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 How romantic.
Just weeks before Valentine's Day and her 41st birthday, Michael Schiavo and Jodi Centonze have applied for a marriage license in Pinellas County.
For over 10 years he lived with her in adultery while he fought in the Florida courts to kill his wife, playing the devoted husband while fathering two illegitimate children, now 2 and 3 ˝ years old.
He refused to divorce Terri Schindler-Schiavo while calling Jodi his fiancé for over six years, and the Florida courts, particularly Pinellas County probate court judge George Greer, refused to bring charges against him for adultery although he clearly was in violation of Florida statutes.
But then Michael Schiavo, 42, blatantly violated guardianship laws too.
On the application, she said her last marriage to Scott Blough ended in divorce on March 29, 1989. He said his ended in the death of his wife on March 31, 2005.
Reportedly, no date has yet been set for the wedding. Although the St. Petersburg Times quoted Schiavo family members are saying they hoped to keep media attention to a minimum, they also quoted John Centonze as saying that the National Enquirer had contacted him, offering to pay him for wedding pictures, claiming that they had offered him $5,000 for a picture of Jodi Centonze no matter how old it was. He claimed the wedding would take place before Valentine's Day, his sister's birthday.
In Florida, marriage licenses can be issued by a county court judge or the clerk of a circuit court. To obtain a marriage license, both parties have to appear, bring their valid photo identification, provide their Social Security numbers or valid passport and pay the marriage license fee. In addition, if either party has previously been married, they must apply the date and reason that marriage ended. Each person applying for a marriage license must also read the Family Law Handbook. This is required by law. http://www.flclerks.com/PDF/2000_2001_pdfs/7-99_VERSION_Family_Law_Handbook.pdf
The total cost for a license, including county and state fees, is $93.50. However, couples who have attended an approved premarital preparation class pay only $61. The provided has to be on a provider list pursuant to Florida Statute 741.0305(5). http://www.pinellasclerk.org/aspInclude2/ASPInclude.asp?pageName=marriage.htm
Blood tests for marriages in Florida are not required. Licenses are issued immediately. The process normally takes no more than 30 minutes. However, unless the couple has attended an approved premarital preparation class, there is a three day waiting period before the license is effective and the marriage can take place. Florida marriage licenses are valid for 60 days from their date of issue. They must be returned to the clerk's office for recording within 10 days after the marriage is performed.
Michael waged a contentious court battle from 1998 against Terri's parents, Mary and Bob Schindler Sr., trying to end his former wife's life, saying that she wouldn't want to be kept alive by a feeding tube. She had left no living will. He claimed she was in a persistent vegetative state.
Scores of neurologists and physicians as well as her parents and siblings said she wasn't, that she had a chance for recovery, that Terri was responsive, cognitive and alert, that she was in a minimally conscious state.
On March 18, by order of Judge Greer, all nutrition and hydration was withheld from Terri Schiavo with Greer even ordering contrary to Florida Statutes that she not be fed orally. She died 13 days later on March 31.
In 1999, after Michael had petitioned the Pinellas County Probate Court of Greer to remove the feeding tube of his incapacitated wife and while he was living with his fiancé in an open adulterous affair, criminal by Florida statutes, the Florida Legislature----including Sen. James King-----changed the law. Prior to that time a feeding tube providing nutrition and hydration was not considered medical treatment.
Michael's attorney, Deborah Bushnell, told Judge Mark Shames in May, 1997 that it wouldn't be proper to remove Terri's feeding tube without notification to her parents, Mary and Robert Schindler. According to public record, as of May, 1997, Schiavo had already intended to move Terri to a hospice where his new attorney, euthanasia advocate George Felos was a member of the board of directors, and remove her feeding tube to end her life. Shames granted permission for Felos to represent Michael, to be paid with monies from Terri's trust fund which had been earmarked for her rehabilitation and therapy.
