LAWSUIT FILED OVER BOOT CAMP

Three teen-agers filed a federal lawsuit against Wichita County, the Wichita County Juvenile Board and employees of the county's boot camp for juvenile offenders Monday, claiming they were "tortured and beaten" while imprisoned at the camp.

The teens filed their suit against boot camp supervisors Jonnie Roberts, Kenneth Johnson and Hugh Alexander; county probation officers Neal Parsons and Mike Davis; boot camp drill instructors Gerald Adger, Cheryl Bishop, Richard Raschke, Eamon Riley, Brandon Simpson and Robert Williams; and the county's supervisor of the juvenile-probation department, Kirk Wolf.

The suit also named Wichita County and the county's juvenile board as defendants, saying county leaders and board members allowed the abuse to occur and attempted to cover it up.

County leaders and other defendants in the lawsuit could not be reached for comment late Monday.

Rickey Bunch, the lawyer who filed the suit for the teens - three boys ages 14, 15 and 16 -- said he's not asking for a concrete dollar amount for compensation.

"It is going to have to be a substantial amount so that people across our nation can sit back and say that they don't want this type of behavior happening in their areas," he said. "I could expect something in the mid-seven figures."

In the suit, the boys claim they were punched, beaten to the point of unconsciousness and tortured mentally. One of the teens accused an instructor of throwing a chair that struck his head, causing bleeding that wouldn't stop without treatment at a hospital.