Schiavo Flirtations, Credibility Again A Court Issue
Posted on Saturday, 22 of September , 2007 at 1:01 pm
EXCLUSIVE
© The North Country Gazette
All Rights Reserved
By June Maxam
Flirtations, retaliation and credibility.And yet ANOTHER woman.
These issues continue to surround Michael Schiavo, the notorious Florida husband who caused the expenditure of more than a million dollars in legal fees, including depleting his disabled wife’s trust fund, to achieve her judicial homicide in 2005, 15 years after her mysterious collapse which resulted in incapacitating brain injury.
The credibility of Michael Schiavo, retaliatory tactics and alleged flirtations with yet another woman are the crux of an appeal filed by Diane Cross, a co-worker of Schiavo’s at the jail of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s office.
Cross was fired earlier this year after Schiavo filed a complaint against her, albeit months after the alleged incident, claiming that she had allegedly improperly dispensed prescription medication.
Throughout the decade long court battle that Schiavo waged against his wife’s parents, Schiavo dodged depositions with impunity from Pinellas Court probate judge George Greer who refused to find Schiavo in contempt of court for failing to comply with subpoenas.
During the administrative hearing process challenging Cross’ termination, Schiavo was deposed by the defense on July 19 but in an obvious attempt to avoid risking being impeached during live testimony under oath, Schiavo did not testify at the Aug. 16 hearing, instead having just his deposition admitted as a case exhibit.
Would Michael Schiavo, a registered nurse and clinical supervisor at the jail falsely claim out of anger and retaliation that a co-worker had violated policy?
Cross who allegedly rejected Schiavo’s romantic advances and told him that she disagreed with him about the killing of his wife, Terri Schindler Schiavo, says that Schiavo has fabricated allegations against her which caused her termination from the sheriff’s office in February.
In a fit of anger last September, six weeks after Cross and Rick Brennan, another clinical supervisor at the jail, told their supervisor that Schiavo wasn’t “pulling his weight” in performing nursing duties at the jail, he retaliated against them, filing a complaint against Cross about an incident which he said allegedly occurred in the nursing office last July, resulting in her termination and nearly causing her arrest and that of another nursing supervisor.
Schiavo also caused the demotion of another of his co-workers and the suspensions of two more, claiming that Cross had illegally dispensed a prescription medication to fellow registered nurse and clinical supervisor, David Richardson. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2007/07/24/the_other_woman/
In previous statements, Cross has testified that as Terri Schindler Schiavo lay dying in a Pinellas Park hospice, her husband was nearby, repeatedly on the phone with her. She says that on March 31, 2005, the day that Terri died after 13 days without food and water, Terri’s “loving” husband called Cross from the hospice parking lot to tell her of his wife’s death.
Cross said she had rejected his advances and disagreed with what Schiavo “did to his wife”. She said he later taunted her that she didn’t send him a sympathy card when Terri died and that she hadn’t sent him a congratulatory message when he remarried.
She said she tried to be friendly and professional. He apparently wanted more.
Rick Brennan, a male co-worker at the jail called Schiavo a slacker and a jackass and in apparent retaliation, Schiavo filed a complaint against Cross, claiming that he had seen her illegally dispense prescription medication to Richardson.
Not only does Cross say it never happened and two of the alleged witnesses say they don’t remember Schiavo even being in the room the day of the alleged incident, but at an administrative hearing last month, Cross has now accused Schiavo of “flirtations” with Merry Caldwell, the licensed practical nurse who Schiavo claims Cross called to bring the medication to the nursing office.
Cross, who is represented by Tampa attorney Matthew Farmer, has alleged that Caldwell and Schiavo teamed up to bring false allegations against her.
Schiavo himself was suspended in March for his failure to report the alleged incident involving Cross in a timely manner.
The state attorney’s office of Bernie McCabe refused to prosecute anyone due to credibility issues involving Schiavo and tensions are tight in the workplace.
Credibility, retaliation and Schiavo’s alleged interest in Caldwell are key issues in the administrative process. No decision has yet been rendered in the case.
