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Some people seem to think that if they tell the same lie enough times, it'll become true.
Just like with Pinellas County Court Judge George W. Greer.
No matter how many times those St. Petersburg Times writers and columnists tell us that George Greer is the defender of our liberties and followed the rule of law in the Terri Schindler Schiavo case, it just isn't so.
His fellow judges and lawyers in Pinellas and Pasco Counties have done everything possible to try to atone and condone Greer's acts of judicial tyranny which brought attacks and the spotlight on the judiciary nationwide and made Pinellas County and its guardianships infamous worldwide.
He's been given the Judicial Independence Award by the Clearwater Bar Association, a judicial appreciation award by the St. Petersburg Bar Association, a special justice award by the West Pasco Bar Association and the Gardner Beckett Civil Liberties Award by the Pinellas County ACLU.
The lawyers in these bar associations all appear before Greer and all profit handsomely from the guardianships and probate administered by Greer. What's that adage----don't bite the hand that feeds you? Or is it more like one hand washes the other?
No bar association or group outside of Pinellas and Pasco Counties gave Greer any awards. And rightfully so. He deserves to be removed from the bench, not applauded for killing an innocent woman who was not terminal and who struggled to express her desire to live. In a criminal case, in order to sustain a conviction, the case must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and in a civil case, the standard is by the preponderance of evidence. There clearly was reasonable doubt in Michael Schiavo's self-serving statements that he suddenly remembered after he got the malpractice awards that she wouldn't want to be helped to stay alive, wouldn't want rehabilitation, that she would want him to spend all the money earmarked for her rehab on attorneys to take her away from the love and care of her family and cause her death. How plausible is that? The evidence was that Terri Schiavo wanted to live and any err should have been on the side of life.
George Greer a defender of liberties?
Hardly.
Tyrant of the year and taker of liberty? You betcha.
Robyn E. Blumner, "Perspective" columnist, penned a column for the St. Pete Times published Jan. 1 entitled "The Defenders of Our Liberties".
First she took a hit at Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist for "making a specious diagnosis of Terri Schiavo via videotape. At least Bill Frist is a physician and made an informed and knowledgeable decision. George Greer made his uninformed and incorrect diagnosis that Terri was in a persistent vegetative state via videotape and Greer is legally blind!!! Although he maintained the improper dual role of judge and guardian ad litem, he violated state guardianship law and never personally visited his ward. How can George Greer have a clear conscience?
Blumner says that Greer "refused to let the political circus surrounding the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube interfere with sound judgment". Whose sound judgment? Greer is the one who caused the circus. He was the ringleader. We certainly hope Blumner isn't inferring that the wholly unconstitutional and illegal acts in which George Greer engaged in the last five years of Terri's life constituted sound judgment---defying Congressional subpoenas, interfering with the Governor's constitutional mandate, refusing to allow state agencies to perform their constitutional and statutory duties, allowing Medicaid and Medicare fraud. That is not being a defender of liberties, that is being an obstructionist of justice. That's not sound judgment, that's plain tyranny and a despotism in a black robe.
Blumner says that Greer is a conservative Republican. Conservative? Engaging in judicial homicide is not conservative by anyone's rules. She notes that he was "essentially kicked out of his Southern Baptist church due to his actions in the case" and rightfully so. He was an embarrassment to the church.
She says that Greer "received death threats and had to live under the protection of armed guards".
Terri Schiavo got more than a death threat from George Greer. He murdered her, imposing a cruel, unusual and totally inhumane death sentence upon her because her seriously conflicted husband said she would want to die. There was no proof of that, no informed consent, not clear and convincing. No matter how many times Michael Schiavo, George Felos and George Greer told the lie, it didn't make it so.
Blumner says that George Greer "consistently drew on medical science and the dispassionate application of law to come to the correct rulings". Poppycock. Greer consistently IGNORED medical science. He refused to allow the new testings of medical science that would have proven Terri was in a minimally conscious state and had a chance for recovery. Why? Because George Greer simply did not want to admit that he was wrong. He ignored the affidavits and professional knowledge and expertise of numerous physicians and neurologists, instead relying on two Schiavo-picked doctors and Greer's chosen physician who was conflicted.
Dispassionate application of law? Baloney. Greer violated---no, he trampled on the Constitution, on guardianship laws. He allowed the exploitation of Terri Schiavo, he allowed neglect and abuse and blocked all efforts for any investigation of it. Greer failed to comply with both election law and campaign finance laws. He allegedly failed to qualify for office by not filing his oath of office. The cold hard facts are that George Greer has never had legal jurisdiction to adjudicate the Schiavo case, or any other case since 1992. He didn't comply with the written law. He didn't follow the rule of law. Saying it doesn't make it so.
The rule of law implies that government authority may only be exercised in accordance with written laws, which were adopted through an established procedure. The principle is intended to be a safeguard against arbitrary rulings in individual cases.
If the rule of law had been exercised in Terri's case, she'd be alive today.
George Greer's issuance of the death penalty for Terri Schiavo was wholly arbitrary and contrary to the rule of law. He decimated the guardianship law, time after time allowing Michael Schiavo to ignore mandated filings and reports. He allowed Michael Schiavo to intentionally fail to appear for court depositions. He allowed him to violate court orders. He refused to rule on challenges to Michael Schiavo's guardianship, one petition still pending at the time of her death that had been filed months previous. That's not complying with written law. There was no legitimacy to any of Greer's wholly arbitrary actions.
"Greer is an exemplar of the profession", Blumner says. Wrong. Greer is an insult and blight to the judicial and legal system. He did more to erode the public confidence in the judiciary than any one person in the last decade. He deserves no plaudits. He is to be condemned, not revered.
The St. Pete Times can keep saying it, the bar associations can make up all the awards they want for George Greer but no matter how many times they try to say that George Greer is a defender of liberties and did the right thing in killing Terri and making Pinellas County the foundation for the national euthanasia movement, it just isn't so. June Maxam 1-5-06
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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