Death In The Desert, Part II
Weeks after Anthony Haynes' death, Charles Long was back in business, running his boot camp on weekends. Long has no degree or even any formal training in how to reform defiant young people. Before this, he was a stunt man, a disc jockey, a cop and a Marine.
Each morning before sunup, the drill begins at Long's house. There is no doubt who is in command. His wife calls him "colonel," and his kids call him "sir."
Despite the controversy surrounding the camp, Cheri Butkowski and her husband are still hoping that Long can help their 13-year-old son, Jason. "He was defiant. He was disrespectful," Cheri says. "It got to the point where… he did get violent with us."
She tried psychologists, psychiatrists and medication. Finally she was so desperate she sent her son to Long's program, three months after the death of Haynes.
"Right now I don't think any of us really know how that boy died. And if that boy died because of an accident or a suicide, why should we stop using this program," Cheri says.
She says she is there watching him every day, and that what she has seen is encouraging. She watches as her son takes a 4 and a half mile run through the desert.
As the race begins, Jason lags behind. Then he takes a short cut to the finish line. But even though he did not run the entire course, Jason's mother believes he's done more than he ever has before. She says she is proud of him.
"Bottom line is, we take them to the extreme, to the extreme, it gets a lot of young people's attention," says Long.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who brought back chain gangs and keeps prisoners in desert tents, calls himself "America's toughest sheriff." But even he thought things went too far at Long's boot camp.
Witnesses say after several hours under a sweltering sun, in 111-degree heat, Haynes was delusional and eating dirt before he passed out.
Says Long: "If I knew that Anthony Haynes had been eating dirt, then I would immediately had taken steps to make sure that Anthony got some treatment. He says he didn't find out about that until Anthony had gone to the showers.
But Long did not immediately call for help, when counselors called him from a nearby motel, where Anthony was slumped in the shower. Later that evening after Anthony had been brought back to the camp, Long finally had his wife call 911. The police believe Anthony may have been in danger for nearly two hours before anyone called for help.
No one else has ever died attending the Buffalo Soldiers, but there have been other charges about other boot camps run by Long. Just one summer before Haynes' death, Long was running a boot camp on an Indian reservation a few hours to the north. 48 Hours Investigateshas obtained a copy of the FBI investigation into complaints lodged by kids and parents there. The allegations involve kids being kicked and beaten and denied water.
No charges were ever filed against Long that summer, and he denies any wrongdoing then or now. He says he's the victim of lying, scheming teen-agers. Long says that Russell Abatte, Allen Kent and Angel Campbell, who have left the program, made up their stories about how they were abused, and how Haynes died. Long says they are lying.
Was Abatte covered in sugar water and left for the bees to sting him? "Hell no. That's bizarre," says Long. "He's a liar. He's lying."
But hospital records show Russell had extensive bee stings. Detectives who spent eight months investigating all the charges concluded the kids were telling the truth.
In February 2002, Long was arrested. Authorities charged him with child abuse, aggravated assault, and 2nd degree murder for failing to prevent Haynes' death.
His murder trial is scheduled to begin in June. If convicted, he could face more than 20 years in prison.
"It's taking somebody else's life when you have them stand outside in the sun for over five hours with very little water and very little food," says Haynes' mother Anthony. "I'm sorry, that's killing somebody. Slowly."