The formal report which resulted in Cross’ termination summarizes the initial incident as concerning “medical staff at the Pinellas County Jail complex”. Based on a complaint filed by Schiavo, the allegations were that Supervisor Cross had requested that LPN Merry Caldwell bring a prescription medication ( Robaxin) to the supervisor’s office on July 31, 2006.
The allegation states that LPN Caldwell did bring the prescription medication to the supervisor’s office and hand it to Cross who then allegedly handed it to nursing supervisor David Richardson who was experiencing severe back pain.
Involved in the “incident” which occurred in the small supervisor’s office at the jail, according to the report, were Schiavo, Cross, Richardson, Brennan and Bramnarine Kalicharan, all registered nurses/clinical supervisors at the time, and LPN Caldwell.
In his original deposition in the matter taken in January, Schiavo lied, telling investigators he had been a licensed RN since 1997. He didn’t obtain his nursing degree from St. Petersburg College until 1999 and flunked his first nursing exam. He didn’t pass the exam and obtain his license until January, 2000, during the guardianship trial in Pinellas County Probate Court when he was seeking court permission to kill his wife.
Schiavo says that Cross was emphatic that Richardson take something for his back pain, a statement supported by Kalicharan but from there it gets murky as Schiavo claims that Cross used the phone on Brennan’s desk to call Caldwell at another location, asking her to bring a pill card of Robaxin, a muscle relaxant and prescription medication, to the nursing office.
Brenann says he has no recollection of that and Cross says she doesn’t remember calling Caldwell and would never have asked her to bring an entire card of medication. Richardson’s memory is spotty, saying he doesn’t recall Schiavo even being in the office the day in question, July 31, 2006. He said he didn’t see Cross making any call, hadn’t asked for any medication and doesn’t remember anyone handing him any pills.
At the hearing last month, Kalicharan testified that Schiavo was present in the room. He says he observed a phone call being made but doesn’t know to whom and didn’t hear the conversation. He testified that he didn’t hear Cross tell Brennan to call Caldwell and didn’t hear Cross make the statement that “we take care of our own”.
Kalicharan was impeached on cross examination by Farmer as his testimony differed from that in his previous statement. He had stated under oath in January that he couldn’t remember seeing Cross give medication to Richardson but he testified at hearing “I think I did”.
Richardson testified that he didn’t remember Schiavo being in the room, doesn’t know who made the purported phone call to Caldwell, if any was made, and while he admits he was in possession of Robaxin, he denies that he obtained it from Cross and said the first time he saw the Robaxin, it was lying on a desk next to him.. He testified that no one handed it to him, he didn’t know how it got there, no one directed him to take it and that he didn’t take it. He has never testified at any time that Cross gave him the Robaxin.
Caldwell testified that she had been called on the phone by Cross and asked to bring Robaxin from her fourth floor office to the third floor office which she said was a strange request because Cross could have obtained Robaxin from the pharmacy which was a short distance away from where she was. Caldwell testified that she didn’t know who was in the office and did not testify that Schiavo was present.
Farmer also impeached her testimony, pointing out that it was different from her statement given in January to the Internal Affairs Department.
Brennan says he doesn’t recall Cross asking him to make any phone call to Caldwell and that Cross did not hand any medication to Richardson.
No one reported anyone that day—July 31, 2006, but on Sept. 12, in a meeting between Schiavo and nursing supervisor Sylvia Watkins, Schiavo exploded, making accusations against Cross and Brennan for their prior accusations against him of not doing his share of the work.
“Those two want to constantly throw me under the bus”, Schiavo said in his statement. He admitted that his anger against Cross and Brennan had “been festering”, telling investigators “that’s another whole story”.
As a result of Schiavo’s accusations against Cross, a criminal investigation was opened. Following an interview of Cross during which she said she didn’t recall seeing Merry Caldwell the day in question and hadn’t given any card of Robaxin to Richardson, the investigators found that her testimony wasn’t “plausible”.
Charges of illegally dispensing a prescription medication against Cross were referred to McCabe’s office but on Nov. 8, 2006, assistant attorney general Jeremiah Allen filed a “no information”, refusing to prosecute saying that the “facts and circumstances surrounding the case make successful prosecution unlikely……due to conflicting statements from witnesses and little corroborative evidence”.
