North Country Gazette



Schiavo Culture Of Corruption: Grand Jury Overdue

Posted on Thursday, 15 of October , 2009 at 9:13 pm

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

TALLAHASSEE, FLA—For years as Florida’s Attorney General, the man who flunked the bar examination twice, shut down any and all investigations involving Terri Schindler Schiavo despite evidence of abuse and other wrongdoing and potential corruption in the matter.

Now, as Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist has refused to appoint special prosecutors in several high profile criminal matters in Pinellas County, where he was brought up, despite serious questions of objectivity, impartiality and abuse of discretion in the State Attorney’s office headed by Bernie McCabe in such cases as the deaths of Heather Whalley, Joey Turner and Jimmy Spicer and others.

But now, unbelievably, Crist has filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court for an order to impanel a statewide grand jury to investigate public corruption in the “base operating areas of the 11th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 20th  Judicial Circuits. He conveniently forgot the Sixth Judicial Circuit. Petition for Order to Impanel a Statewide Grand Jury

“Governor Crist deems it to be in the best interest of the public for a statewide grand jury to investigate criminal activity committed by public officials while acting in their official capacity”, a press release issued by his office says.

“A recent rash of crimes committed by public officials in South Florida has led to a crisis of confidence among those who have elected them to office”, Crist said in his release. “I have petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to impanel a Grand Jury to investigate these crimes, bring indictments and provide specific recommendations to address fundamental problems within the system that may be cultivating a culture of corruption.”

In his petition to the court, Crist says he “recognizes the recent rash of crimes committed by local and state public officials while acting in their official capacity”.  He adds, “Public officials have abused their powers gained by virtue of their position.  There is need to investigate this criminal activity”.

Sounds like the circumstances in the Schiavo case.

IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

 “For good and sufficient reason (Crist) deems it to be in the public interest to investigate criminal activity among local and state officials acting in their capacity”  His petition says these “crimes are of a multi-circuit nature, occurring in two or more judicial circuits”.  Except he left out Pinellas County.

It most definitely was and is in the public interest to impanel a Grand Jury to fully, completely and impartially investigate the Terri Schiavo case.

In seeking a Grand Jury to investigate criminal activity, Crist says that criminal activity is under the subject matter jurisdiction of the Statewide Grand jury and includes the following offenses:

bribery, burglary, carjacking, home-invasion robbery, criminal usury, extortion gambling, kidnapping, larceny, murder, prostitution, perjury and robbery, crimes involving narcotics or other dangerous drugs, violations of the provision of the Florida Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organization (RICO), crime involving or resulting in fraud or deceit upon any person, falsifying records, official misconduct and any attempt, solicitation or conspiracy to commit crimes.

Crist includes others but the above are applicable to the Schiavo case as well as many others, especially the state’s guardianship laws, Medicaid and Medicare fraud in addition to insurance fraud.

Culture of corruption?  Where was Crist during the Terri Schiavo case?

Current Attorney General Bill McCollum says that “too many cases of corruption have occurred in Florida and our goal will be to hold government accountable”.

As attorney general, Crist was constitutionally charged with protecting the civil rights and liberties of the state’s citizens but he did nothing to protect the rights and liberties of Terri Schiavo. He stood idly by and let her be dehydrated to death.

Crist consistently stayed out of the Schiavo case although he should have been front and center in the protection of her civil rights. Less than four months after she died a horrific death, Crist had the audacity to call the judges in the Schiavo case “heroes”, breaking his silence, saying that he was proud of Pinellas County Court Judge George Greer and U.S. District Court Judge James Whittemore. While he claimed he wasn’t endorsing the court rulings against reconnecting Terri’s feeding tube which led to her death, others didn’t see it that way.

Crist’s refusal to initiate any investigation or take action in the Schiavo case may stem from the connections of his father, Dr. Charles J. Crist, with facilities and persons associated with the Schiavo case.

Crist was born in Pennsylvania, Michael Schiavo’s home state and moved to St. Petersburg in 1960 when his father, Dr. Crist, a family practitioner, became associated with what is now known as the Bayfront Medical Center, a facility where Terri Schiavo was a patient. As attorney general, Crist refused to initiate an investigation into the Schiavo case, claiming that there were no complaints about the abuse and neglect of Terri Schiavo.

CRIST BLATANTLY LIED TO PUBLIC

Crist blatantly lied to the public as files at the Department of Children and Families reveal and then there is an envelope containing information about alleged abuse in the Schiavo case which was personally handed to him and later returned to the complainant without action, but with Charlie Crist’s fingerprints.

Crist blatantly told the public in a televised statement that there had been no complaints of abuse made to the state Department of Children and Families (DCF) a week after a DCF file in the matter was acknowledged in the Schiavo case.

Liars don’t belong in public office.  Florida deserves better.

And Crist wants a special prosecutor to investigate someone else?  A special prosecutor and Grand Jury to investigate Crist and the principals in the Schiavo case are long overdue.

