Death in the desert

In seven years of operation, Charles Long’s Buffalo soldier boot camp had taken in close to a thousand kids. The program had become a kind of local legend among parents struggling with their wayward children.

Parents called the experience "wonderful" for their children, and their attitudes after the boot camp "completely different."

Rick Balfour, parent of a camper: In the military they talk about boot camp in terms of sort of breaking down the person to a degree so that they can build them back up again.  And in a sense it’s sort of the same model.

Piccoli, parent of a camper: It’s tough.  I mean you’ve got people in your face, people that are intimidating you.  They’re making you run miles at a time.  They’re busting those kids’ butts.  But it’s teaching them discipline.  And it’s teaching them that they can go that extra step.  They become very proud of themselves. They become proud of each other.  They support each other.  It is an amazing thing what they have to go through, those kids.

Now, though, a 14-year-old boy under Long’s care, Anthony Haynes, was dead.

The day Anthony died
There were dozens of witnesses with different accounts of Anthony Haynes death, but there are certain facts no one disputes: At the end of his first week in camp, on July 2001, Anthony and about 20 other kids wanted to quit the program. In response, Long made them stand for hours in the desert sun on a day that reached 114 degrees.

About four hours into this punishment, Anthony collapsed.

Long was convinced the boy was faking it. Nonetheless, he ordered one of the drill instructors to take Haynes to a motel down the road for a cool shower.

When Haynes was brought back a few hours later, he was dead.

Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent: How did you find out what happened?

Melanie Hudson, Anthony Haynes’ mother: I actually got a phone call—it was about 10:30 that Sunday night, July 1st. I don’t remember much about that from then on. All I knew is my world just fell apart.

The next morning, after word spread among the families, furious parents showed up at the camp, demanding to know what in the world was going on.

Corralled at the camp by reporters, Long was willing to answer questions from just about anybody, except one: Melanie Hudson, Anthony’s mom.

(videotape of media that day) Long: I’m surrounded by the media at this particular time. Just tell her I’ll see her when she gets here.

By that afternoon, angry parents and the reporters had seen evidence of the treatment children claimed to be receiving at the Buffalo soldier boot camp. By evening, most of the kids had been removed by their parents, and Long closed the desert camp down.

Three weeks, later Anthony’s autopsy report was released stating he died from dehydration and oddly enough, near drowning while left alone in the motel shower.

Cause of death? Accidental.

Long immediately reopened his program in a Phoenix-area park, with the help of the remaining supportive parents.

Piccoli: He saved my family.

Morrison: So, even after the death of Anthony Haynes, after all of this stuff has happened, all of the negative publicity has come out, you would still put your children in this program?

Piccoli: I did.

As did a few other parents who still believed him and thought that Long’s heart was in the right place.

Balfour: I don’t know what happened and it’s a horrible thing.  But the the crime has really been that Chuck Long has been portrayed as a murderer.  And he’s not. 

And over the next few weeks, the controversy faded and eventually, seemed to go away for good. The death of Anthony Haynes seemed just a tragic mishap, nobody’s fault, really.

But to Long’s old supporter, Sheriff Arpaio, something about it didn’t seem right. So he put some detectives on the case: 20 of them, in fact. Full time.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio: We expanded this operation to make sure we got to the bottom of this whole boot camp situation that occurred.

Sheriff Arpaio knows a thing or two about getting publicity and soon there was national press coverage— a lot of it. Then, the chief medical examiner went over the autopsy report and  changed the cause of death from accidental to suspicious. Long soon began to feel some heat.

Morrison: Is it a little personal between you and the sheriff?

Long: I can’t speak for Sheriff Joe Arpaio. And I would not point my fingers at him and try to think why he and his department would choose to throw stones at us. That’s all I got to say about that.

Sheriff Arpaio: He was on hand.  He had his uniform, his "colonel" rank.  He was there.  So, he can’t hide from any responsibility.

Long and his family felt the strain as Sheriff Arpaio kept up his investigation through the summer and into the coming school year: They were slowly ostracized. Friends stopped returning phone calls, and the children were taunted at school.

Long: It’s rough. But my children, will hopefully benefit from this experience, and will grow up to understand that if you ever run into a bump in the road again they’ll be stronger for it.

But the resiliency of Long’s family would be tested a few months later when Sheriff Joe Arpaio, once a Buffalo soldier supporter, had Charles Long, handcuffed, taken to jail  and charged with  the second-degree murder of Anthony Haynes.

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