After the criminal investigation was closed with no arrests, in January the sheriff’s department then opened an administrative investigation, taking statements from all of the alleged participants and witnesses which ultimately resulted in Cross being terminated on Feb. 16 for providing prescription medication to a “co-nursing supervisor knowing this action was not only against policy but illegal. You failed to be truthful with investigators during the criminal investigation as well as the administrative investigation”.
The medication in question, Robaxin, is not a controlled substance but does require a physician to write a prescription. The use of this prescription medication is to relax muscles. It is used along with physical therapy to ease muscle pain and spasms associated with strains, springs and other muscle injuries.
Although Cross had revealed during questioning the animosity which had developed between her and Schiavo after Terri died, investigators didn’t question Schiavo about his relationship with Cross and only briefly touched on his motives why he would wait six weeks to file a complaint against her. Despite investigators having learned of the animosity between Brennan and Schiavo, neither one was questioned about their relationship. Brennan was asked if he was aware of a relationship between Cross and Richardson, but not about the relationship gone sour between Cross and Schiavo.
The relationship between Schiavo and Cross and an insight to Schiavo’s motive in filing a complaint against Cross was revealed during the investigators’ initial interrogation of Cross.
Q. How’s your working relationship with Michael Schiavo?
CROSS: We’re civil, we’re professional….I mean we’re not friends, we’re just co-workers.
Q: Did you have a falling out?
CROSS: I don’t know if it would be a falling out. We had a meeting in probably July or August….about delegation of duties. Myself, Michael Schiavo, Rich Brennan, Vicki (Scotti) and Sylvia (Watkins) —informal. There are three of us on the day shift, Mike being the newest supervisor. (Schiavo had been promoted to clinical supervisor in October 2005)
CROSS: I didn’t say too much. Rick had a lot to say because he felt like he was doing a lot, that I was doing this and Mike wasn’t pulling his weight. And I think Mike may have said a couple of things. It was kind of heated in there. Vicki and Sylvia said to say what you want, just don’t swear at each other or hurt each others.
I remember about halfway into it he turned around and said “you know what, let me tell you something, you never sent me a sympathy card when Terri died. You never even congratulated me when I got married again. You’ve never even said anything to my new wife even though you’ve seen her”.
I didn’t know where this was coming from. I didn’t say anything. Rick stood up and said what does this have to do with business. And I think he called him a jackass at that point…..He (Schiavo) has told me numerous times, I know you disagree with what I did. I’ve never told him that. I don’t think that’s professional. And I considered that to be my opinion I’ve never brought that up.
When he was gone that entire…..that he was gone. When Terri was dying and all that junk was going on over there at the hospice….he called me on a regular basis. He called me in the parking lot that day that Terri died. What are you doing. How are you? That kind of thing. I thought I was just being supportive. And he’s right, even though I’ve never told him. No, I did not agree with what happened with Terri but that’s just my opinion.
Q: Has nothing to do with workplace?
CROSS: Exactly and I tried to be friendly and professional. He would call me two or three times a day just to say hello. Hey, any mail come up there, this kind of stuff.
Q: Do you think he had personal feelings for you?
CROSS: I don’t know. I just thought since he was new, that maybe he befriended me, you know, and I thought well, it’s a weird situation, people are looking at your different ways. Some disagree, some agree, you know. So I talked to him. Whether I agree with him or not, you know, I still tried to be there for him. If he needed something because I though that was the professional thing to do and he was a co-worker of mine.
Q: Did other co-workers call you the way he did?
CROSS: No.
Q: Do you think that broke up the relationship you had prior to with the calm relationship? Did that meeting bring an end to that?
CROSS: Absolutely. I was supposed to work with him two days after that and he called in sick both days so I didn’t see him again until the following week and he came in he didn’t say two words to me.
Q: So things changed after that.
CROSS: Yes and I asked him the next time I saw him, are we going to be able to work together. Yeah I guess so. And that was it. We haven’t had a working relationship like we did in the beginning again. That was it.
Q: Phone calls no?
CROSS: No more. In fact be brought some little circular around Christmas time that the kids do to sell stuff to raise money. I guess his kids were doing it at school and I ordered something. Absolutely, I would. And he canceled my order. He canceled it. And I asked him about it. Oh, I didn’t think you really wanted it.