While Michael Schiavo and his attorney, George Felos relentlessly persisted in their quest to cause the death of disabled Terri Schiavo by judicial homicide in consort with Pinellas County probate Judge George W. Greer, state attorney Bernie McCabe and former Pinellas County sheriff Everett Rice, Crist as Attorney General stood idly by, allowing federal and state civil rights laws to be grossly violated.  He failed to protect one of Florida’s most vulnerable persons from egregious discrimination.

In fact, from the time of March 18, 2005, when Terri’s nutrition and hydration was stopped by judicial order of Greer, even unlawfully withholding natural food and water, until she died 13 days later on March 31, 2005, Crist kept a low profile, leading many to charge that he was neglecting the duties of his office.

Maybe it was that “good ole boy” club of Greeks and cronyism that kept Crist from performing his duties.  Maybe it was more.  It should be investigated.

Just how tight in that Greek fraternal organization were Crist, Felos and Florida Rep. Gus Bilirakis along with Gust Bambakidis, older brother of “expert” witness Peter Bambakidis who was the tie-breaking physician, Greer’s choice, in arbitrarily determining that Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state and should die.

Perhaps an even greater question is why former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush never impaneled a Grand Jury in the Schiavo case—-or was he prevented from doing so by politics?

By statute, Bush could have asked the Florida Supreme Court to impanel a grand jury to investigate the alleged criminal wrongdoing and conspiratorial actions in the Schiavo case just like Crist has done in the  yet he hasn’t done so.

There was and is more than sufficient probable cause to open a criminal investigation into how the 41-year-old brain damaged woman sustained her injuries, injuries which resulted in a verdict of death for her because her husband wanted her dead.

OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

There was a blatant obstruction of justice in this matter—of public officials turning their heads maybe because of politics, maybe because of payoffs.

There existed a gaping flaw in the criminal justice system of Florida in this case.

Maybe flaw isn’t the right word.

Pandemic corruption appears to be more like it.

Why has there never been any meaningful investigation into what really happened to Terri Schiavo on Feb. 25, 1990, and how her injuries were incurred, injuries which certainly forever changed her life and set the stage for a 15-year-battle between her alleged husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo, and her parents, Mary and Robert Schindler?

The overwhelming question in this entire matter has always been why?

Why would Michael Schiavo simply not divorce her and allow her parents to care for her?

Terri Schiavo was sentenced to die by starvation and dehydration by Sixth Circuit Court Judge George Greer of Pinellas and Pasco Counties, acceding to the demand by Michael Schiavo for the withdrawal of her gastric feeding tube which provided sustenance to her twice a day. Suddenly incapacitated one evening in 1990, she left no living will but her husband claimed, with no substantiation only inadmissible self-serving hearsay that she had told him she wouldn’t want to be kept alive by artificial means, hearsay was suddenly remembered virtually on the eve of the 2000 trial after Felos told Schiavo that he had to produce some witnesses. 

And he did, two members of his family who suddenly developed Terri’s wishes.

There was a total breakdown in the judicial system involving this Schiavo case starting with George Greer who in essence became a co-conspirator to this cover up of truth, an actor with Michael Schiavo and his attorney, George Felos in an obstruction of justice.

Why wasn’t George Greer and the court interested in HOW Terri Schiavo sustained the injuries in 1990 which caused her to lose oxygen to the brain for five to eight minutes?

Felos, Schiavo and the court, aided by others who have vested interests to cover up the truth, kept the focus away from how the injuries occurred, instead directing  the public attention to emotionalism—on the right to die debate, on the euthanasia issue.

The stated cause of Terri’s injuries was said to be an alleged cardiac arrest resulting from a potassium imbalance due to an eating disorder.   However, medical and forensic experts dispelled that with medical evidence as well as the autopsy,  and publicly stated that a crime of strangulation, attempted murder, occurred.

And there are the allegations that other murder attempts may have occurred after Feb. 25, 1990.

The mainstream media was as responsible for distorting the truth in this matter and helping to perpetrate the obstruction of justice as was the court, some members of the legal community and many public officials.

ACPD INVESTIGATION THWARTED BY SCHIAVO

A federally funded investigation into the Terri Schiavo case was initiated in the fall of 2003 by Florida’s Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities [ACPD].  And, according to reports, the ACPD requested Terri Schiavo’s medical records from Michael Schiavo’s attorneys and was successful in obtaining them.  What happened to that investigation?  Who shut it down?  Where’s their report?

According to the center’s website, the group has the authority to investigate incidents of abuse and neglect when requested if there is probable cause to believe the incidents occurred.  Patricia Anderson, the Schindler’s former attorney, said ACPD has strong investigative powers including the ability to examine medical and court sealed guardian financial records.  She had said  that its findings of abuse or neglect would be conclusive and would preempt any court or other agency.

