Animal Cruelty Case Judge Was DCF Counsel In Schiavo
Posted on Thursday, 24 of July , 2008 at 7:04 pm
BREVARD COUNTY, FLA—When Kelly McKibben of Melbourne was with Florida’s Department of Children and Families, she was involved in the highly controversial court-ordered dehydration and starvation of brain injured Terri Schindler Schiavo.
Now, as a Brevard County judge, she’s in the middle of a case in which a woman is accused of starving and dehydrating her young disabled German Shepherd dog, leaving the three-legged dog in a crate to die with a bag of dog food nearby.
The irony is evident. Michael Schiavo was not held criminally liable for the dehydration death of his disabled wife but Christine Abrams, 30, is charged with two misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty for moving out of her home and leaving her dog behind to starve to death.
McKibben represented Gov. Jeb Bush in the Terri Schiavo case.
In late 2005, Bush appointed McKibben to the Brevard County Court to fill a vacancy in the 18th Judicial Circuit created during the 2005 legislative session.
When DCF made a surprise entry into the Pinellas County courtroom of probate judge George W. Greer in February 2005 during a hearing in the Terri Schiavo case, Greer refused to grant McKibben’s request to address the court to announce the agency’s intervention into the case.
McKibben and the DCF advised Greer that DCF was conducting an investigation into allegations of abuse, neglect and exploitation involving the neurologically impaired Terri Schiavo who Greer had ordered to die by dehydration and starvation by the removal of her feeding tube.
McKibben and other DCF officials told Greer that the agency wanted a 60-day delay in the case in order to complete their investigation of the abuse allegations which targeted Michael Schiavo but Greer refused, saying that DCF wasn’t a party to the action. He ordered the removal of Terri’s feeding tube on March 18, 2005 and 13 days later, she died.
There were several motions calling for Greer’s recusal, including allegations that he too had engaged in improper, unethical ex parte discussions of the case with Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice and counsel with the Attorney General’s office.
In her role as judge, McKibben has now denied a defense motion for her recusal in the animal cruelty case. Abrams’ attorney alleges that McKibben engaged in an prohibited ex parte, out-of-the courtroom communication with the prosecution.
No trial date has been set in the Abrams’ case. If convicted, Abrams could be sentenced up to a year in jail and fined $5,000 for the abuse and neglect of Ella.
Abrams’ attorney, Andrew Stine, has already argued during a suppression hearing that the case should be dismissed because he says that police illegally searched her home on March 12 without a warrant. At that time, they discovered the year-old dog dead in a cage, a bag of dog food a short distance away. She told police that she had moved out of the house because the water had been turned off and she left Ella behind because her new roommate didn’t like dogs.
Stine had accused McKibben of issuing a court order on improperly filed paperwork without consulting him.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/122305JudgeMcKibben.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/122705CloudOfInvestigation.html 7-24-08
Category: Breaking News
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