Q: So he didn’t cancel everybody’s, just yours.
CROSS: No. He canceled mine. Which was fine if that’s how he felt.
Q: Well obviously by reading the case file he’s the complainant in this case. He’s the one that ultimately came forward. Do you think that this is out of spite or the demise of your friendship that this has come forward?
CROSS: Sergeant, I’m not sure. I’ve had those thoughts. I’ve wondered that because I thought to myself, if I did something terribly wrong to embarrass the sheriff. I mean, I love what I do. Why wouldn’t you report it when you see it? Why would you wait five, six, seven weeks, however long it was to report me?”
At the two hours administrative hearing last month held in Largo, Cross elaborated on her relationship with Schiavo.
Q. Now, just in general terms, what was your relationship like with Michael Schiavo?
A Well, it fluctuated. At first, it was fine. It was professional, friendly. He was a staff nurse, at the time, when he first started there. He would call me, off hours. And I would talk to him within working hours of the jail, come see me, say hello. Friendly and professional.
Q And then you say it fluctuated.
A Yes.
Q In what way?
A When he became a supervisor, I would still consider our relationship to be professional and friendly. He was brought on first shift, along with Rick Brennan and myself. Prior to that, there were only three clinical supervisors. Then they split us into an A and B team; night shift and day shift. So there were six of us now. So besides myself, there were two other clinical supervisors. When he became a supervisor, everything was okay. He would you know, talk to me, friendly, civil, professional.
Q And then you say it fluctuated.
A Yes.
Q In what way?
A When he became a supervisor, I would still consider our relationship to be professional and friendly. He was brought on first shift, along with Rick Brennan and myself. Prior to that, there were only three clinical supervisors. Then they split us into an A and B team; night shift and day shift. So there were six of us now. So besides myself, there were two other clinical supervisors. When he became a supervisor, everything was okay. He would still, you know, talk to me, friendly, civil, professional.
Our relationship changed when we had a meeting to discuss delegation of duties. I did not call for that meeting. I believe Mr. Brennan called for the meeting. Mr. Schiavo was aware that we were going to call for the meeting, because we had already talked amongst ourselves, meaning Mr. Brennan and Mr. Schiavo, about delegation of duties. In fact, I think Rick had made a flow chart of who was going to do what, on a monthly basis. And it wasn’t being done.
And Rick was very adamant that he felt that he and I were doing most of it, and Mr. Schiavo wasn’t. So we had a meeting between the three of us, our Director of Nursing, Silvia Watkins, and our program administrator, Vicki Scotti. It was very informal. It was in the medical read-off room. Silvia knew that, you know, there was some conflict between us. So she said, this is informal, as long as nobody swears at anybody, or hits anybody. Let’s just get it out on the table, and see if we can work together. So we did.
That meeting, from my recall, did not last very long. Rick started it off. Rick is very direct, and he just kind of said what was on his mind. He didn’t feel that Mr. Schiavo was pulling his weight, and we’re doing most of it. He was seated to my left, I believe. I think he was at the head of the table. Mr. Schiavo was sitting next to me, because I do remember that. He gave a speech, which probably lasted a good four or five minutes I would have thought.
Q Mr. Brennan?
A Mr. Brennan.
Q And when was this meeting, do you recall?
A I think it was in July of 2006, somewhere in there. And when he stopped talking — I don’t know if Silvia said something or not. But I remember that after that — I hadn’t even said anything yet. Mr. Schiavo turned to face me and just out of the blue said, you know — he said, let me tell you something, you never gave me a sympathy card when Terri died. You never congratulated me when I remarried. In fact, you’ve seen my new wife, and you don’t talk to her.
I did not have time to respond to that, at all. I didn’t say a word, because Mr. Brennan stood right up and said, what does this have to do with work. And I think he called him — not to offend anyone — a jackass at that point. So the whole tide turned, at the meeting. And pretty much, it was over.
Q Now, what about the two-month period between the end of July and the end of September, what was the relationship like, during that period?
A Between?
Q Between you and Mr. Schiavo?
A Not like it was before. I would speak to him, only about professional things. After that meeting, in fact, he called off sick for two days. I didn’t even see him for two days. And when he came back in, he hardly said two words to me, unless he had to. If we worked together on the same day in our office, he would leave the office and not tell me where he was going. I wouldn’t see him for hours.