But apparently the ACPD probe was quashed. Attempts by many including The North Country Gazette to ascertain the status and outcome of this investigation met with stonewalling and refusal to respond.  There appears to have been no report issued and no final findings.

An attorney for the ACPD says the agency was stymied in efforts to conduct its investigation in the case by her estranged husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo and his attorney, Felos.

The attorney said that the duo thwarted the agency’s probe by refusing to allow a medical expert to examine the disabled woman. He said that the agency had continued to make its resources available in the Schiavo case up until her death.

ACPD launched an investigation into the Schiavo case in October, 2003, after receiving a complaint concerning allegations of abuse involving Terri and after FDLE superiors including Lance Newman and Moses Jordan had ordered special agent Mark Dubina to shutdown his investigation.

ACPD has the authority to investigate incidents of abuse and neglect when requested if there is probable cause to believe the incidents occurred.

In response to the original complainant to the ACPD regarding the Schiavo case, Hubert Grissom, ACPD attorney, said before Terri’s death that the Advocacy Center “continues to be in daily contact with those in the disability community who seek to find a way to stop the process that will lead to her death”.

Grissom told the original complainant in the Schiavo case, whose name is being withheld by NCG, that ACPD had “statutory authority to investigate regardless of objections”. He said that was the basis of the agency’s 2003 lawsuit brought in U.S. District Court in Tampa for injunctive relief and a temporary restraining order to stay the removal of Terri’s feeding tube.

The agency stated in the federal court filing that Gov. Jeb Bush had invested ACPD with the responsibility for protecting the “legal and human rights of individuals with disabilities” and authority to “investigate incidents of abuse and neglect of individuals with disabilities if the incidents are reported to the system or if there is probable cause to believe that the incidents occurred”.

“Aspects of the case had been in federal court before we filed our case and the court deferred to its previous opinion and the state court decision”, Grissom said.

On the same day that Terri’s Law was signed into law by the Florida Legislature in 2003,  U. S. District Court Steven Merryday had denied ACPD’s motion saying that the ACPD filing had not at that time shown any “interference” by Michael Schiavo, the guardian, in any investigation and failed to allege the details of the investigation contemplated.

The federal judge said that the court was precluded by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine from review of any claim that was “inextricably intertwined” with the judgment of a state court.

“Subsequently, Terri’s Law was passed that negated further emergency efforts on behalf of Ms. Schiavo”, Grissom said. “However, the center continued to press for further information regarding Ms. Schiavo’s condition”. He said that the center had hired a nationally known Harvard neurologist to determine if Terri was in a persistent vegetative state as Greer had ruled.

“In October, 2003, the doctor contacted the center stating he would not give an opinion based upon the records supplied to him without first examining her”, Grissom said. “The center next contacted the attorney for Ms. Schiavo’s husband and offered to bring the doctor to Florida to conduct such an examination. The offer was declined”.

The ACHD investigation isn’t the only probe into the Schiavo case that was quashed.

The North Country Gazette had learned that Mark Dubina, special agent and supervisor with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) had charged that he was told to “shut down” his investigation into the Schiavo case, to close his file and turn it in. 

AGENT: MCCABE ORDERED INVESTIGATION SHUT DOWN

He says that McCabe ordered that all criminal investigations in regard to the Schiavo matter, including the FDLE investigation, be shut down. Such an alleged obstruction of justice would appear to be grounds for a federal investigation of McCabe and the Pinellas County state attorney’s office.

Gov. Bush had appointed Dubina to his post as primary FDLE investigator and director for the Tampa Bay Region Domestic Security Task Force after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  Dubina, a certified fraud examiner, supervised all security operations for the Governor upon any visits to the Tampa Bay area and as such, had direct contact with the Governor.

Prior to Terri’s death, Dubina and another FDLE agent had stated that if they were served with subpoenas ordering them to give the information known to them regarding alleged corruption and collusion in the Schiavo case, including alleged obstruction attempts by McCabe, that they would inform the court about the order from their superiors to close down their investigation of the matter and McCabe allegedly stifling their attempted investigation in 2003. According to informed sources, Dubina had reportedly given a statement about the case to Schindler family attorneys but reportedly the document was not presented to the court.

Such information of alleged criminal activity and governmental cover up including the alleged obstruction by McCabe, presented to Bush by his own appointee, should have been sufficient for Bush to have impaneled a state Grand Jury to investigate officials in Pinellas County and the Schiavo case. 

No subpoena was issued for Dubina and Rhodes so they could testify in court, without fear of retaliation and losing their jobs, that they had determined there was sufficient probable cause that crimes had been committed in the Schiavo case. Such information may have been enough in March 2005 for a court-ordered injunction to immediately reinsert the feeding tube of Terri Schiavo—-and that’s likely why they were never subpoenaed and the truth was stifled.

Why didn’t he?  Or was Bush part of the cover-up too?  It all merits an investigation, an overdue investigation by a Statewide Grand Jury and perhaps because of some federal matters, an investigation by the Department of Justice.