In August, 1997, Felos notified the Schindlers of the intent to end Terri's life by removing her feeding tube and in May, 1998, attorney George Felos and Michael filed a petition before Greer to remove the feeding tube----albeit at that time, gastric tube feedings were not defined as "medical treatment".
According to published reports, Jodi may have met Michael before the fateful night of Feb. 25, 1990, when Terri collapsed under mysterious circumstances with Michael as the only known witness. Although admitting that he knew CPR and that he had found Terri lying face down, gulping for air, he admits that he did not administer CPR and he apparently didn't even take steps to move her head so she could breathe easier.
Reports say that Jodi had left her first husband, Scott Blough, soon after New Year's Day of 1989. They had been married in October, 1986. Her father, Joseph, was an auto mechanic and was killed at age 54 in 1988 as the result of an automobile accident. Her mother, Eleanor, was working for then Pinellas County Sheriff Rice as a clerk at the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department, a position she held for 20 years until her retirement in 1999.
Jodi had been injured in two automobile accidents, one in December, 1987 and another eight months later. At that time she was already working in insurance full-time, becoming employed in an insurance agency while in high school and continuing full time after her graduation from high school in 1983. She currently holds licenses with multiple insurance companies.
Blough became a licensed life and health insurance agent in 1987 and continues to be licensed by numerous companies, including Prudential Insurance Company, licensed with them in March, 1995 and valid through Aug. 31, 2005. Prudential was the holder of medical and life insurance policies for Terri.
Michael was born in 1963 in Levitttown, PA. Terri was born the same year and grew up in Huntington Valley, PA., a suburb of Philadelphia. The couple met at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, PA. in 1982 while both were students there and five months after meeting, Michael proposed. They were married on Nov. 10, 1984, in Southhampton, PA. and in 1986, moved to St. Petersburg, FL., when Terri's parents, Mary and Bob Schindler moved there for early retirement. Terri had worked for Prudential Insurance Co. in Pennsylvania and continued with the company in Florida, employed by Prudential at the time of her collapse in February, 1990.
After Centonze sustained her neck and shoulder injuries in the 1988 auto accidents, she got 19 cavities in a year and was seeing a dentist regularly. She reportedly met Michael at the dentist office, possibly even before February, 1990.
Gloria Centonze, 54, wife of Jodi's brother, John, claims that she was a nurse for Terri at a nursing home about 1990-1991. However, according to the licensing records for Florida medical professionals, no nursing license is on file in Florida for the woman under either Centonze or her maiden name of Cassaro. According to Florida marriage records, John Centonze married Cassaro on June 22, 2002.
Close friends of Terri and family members say that just prior to her suspicious collapse, Terri had been talking about divorcing Michael and they report seeing bruises on her and speak of Michael's controlling, abusive nature.
In 1992, Michael sued two doctors who had been treating his wife prior to her collapse, a general practitioner and a gynecologist. The insurance company of one of the doctors settled one medical malpractice claim for $250,000. After a jury trial in the other claim, Terri was awarded approximately $1.4 million with $750,000 specifically earmarked for her rehabilitation based on a 50-year life expectancy. Michael received over $600,000 for loss of consortium.
After attorneys' fees were paid, her share of the settlement was placed in a trust fund and reportedly invested in blue chip stocks, U.S. Treasury bonds and a money market account. It was supposed to be managed by a bank and controlled by the court. According to records, in April, 1993, Terri's assets were valued at $776,254.
However, soon after receiving the money, Michael ordered that all therapy and rehabilitation services be stopped to Terri and he began his quest for the courts to sanction the ending of his wife's life. With the approval of Judge Mark Shames, Michael received the authority to hire Felos and pay him to end his wife's life with the money in her trust fund that had been specifically earmarked to sustain her life.
And he moved in with Jodi Centonze.
By 1998, when Felos had reportedly "judge shopped", moving the jurisdiction of the case from St. Petersburg to Clearwater and into the court of probate court judge Greer, Schiavo and Felos requested that all financial billings be sealed which Greer quickly granted.
June Maxam 1-21-06
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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