forcing them to swallow it.

“Every time I closed my mouth, he (one instructor) told me, ‘Open it!'” Boe said. “He would start stomping harder. Even if I spit out dirt, he told me to swallow. After, I was coughing up rocks for about four hours.”

The death of Tony Haynes recalled the death of 16-year-old Nicholaus Contreraz, who died of cardiac arrest at the Arizona Boys Ranch near Oracle on March 2, 1998, after instructors continued to harass him and force him to exercise even though he told them he was sick. State regulators ordered drastic reforms in the Boys Ranch operation, which settled a civil suit with Contreraz’s mother for an undisclosed amount.

Arpaio said parents have called to both complain about the Buffalo Soldiers camp and show support, a handful saying the program turned their children around.

“But that’s not an excuse for possible child abuse or death,” the sheriff said.