In addition to a well-documented complaint in the case submitted by attorney Patricia Fields Anderson to the FDLE in 2003, a complaint had also been presented to the state attorney’s office in 2003 with over 20 pages of supporting documentation verifying the need for an investigation. Assistant state attorney Robert Lewis, one of McCabe’s lackeys, a contributor to the reelection campaign of Schiavo judge Greer, claimed there were no crimes to investigate in the Schiavo case.

Reliable sources who spoke to NCG about the matter on condition of anonymity said that when Dubina opened a file into the case, he was called into his supervisor’s office and told to shut down the investigation not once, but twice.

Allegations of abuse in the Schiavo case were reviewed by FDLE Regional Director Lance Newman; Moses Jordan, former chief of investigations of the Tampa FDLE office,  special agent supervisor Troy Walker as well as SAS Dubina.  A final decision was made that FDLE would not continue to investigate this allegation based on the previously stated information, but primarily due to the single jurisdictional issue that any criminal violation that might have occurred would have been within the City of St. Petersburg.

Jordan was the second-in-command of the Tampa Bay FDLE until his retirement in January 2008. After using his leave time, his official departure date from the FDLE was in March, 2008.  after 25 years of service.

But his retirement wasn’t exactly voluntary. It stemmed from a turf war between the FDLE and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.  But the real issue was that Jordon publicly took on Bernie McCabe, embarrassed him, disrespected him in front of law enforcement and other officials—and Bernie McCabe retaliated. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2008/05/09/pinellas_turf_war/

Although McCabe has been in the state attorney’s office since 1972 and state attorney since 1992, according to both The Florida Bar and the Florida Commission on Ethics, unbelievably for someone in his position, no one has ever filed a complaint against McCabe—at least there are no complaints on file for this highly controversial individual, the agencies told The North Country Gazette.

In October, 2007, Jordan surrendered his agency-issued 40-caliber handgun and badge and was placed on paid administrative leave after the internal affairs division of the FDLE opened an investigation into allegations that Jordan had violated department policy although the incidents under review were over three years old, from June 2004 at a time when Terri Schiavo was still alive.

No explanation is given in the FDLE report why it took three years for the FDLE to open an internal investigation but the report clearly shows McCabe’s abuse of his position.

Five days later, in a terse statement, Jordan’s boss, Lance H. Newman, a 23-year FDLE veteran, announced his retirement, apparently because he hadn’t taken action against Jordan three years previously when McCabe’s chief investigator Doyle Jourdan had filed a complaint against him.

Newman had been the special agent in charge of the Tampa office since October 2002. Abuse allegations in the high profile Terri Schiavo case were quashed in 2002 under Newman and again, and again—all while Newman and Jordan were in charge of the Tampa FDLE office.  However, a new FDLE report indicates that it may not have been the FDLE who stymied any investigation into the case of the brain injured woman but most likely, as one FDLE agent has charged, Bernie McCabe.

Of course officials said Newman’s retirement wasn’t related to Jordan’s, that it was just “coincidental”.

Although the initial police report in the Schiavo case, taken early Feb. 25, 1990, by the St. Petersburg Police Department indicates that the incident “should be routed to the homicide division”, it was not and no criminal investigation of the matter has ever been conducted.

The police report says the incident occurred at 5:40 a.m., the police were dispatched at 6:11 a.m. because of her age and the incident was unusual in nature.  Terri was found unconscious in the doorway of the bathroom, face down.  The only witness present was Michael Schiavo.

In a 2003 interview on “Larry King Live”, Schiavo said he heard Terri fall around 4:30 a.m.  Pinellas County medical examiner Dr. Jon Thogmartin says that Schiavo also told him it was about 4:30 a.m. but in sworn depositions Schiavo has stated it was 5 o’clock or around 5:30 a.m.  Thogmartin said that Terri’s parents, the Schindlers, told him they “had no idea what time the incident occurred and said that when they were driving to the hospital, the sun was coming up”.

HISTORY OF TRAUMA

It was not until 2002 that it was revealed that a bone scan had been done on Terri in 1991 which showed broken bones in healing stages and it had been concluded that she had a “history of trauma”. 

Despite what the official FDLE report now filed says, according to The North Country Gazette’s knowledgeable sources, the FDLE agents determined that there was probable cause to initiate an investigation in the area of fraud after conducting a preliminary investigation.  

It wouldn’t be the first time that police reports have been altered.

In the report, Dubina says that while the initial investigation would not have been enough to obtain an indictment of anyone at that stage, that in the past, the FDLE has opened a full-fledged criminal investigation with far less information than he had developed in the Schiavo case.

Sources say Dubina has said that never in his many years of law enforcement had he ever been ordered to shut down an investigation and the file was closed and turned in. 

