|
Why do Michael Schiavo and his attorneys feel the need to try to dirty the Schindler family?
Why is the St. Petersburg Times reporting on a complaint filed against the Schindler family? Did they report the complaint about Michael Schiavo’s falsified resume, his falsified college degree, the falsified employment application with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department….the judicial misconduct complaints about Judge George Greer?
Why is the St. Petersburg Times engaging in selective reporting---not what you need to know, only what they want you to know about the Schiavo case.
Perhaps the even more looming question is why is Florida government more interested in investigating an alleged impropriety in the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation than they are in learning the truth about how she died.
 Jon Eisenberg is a California attorney who jumped on the Michael Schiavo bandwagon in 2004, presumably pro bono, in opposing Terri’s Law and Gov. Jeb Bush.
Eisenberg filed an amicus curiae brief in the Florida Supreme Court in the Schiavo case, presumably on behalf of 55 bioethicists and a disability rights group.
He claims be became involved because of the death of his cousin who had a stroke and was placed on a feeding tube. He says she had told him she wouldn’t want to be kept alive if she couldn’t communicate and so he pulled the tube. Wasn’t pretty, he said, took her nine days to die.
The difference is, Terri didn’t want to die. She struggled to say she wanted to live but Judge Greer didn’t care what she wanted. Michael Schiavo’s self-serving hearsay was what counted. It took Terri 13 days to die---that alone a testament to her will to live. And her death was horrific.
Late in 2004, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Gov. Bush had violated the separation of powers doctrine when he tried to squash Judge George Greer’s death order to remove Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube.
Last week, Eisenberg filed a complaint against the Schindler family with Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services which oversees charitable organizations, alleging that Terri’s family have used the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation Inc. to collect tax exempt contributions for the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation Center for Health Care Ethics, a lobbying group.
The latter organization is newly formed and was formally launched last Thursday in Washington, D.C., the day before the first year anniversary of Terri’s death.
Eisenberg also reportedly filed a complaint against the Schindlers with the Internal Revenue Service. We hope the IRS is well familiar with the Schiavo name and has an open jacket into Michael Schiavo and his handling of the money awarded to Schiavo in the fraudulent medical malpractice claim he filed against two doctors and their insurance companies. Schiavo fraudulently claimed that Terri’s collapse was caused because the physicians she had been consulting hadn’t diagnosed bulimia or a potassium imbalance which supposedly had caused a heart attack. They didn’t diagnose it because she had neither as the autopsy showed. Michael Schiavo fraudulently received some $600,000 for loss of consortium and another $750,000 which was earmarked for Terri’s rehabilitation and therapy.
However, he didn’t use it for that designated purpose. Instead, as soon as Michael Schiavo got it in his pudgy palms, he stopped all therapy, ordered a DNR and tried to stop all treatment. Instead he used Terri’s money to kill her, paying Felos and his team.
Talk about a misuse of funds. How come Florida officials haven’t investigated that, the insurance fraud, the Medicaid and Medicare fraud?
Terence McElroy has been quoted as saying that DACS has assigned an investigator to “ensure the inquiry proceeds without problems….because of the visibility of the case”.
We’d like to know just who ran to the St. Petersburg Times with the allegation and complaint and why the matter wasn’t handled confidentially like other such matters. Oh, wait, is it because of the high visibility? Cast the stone at the Schindlers and deem them guilty before proven innocent? Isn’t that what Eisenberg’s complaint is really all about, an attempt to discredit the Schindlers on the anniversary of the death of their daughter?
Or is Jon Eisenberg just trying to draw publicity to himself in hopes in piggybacking his Schiavo book with the Schindler book?
Is Michael Schiavo and his death cult really that vindictive and hateful?
Seems like the verdict in that question is a clear cut yes.
So tell us, why hasn’t there been a criminal investigation of Michael Schiavo “because of the visibility of the case?” Why hasn’t there been an investigation by the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission of the numerous blatant ethical violations of George Greer? Why did FDLE supervisors tell investigators to stop and turn in their files?
