Colleges for Dentistry

Boyce is the third Marching 100 drum major to be arrested in the case. His fellow drum majors Shawn Turner and Rikki Willis turned themselves in earlier in the week. Back in December, The FAMUan reported that the three men had been expelled from the university on Nov. 29 “in connection to the Robert Champion incident.” The dismissals were temporarily lifted at the request of investigators.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger announced that the final felony defendant is a woman. She says the FDLE is in contact with her family in Georgia.

Two additional suspects will face misdemeanor charges in the Champion case.

The list of the ten defendants booked for felony charges is available below.

Jonathan Boyce, B/M, DOB 5/27/87, Leon County Jail (arrested today)

Aaron Golson, B/M, DOB 6/20/92, Gadsden County Jail

Jessie Baskin, B/M, DOB 10/27/91, Miami-Dade County Jail, bonded out

Harold Finley, B/M, DOB 4/8/92, Palm Beach County Jail

Bryan Jones, B/M, DOB 10/27/88, Hillsborough County Jail, bonded out

Benjamin McNamee, B/M, DOB 12/14/90, Miami-Dade County Jail, bonded out

Shawn Turner, B/M, DOB 4/22/86, Gadsden County Jail, bonded out

Caleb Jackson, B/M, DOB 09/10/88, Leon County Jail

Rikki Wills, B/M, DOB 04/03/88, Leon County Jail, bonded out.

Reporter Mike Vasilinda interviewed Scott about the possibility of settling the civil lawsuit that family of Robert Champion plans to file against FAMU. Champion, a member of the Marching 100, died during a hazing incident that took place on Nov. 19 in Orlando.

Vasilinda says Scott told him that “when the time was ripe, he was willing to participate in settlement talks with Drum Major Robert Champion’s family.”

When Vaslinda brought the question to Scott, he made a comparison to the Martin Lee Anderson case. Anderson, 14-year African American boy, lost his life while in the custody of a Bay County juvenile boot camp in 2006. Video footage showed guards beating Anderson and forcing him to inhale ammonia before he died. A medical examiner stated that Anderson's cause of death was suffocation.

The Anderson family hired Tallahassee attorney Benjamin Crump and sued the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice for $40M. Since that department is managed by the governor, Gov. Charlie Crist negotiated an out-of-court settlement of $5M. The Florida Legislature approved a claims bill for that amount of money.

The legal authority in civil lawsuits against Florida public universities is different. Those cases are handled by legal counsels hired by each Board of Trustees. The governor is not the managing official for any public university and is not in charge of negotiating settlements with plaintiffs.

Scott’s statement about inserting himself into settlement talks concerning a pending civil lawsuit against FAMU represents another one of his attempts to gain power over the university's day-to-day affairs. He previously attempted to bully FAMU trustees into suspending the university president. He also pressured the university to postpone a planned anti-hazing task force in December and attacked the integrity of another Anti-Hazing Committee until five members resigned.