It appears that McCabe ordered that all criminal investigations in regard to the Schiavo matter, including those of the FDLE, be shut down, Dubina has reportedly stated.

In other situations involving the Schiavo case, as a result of comments attributed to Felos, published in a February, 2005, Palm Beach Post article, there are also grounds for the Internal Revenue Service and the Florida Tax Department to audit Felos and perhaps Michael Schiavo.

Felos was quoted in the Post article as claiming that he had only received about $340,000 in legal fees in the Schiavo case, admitting that the fees had been paid from a medical malpractice settlement in the case.

PUBLIC RECORDS CONTRADICT FELOS

However, public records contradict Felos’ published statement, showing that as of November, 2002, over three years prior, he had already been paid $397,249.

According to documents received from the Florida Department of Health, The North Country Gazette learned that Dr. Joel Prawer, one of the doctors sued by Schiavo for medical malpractice and who settled out of court in 1992 for $250,000, was later vindicated by DOH and found to have NOT been negligent in the matter.  With DOH having exonerated the doctor of malpractice, the question exists if a case of insurance fraud existed and was Michael Schiavo liable to repay the $250,000 to the insurance companies?

In fact, the question exists of what happened to that $250,000?

Money has always been one of the central issues in the Schiavo case. The proceeds of the 1992 jury award, netting out at about $750,000, were placed in a trust fund for Terri to pay for her rehabilitation and therapy, but instead Michael Schiavo directed that all therapy be stopped and he used the money for legal fees to achieve her death. There has never been a public accounting of how the $250,000 settlement paid out in the second medical malpractice lawsuit was spent.

Schiavo’s attorneys, Deborah Bushnell and George Felos, had the court seal the financial records of Terri’s trust fund, presumably so the Schindlers and the public wouldn’t know that the money awarded for Terri’s therapy was instead being used to pay them and other attorneys to end Terri’s life rather than be utilized for the purpose it was awarded. So far, there has been virtually no accountability of how the money was spent although there have been prevalent allegations of fraud and mishandling.

It was revealed that the DOH had destroyed the records of the case involving Dr. Prawer which resulted him being cleared of any negligence and malpractice in the Schiavo case.  Such destruction of records could be deemed a destruction of or tampering with evidence and could subject those responsible to criminal sanctions.

Allegations of Medicare and Medicaid fraud have also been raised in the case. Medicare has federally mandated guidelines for admission to a facility and the receipt of Medicare Part A for hospice facilities.  Amongst them are definitions of a terminal illness, a degenerative and irreversible medical condition that can be reasonably expected to cause the patient’s death within 12 months.  For Hospice admission, the prognosis is supposed to be six months or less as a life expectancy.  http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_01/42cfr418_01.html

However, in the case of Terri Schiavo, her guardian and estranged husband placed her in a hospice in April 2000 at a time when his attorney, Felos, was chairman of the Hospice Board.

During a 2002 medical evidentiary hearing, Dr. Victor Gambone testified that he certified Terri as terminally ill so that she could be placed in Hospice Woodside.  When questioned under oath why, he said it was because Michael told him to do so.

PROBABLE CAUSE OF FRAUD

Dubina said that enough probable cause of fraud existed in 2003 for a fraud investigation by a certified forensic accountant. Considering Michael Schiavo’s filings for Medicaid and Medicare assistance for Terri at a time when, as her spouse, he was earning nearly $70,000 and had assets totaling more than a quarter million dollars, an investigation of his filings is overdue.

State agencies in Florida play the Medicaid issue in the Schiavo case like a hot potato. The office of Attorney General Bill McCollum claimed they had no jurisdiction in issues of Medicaid recipient fraud and they passed the ball to the FDLE who could have brought criminal charges for fraud as the statute of limitations had not expired in the recertifications made for Medicaid by Schiavo. However, after the FDLE dragged their feet in the matter for over three months, they then said that DCF declined to refer the case to the FDLE for investigation, not that the statute of limitations had expired but rather that that DCF was refusing to investigate, continuing to protect Michael Schiavo and perpetuating the Schiavo cover up.

It’s in the public interest for this entire matter to be investigated, especially considering the history of alleged wrongdoing and corruption within the DCF.

“The Florida Department of Law Enforcement believes fraud is a serious matter and should be addressed whenever possible”, but apparently not in the Schiavo matter. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2007/05/27/schiavo_shuffle/

Complaints of abuse, neglect and exploitation of Terri had also been made to the Department of Children and Families. DCF investigators have also claimed that their supervisors told them that they would not proceed and marked the complaints “unfounded”.

In the days before the court-ordered removal of Terri’s feeding tube on March 18, 2005, when DCF attempted to intervene in the case to investigate some 30 allegations of abuse and targeted Michael Schiavo as the suspect, asking a 60-day stay of Greer’s death order to that they could complete their investigation, Greer refused and said he wasn’t “comfortable” with granting any additional stays. A woman’s life was at issue.