Q Now, was Mr. Schiavo the person who initiated the complaint of policy violations against you?
A Yes.
Cross says that the day of the alleged incident, she only remembers Brennan, Richardson and Kalicharan being in the office, that she does not recall Schiavo even being in the room.
She is adamant that she did not have any conversation with Caldwell the day in question, that she did not ask for Robaxin to be brought to the office and that she didn’t hand Robixin to Richardson.
Q: Would Michael Schiavo falsely claim that you violated policy?
CROSS: I believe so.
Q. Why?
CROSS: In my own personal opinion, out of retaliation, out of anger. The fact that I disagreed with him, which was very important to him, about what he had done with his prior wife, which I never said anything to him, in his tenure there, about that. That was my personal opinion. I never said anything until he directly asked me, and then I did tell him.
Q: Were you in a position to observe the relationship between Mary Caldwell and Michael Schiavo?
CROSS: The work relationship?
Q: Yes. The work relationship.
A: Yes.
Q And what was the character and nature of that relationship?
A We had what was called a read-off every single morning, where the nurses would gather. They would receive their assignments, news of the day, you know, that type of thing, a room about this size, and a table just like this. So all the nurses would kind of sit around the table. The two supervisors that were on that day would sit at the head of the table. Nurses can sit wherever they want. Nurses always kind of sat in the same chair. And, consistently, on day shift, Mary sat next to Michael Schiavo, on a day to day basis. I didn’t think much of it, at first, you know. I figured she just liked the chair. But, I mean, she’d actually ask people to move if someone was in that spot, so she could sit there. They whispered to each other. They laughed together. That’s what I observed.
Q So very close friends, in your opinion?
A Yes.
Q Now, among the other supervisors, was Dave Richardson well liked?
A Yes.
Q Did other supervisors that day express concern about Dave Richardson’s pain?
A I know that Rick had said something. I don’t remember exactly what he said. I know that BK had said something, kind of a joking way of saying it; like what’s the matter with you, stand up straight. But then, like what happened to you.
In his opening statement at the Aug. 16 hearing, Cross’ attorney had stated “This case is, I believe, much more complex than the suggestion from the Petitioner (sheriff’s office). In this case, the evidence will show that an individual by the name of Michael Schiavo, who is a nurse supervisor at the jail, two months after the alleged incident of July 31, 2006, two months after that point, because — as you will see from his deposition, which will come into evidence by stipulation — because he was upset, on a personal level with Ms. Cross, he decided that he was going to complain to officials at the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office about an incident that happened a full two months prior.
“Now, this alleged incident happened in a room that you will hear is probably the dimensions of about the rectangular table here before us, an extremely small room with one telephone and with a total of five nursing supervisors present in that small
room. All of whom have the sacred duty that the Petitioner just described, about not violating the code that prevents any distribution of prescription medication without a prescription, without a physician’s prescription. Despite that duty, no one reported that to officials, before Michael Schiavo, as part of retaliation against Ms. Cross. And you’ll see this in his deposition. He decided he was going to tell on Ms. Cross.
“Now, from that point, flowed an internal investigation — first, a law enforcement investigation, then a criminal investigation. And you will see that, over time, we have a series of three different statements by each witness that will testify today; two statements under oath, one not under oath. And you will see, over time, that stories change, stories shift. Stories, early on, are ambiguous about what happened, and over time become firmer, which belies the understanding, by any layman, that one’s memory is much clearer the closer to the incident. Here, we have the opposite. We have memories allegedly becoming more clearer, as more time goes by.
“So what you will see here today, is testimony that is going to contract itself. It’s going to change, over time. And there will be two, and maybe three witnesses today who will testify, live, that this incident did not happen as alleged”.
Final papers in the case are to be submitted by this week and it is anticipated a determination will be issued by administrative judge Daniel Kilbride early next month. 9-22-07
This article may not be reprinted or republished without the express written permission of the author.
Category: Courts, Florida, Government, Police, Schiavo
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Meneame -
- Digg
COPYRIGHT 2009 - NORTH COUNTRY GAZETTE All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of the publisher.