Why wasn’t action taken by the state of Florida into the multiple violations of guardianship law by both George Greer and Michael Schiavo? Why wasn’t action taken by the state on the 2002 motion to remove Michael Schiavo as the guardian of Terri Schiavo? Why didn’t the state act to compel his appearance for depositions and take action against his violations of court orders concerning the Schindler family? Why didn’t the State of Florida take action on George Greer’s use of the Pinellas County Courthouse in his political advertising and the illegal use of state and county employees to endorse his campaign such as Bernie McCabe, Everett Rice and others?
Why didn’t the State of Florida and AG Charlie Crist open an investigation into the Medicaid fraud involving Michael Schiavo and Hospice of Florida Suncoast?
Has there been an investigation launched into the ethics of George Felos and his refusal to allow to Terri to live after Michael Schiavo, the client, told him that he wanted to “give it up”?
According to the filings at the website for the Federal Election Commission, Michael Schiavo’s political action committee, TerriPAC, still hasn’t responded to the FEC’s request for more information, a response that was due in January. The FEC claims they can’t reveal if an audit of TerriPAC and treasurer Brian Schiavo is underway, citing confidentiality.
Has Jon Eisenberg filed a complaint about that? After all, if he’s so concerned about the handling of money by lobbying organizations, he should be real concerned about TerriPAC and their alleged FEC violations.
So just why is the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services broadcasting that a complaint has been filed against the Schindlers before an investigation is even opened? Is that called selective publicity or just plain “kick them when they’re down”?
It looks to us like the Eisenberg complaint is a diversionary tactic, retaliatory, smoke and mirrors to take the focus off from George Felos’ looming ethics complaint and Michael Schaivo’s statements and appearances last week during his “Terri: The Truth” promotion, better known as open mouth, insert foot all the way to the hip.
Where was the St. Petersburg Times in reporting the Felos’ ethics dilemma? Their “report” of the revelation that Schiavo told Felos he wanted to “give up the fight”. Their report said simply “…….reveals that he decided to give up his fight, at his girlfriend’s request, as Congress was about to intervene last year but changed his mind after speaking to his lawyer, George Felos”.
The Times forgot to mention that Felos refused to honor the decision of his client and instead told Michael that it wasn’t about Terri, it was about the death movement.
Arthur Caplan seems to be joined at the hip with Eisenberg, no doubt one of the 55 bioethists who Eisenberg “represented” in his amicus curiae brief opposing Terri’s Law. We found an extensive “glow” piece about Eisenberg and Terri’s case on a bioethics blog written by none other than Art Caplan about “my friend Jon Eisenberg”.
And, as Paul Harvey says, now we know the rest of the story---- how Jon Eisenberg, Art Caplan, Michael Schiavo and the St. Petersburg Times combined to smear the Schindlers. Eisenberg makes the snowballs and Caplan throws them.
Don’t forget, Caplan is a member of the advisory board of the Poynter Institute of St. Petersburg, owner of the St. Petersburg Times.
Could be that’s why the Times coverage of the Schiavo case has been so one-sided----Caplan-Schiavo sided and lets not forget George Felos and Eisenberg.
Ethics? Improper actions? Mr. Caplan and Mr. Eisenberg want to talk about ethics? Let’s first talk about the Felos ethics. If Mr. Eisenberg is so concerned about the law and ethics, how come he didn’t make a complaint against Felos to The Florida Bar as he is ethically required to do when he becomes aware of such a potential violation?
And then let’s talk about how and why The SP Times is reporting Eisenberg’s complaint on the Schindler family, the newspaper that never disclosed that one of their most quoted “experts” in the Schiavo case was in fact a member of their own board and an advocate for Michael Schiavo.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/021606MediaBias.html
Let’s hope the State of Florida and Jeb Bush can level up the playing field in the Schiavo case because for too long, the Schindlers have been getting the short end of the stick when it comes the investigatory duties of state agencies.
Jon Eisenberg is seemedly overly concerned that some conservative groups may have helped pay the legal fees of the Schindlers in their quest to keep their daughter alive but Eisenberg didn’t seem to have a problem with Felos and company, perhaps even himself, accepting money from the ACLU or groups comprising the death cult in their quest to make Terri Schiavo the poster child for the euthanasia movement. In fact, Felos and company didn’t seem to have a problem stuffing their pockets with Terri’s own rehabilitation money to kill her.
They say that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. That would also seem to apply to Jon Eisenberg and his Michael Schiavo entourage. 4-06-06
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
|