DEFIED CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS

Greer then defied Congressional subpoenas which had ordered Terri to appear as a federal witness at a Congressional hearing on March 28, 2005, 10 days after her feeding tube had been removed. According to NCG’s governmental sources, President George Bush could have acted immediately both on the basis of the new evidence as well as Greer’s contempt of Congress to take Terri Schiavo into protective custody under the federal witness protection program.

When Frank Nagatani served as DCF attorney, he blocked virtually every attempt to investigate documented complaints of alleged neglect, abuse and exploitation of Terri Schiavo.

He also apparently allowed Michael Schiavo’s application for Medicaid to be processed without question.  Florida state statutes mandate the state’s Department of Children and Families, upon receipt of a report alleging abuse, neglect or exploitation of a vulnerable adult, begin within 24 hours a protective investigation of the facts alleged.

But Nagatani publicly declared, “DCF is not going to get involved in [the Terri Schiavo case] until this is out of the court”. And even now that it’s out of court, DCF is still running interference for Michael Schiavo and perhaps certain governmental officials involved in the Schiavo cover-up.

During his involvement in the Schiavo case, Nagatani failed to disclose that he was a financial contributor to two of the judges in the case, Mark Shames and George W. Greer.

On Jan. 25, 2002, when attorney Anderson, petitioned death judge Greer, for an evidentiary guardianship hearing, a DCF investigator received a subpoena to appear. His subpoena was quickly killed by Judge Greer following a motion filed by DCF attorney Nagatani to quash the subpoena “that because this is in the courts, the agency is staying out”.

And that became the steadfast excuse all the way to the top—including the U.S. Department of Justice, giving Judge George Greer virtually unreined power in his determined march towards the death of Terri Schiavo, repeatedly interfering in the statutory and constitutional powers granted to Congress, the Governor, federal marshals, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and DCF. Judge George W. Greer became an autonomous despot in the death of Terri Schindler-Schiavo and firmly established the euthanasia movement in the United States, in essence legislating from the bench.

Had Frank Nagatani allowed a protective investigation into the Schiavo case, she might be alive today and charges could have been brought against her guardian and estranged husband, Michael Schiavo.

While at DCF, Frank Nagatani appears to have almost singlehandedly derailed all investigations into the abuse and exploitation of Terri Schindler Schiavo while employed as assistant regional legal counsel for DCF, and allowed state taxpayers to pick up the tab for her care under Medicaid although Michael Schiavo clearly exceeded the income limits as well as assets. The question arises—did Nagatani do so on his on volition or on direct orders of someone higher?

And how was the application for Terri’s submission to hospice approved without the proper certification, without her having been certified terminal? 

NAGATANI’S SUDDEN DEPARTURE FROM DCF

Nagatani’s sudden departure from DCF in June, 2003, has never been publicly explained but appears it may have been tied directly to the Schiavo case. His departure came just weeks prior to Dubina’s review of the case who ultimately was told by FDLE superiors to shut it down.

After Nagatani’s repeated refusals to allow a Schiavo investigation to go forward at the DCF level, Nagatani inexplicably abandoned his 14-year career as legal counsel for DCF and submitted his resume in lieu of an employment application for the position of chief legal counsel of the Pinellas County Health Department. According to a Pinellas DOH spokesperson, Nagatani filled a position which became vacant by retirement.

He left the state agency for a county position on July 1, 2003, coincidentally just prior to Dubina’s opening a FDLE jacket in the case and just after the Second District Court of Appeals reaffirmed on June 6, 2003, Greer’s November, 2002 ruling that Terri’s feeding tube should be removed to cause her death.

Nagatani had joined DCF as the child welfare managing attorney in June, 1990 and was employed in that position until May 1998 when he became district legal counsel, responsible for all department legal work for Pinellas and Pasco Counties, according to his resume—-the same month that Michael Schiavo submitted his petition for the removal of Terri’s feeding tube.

Nagatani became assistant regional legal counsel in March 2000, a position he held until sought county employment in June, 2003 at approximately the same time that the Second District Court of Appeals affirmed Greer’s November, 2002 ruling that Michael Schiavo could remove Terri’s feeding tube on Oct. 15, 2003.

 Nagatani was the regional legal counsel in 2001 when a heavily documented complaint was filed with DCF in the Schiavo case.

According to the one complainant who filed documented, substantiated allegations of abuse concerning Terri with DCF in August, 2001, DCF investigator Steve Nehring told her that the “higher-ups” refused to get involved in the case and marked the file “unfounded”. She says Nehring told her that “98% of the people here in my building (DCF) think Terri should be given back to her parents to allow them to care for her”.

In 2001, the DCF legal division, then under the direction of Frank Nagatani, reportedly blocked disclosure of findings of an investigation conducted by DCF investigator Mitchell Turner who had produced a report about alleged felony abuse, neglect and exploitation of Terri Schiavo following a 60-day investigation during November and December, 2001.

