Payment OKd in boot camp death

A settlement for the family of a teenager who died after being roughed up by guards at a state-supervised boot camp won legislative approval and was sent to the governor.

Gov. Charlie Crist had encouraged the effort to compensate the family of Martin Lee Anderson, who died in January 2006 shortly after being kneed, struck and having ammonia tablets held to his nose at the military-style facility run by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office in Panama City.

The state has already paid Anderson’s parents $200,000, the most allowed by law without legislative approval. The bill would pay the remaining $4.8 million of the proposed settlement.