Medical evidence indicates that Terri may have been the victim of domestic violence the night of the collapse. The autopsy and Pinellas County medical examiner has clearly stated there was no heart attack, there was no bulimia and no potassium imbalance and that was based on the medical records provided by Schiavo’s malpractice attorney, Gary Fox. It’s the records that weren’t provided by Fox that may hold the key to Terri’s collapse.

Pinellas County medical examiner Dr. Jon Thogmartin specifically noted that he could not have completed the autopsy without the reports provided by Fox. Thogmartin also indicated that “a lot of records have been destroyed” and that the case would remain open because of the missing documents in hopes that someone might come forward with them”. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/112506SchiavoReview.html

A Florida resident who substantiated yet another complaint to DCF about the Schiavo case with over 700 pages of documentation reportedly met with the DCF investigator at least 10 times. The investigator, Mitchell Turner, also twice visited Terri Schiavo, once accompanied by her parents.

That’s more than Judge Greer did. Even though Greer acted in the dual role of guardian ad litem for Terri, he never personally visited her and had no personal knowledge of her condition, but yet signed her death warrant and doggedly enforced it.  The complainant heard nothing more regarding the DCF investigation until attending a court hearing in the Schiavo case before Greer.

At that time, Greer waved papers in his hand, saying that the DCF investigation had been sealed. The complainant had never been notified.

ALLEGATIONS OF ABUSE AND NEGLECT

Numerous incidents of alleged neglect and abuse of Terri were raised by the Schindlers in court papers before Greer. However, rather than raise the issue before Greer in his dual conflicting role, it appears that an impartial investigation concerning the care of Terri Schiavo is long overdue but extraordinary efforts have been undertaken to impede and shut down any investigation into the Schiavo case, then and now.

According to informed sources, a highly detailed, specific complaint regarding a dental care issue and other alleged negligence including a bed sore was filed with Florida’s Department of Health during the spring of 2004 by one of Terri’s caregivers. However, DOH then issued a letter to the complainant indicating that the matter had been investigated and was unfounded. The letter was dated the day before an investigator was actually dispatched to the facility where Terri was a patient indicating the complaint has been summarily dismissed without investigation.

Investigations into the Schiavo case have been systematically stymied at virtually every legal level. At a case management hearing in October, 2002, in response to a reference about the DCF complaint, Greer said “Oh yeah, and we got the DCF report” but he made no disclosure of its contents saying it was sealed. Days later, Attorney General Charlie Crist denied any abuse complaints had been filed in the Schiavo case.

There is evidence that at least four highly detailed complaints were filed with DCF in the Schiavo case including the one filed in early November, 2001, containing over 700 pages of supportive attachments and documentation alleging neglect, abuse and exploitation of a disabled person pursuant to Florida Statute 825. Documentation was also provided that abuse, negligence, criminal and unapproved actions by the guardian pursuant to Florida Statutes under Chapters 744 and 765 involving numerous violations and infractions of the law, had occurred.

According to the complainant, the DCF supervisor investigated for 60 days with numerous contacts. The complainant maintains that the DCF investigator agreed that “outrageous activities” had resulted in Terri’s neglected condition on the many fronts being presented. The investigator reportedly reviewed all 700 pages and made several visits to examine Terri alone, witnessed her reacting to her parents and her environment, and inspected the hospice records and facility.

The DCF investigator accepted additional supportive evidence, both offered and requested. Several other persons who were involved such as past caregivers, doctors, facilities and Michael Schiavo were allegedly interviewed by DCF. The final report was completed at last minute on the 60th day, the 60 day time frame set by law.

The report reportedly “went up the chain and came back down only to be labeled UNFOUNDED, apparently quashed by higher-ups. At that time, Nagatani was the regional legal attorney for DCF responsible for all investigations in Pinellas and Pasco Counties. It appears that Nagatani is the “higher-up” who quashed the investigation, perhaps with direction and consent of others.

The complainant says that when pressed, the investigator said that there were recommendations made but would not say to whom. The complainant reports that the investigator said in disgusted tone that “all he could say was to keep up the fight”.

According to informed sources present for virtually all the court proceedings in the Schiavo case, Greer never addressed the 2001 DCF report again until the past allegations of abuse and neglect became an issue. Calls to state attorney McCabe produced the response, “we can’t do anything unless the local law enforcement finds something for us to investigate”.

 McCabe pointed the finger of blame at law enforcement, Dubina and others pointed it back at McCabe.

 GRAND JURY REVIEW OVERDUE

There are numerous other incidents in the Schiavo case that warrant a long overdue independent review by a Grand Jury.

 The public records which are available even though Schiavo attorneys George Felos and Deborah Bushnell were successful in obtaining court orders to have the fee petitions sealed during 2002 indicate that as of Jan. 14, 2002, more than $440,000 of the claimed $776,000 in Terri’s trust fund had been expended on legal fees, proving beyond all reasonable doubt that Michael Schiavo’s public claim that 98% of the trust fund had been spent on Terri’s medical care was bogus. It’s inconvertible that after he received the money, Schiavo stopped all therapy and rehabilitation and set about a concerted, premeditated effort to end his wife’s life. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/040906SchiavoRecords.html

 Nurses’ testimony: Heidi Law, Carla Sauer-Iyer, Carolyn Johnson have been ignored and dismissed without hearing; each testified that Michael was abusive to Terri and may have attempted to kill her by insulin injection and attempts to induce pneumonia by turning the thermostat in her room to 64 degrees.

 Michael Baden, top forensic pathologist in country and interviewed on Fox News National Television broadcast Oct. 25, 2003 on Terri’s bone scan and injuries states that:

a) Terri’s injuries are not consistent with a heart attack; no cardiac evidence to support it  

b) Extremely rare for potassium imbalance on woman her age and in her good health       

c) Injuries are consistent with severe trauma possibly caused by a beating

d) The injuries in medical records warrant an immediate investigation

 Neurologist Dr. William Hammesfahr testified that Terri’s neck injuries are consistent with only one type of injury: that of strangulation.

 Numerous alleged violations of state guardianship laws by both Michael Schiavo and Judge Greer in addition to Greer’s prohibited dual role as judge and guardian ad litem in the Schiavo case.

 Michael Schiavo committed both perjury and insurance fraud by promising under oath to provide care and therapy for his wife in exchange for the multi million dollar court award of  in 1993.  No rehab or therapy was ever been provided to Terri after he received the award and in fact, he issued a do not resuscitate order and unlawfully ordered the nursing home to withhold medical treatment

 The involvement of state and county officers involving in allegedly illegally using their positions to influence a judicial campaign and perhaps control the outcome of the Schiavo case.  McCabe, Rice, Crist and other public officers   participated in Judge George Greer’s 2004 supposed non-partisan campaign for reelection, one of the most heavily financed judicial campaigns in the history of Florida.

In a 30-second television spot first aired in mid-August, 2004, on the FoxTV affiliate serving Pinellas and Pasco Counties as well as BayNews9, Greer is shown in a courtroom setting in the Pinellas County Building with appearances by James Hellickson, assistant state attorney; and Paula Shea, assistant state public defender.

Also appearing in the political advertisement endorsing the reelection of Greer is a uniformed officer of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department, a sheriff’s patrol car and several attorneys.

State law prohibits the use of governmental buildings for political purposes nor can any candidate use the service of any state officer or employee during working hours.  Both Hellickson and Shea are state employees.  Filming a TV commercial for political purposes inside the Pinellas County building is prohibited, especially the use of the courtroom, according to law and judicial ethics opinions issued by the Florida Supreme Court.

Additionally, state law prohibits the political activity of state, county and municipal officers and employees for the purpose of influencing an election.  It would appear that by appearing in the TV spot advocating Greer’s reelection, both Hellickson and Shea were lending the influence of their state positions for political purposes during working hours and in a governmental building.

Money has been one of the central issues in the Schiavo case. The proceeds of the 1992 jury award, netting out at about $750,000, were placed in a trust fund for Terri to pay for her rehabilitation and therapy, but instead Michael Schiavo directed that all therapy be stopped and he used the money for legal fees to achieve her death. There has never been a public accounting of how the $250,000 settlement paid out in the second medical malpractice lawsuit was spent.

Schiavo’s attorneys, Deborah Bushnell and George Felos, had the court seal the financial records of Terri’s trust fund, presumably so the Schindlers and the public wouldn’t know that the money awarded for Terri’s therapy was instead being used to pay them and other attorneys to end Terri’s life rather than be utilized for the purpose it was awarded. So far, there has been virtually no accountability of how the money was spent although there have been prevalent allegations of fraud and mishandling.

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/082606ForkedTongue.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/070806PalmTrees.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/042306OutOfCloset.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/073106LetMyDaughterDie.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/101605EditorialCrist.html    10-15-09

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  Copyrighted by The North Country Gazette 2009. This article may not be reprinted or republished in its entirety in any medium without the express written permission of The North Country Gazette.  The link and a paragraph or two may be used.

STOP! READ! Avoid A Forbidden Notice.  First time visitors are welcome at no charge.  Thereafter, readers who wish to read additional articles or plan on returning at a later time will need to be an advertiser or have a paid subscription to the NCG Daily Digest in order to gain access.  This policy will be strictly enforced and access will be denied to those who abuse it.  To sign up, see the subscription ad and PayPal button to the right of this page or at www.northcountrygazette.org  If you have questions, contact us at news@northcountrygazette.org

 Special subscription rate through Nov. 11, 2009.  See http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/10/11/changes_coming/

Bookmark and Share

Category: Courts, Crime, Disabled, Florida, Government, Health, Insurance, Opinion, Police, Schiavo

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.