Originally Posted - May 9, 2006

return home

Pinellas County taxpayers paid Michael Schiavo over $6,000 plus benefits last March to watch his disabled wife die after he pulled her feeding tube to cause her long, tortuous death.

This year, taxpayers paid Michael Schiavo over $2,500 plus benefits to honeymoon in Las Vegas with his entourage of 10.

Terri Schindler-Schiavo died in Florida on March 31, 2005, after struggling to live for 13 days after her nutrition and hydration were withdrawn by her estranged husband and guardian by order of Pinellas County probate judge George W. Greer following a decade-long legal battle against her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.

Pinellas County taxpayers paid Schiavo for funeral leave which he began taking on March 26, five days before her death.

Ten months after Terri died, Michael Schiavo married his long time concubine, Jodi Centonze with their two out-of-wedlock children attending the Jan. 21 ceremony in the Espiritu Santos Catholic Church in Safety Harbor.

According to payroll records obtained from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department, taxpayers paid Schiavo from Jan. 17-Jan. 29 to take time off for his honeymoon at the rate of $264 per day plus benefits.

Schiavo is employed as a nurse with the inmate health care division of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department, hired in late 2004 by former Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice. The mother of Schiavo's concubine, the late Eleanor Centonze, had retired from the sheriff's office in 1999 where she had been employed for 20 years as a clerk with Rice as her boss from 1988 until her retirement.

When Schiavo was first employed by Rice in late 2004, he was paid $22.38 an hour or approximately $51,745 annually.

Records indicate that while the regular salary for a part-time registered nurse is $18.45 an hour, Schiavo's beginning salary was $22.3776 an hour, the additional pay being given for his "experience".

Less than a year later, Schiavo is now making $33 an hour and claiming an annual salary of $68,000 plus benefits.

In an interview he gave earlier this year to the St. Petersburg Times, Schiavo claimed that he is now a nursing supervisor, overseeing 150 nurses at the 3,600 inmate facility. However, according to the time sheets provided by the sheriff's office to The North Country Gazette, there are only 28 employees in the Medical Division.

The St. Petersburg Times, a long-time advocate for Michael Schiavo, is owned by the Poynter Institute of which Arthur Caplan is a member of the Board of Trustees. Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania where Schiavo, Caplan, Judge George Greer and other principals in the Schiavo death penalty case appeared April 30-May 1, was Schiavo's UPenn bioethics symposium partner and a TerriPAC contributor.

Schiavo and Centonze obtained a marriage license on Jan. 20 at the Pinellas County clerk's office and were married the next day in Espiritu Santos Catholic Church.

He has lived with the former Centonze since at least 1995 while still married to Terri. He refused to divorce Terri, instead doggedly seeking the court's permission to kill her.

As Terri lay dying last March at Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, according to records obtained from the Sheriff's Department, Schiavo was paid for eight days of funeral leave, totaling 64 hours with employee benefits, from March 26 through April 6.

Schiavo, a registered nurse, had only been employed at the jail since Oct. 11, 2004, having been hired by Rice just a few weeks before Rice left his post as sheriff to represent District 54 in Florida's House of Representatives.

He had submitted an allegedly falsified employment application in July, 2004, for the position, omitting at least four citations when asked to list all violations of law for which he had been cited thus Schiavo allegedly engaged in both misrepresentation and omission regarding his record and filed a false written instrument with the law enforcement agency.

Schiavo completed the employment application which boldly instructed the applicant to "leave no blank spaces" It read "A candidate may be rejected "who has intentionally made a false statement or omitted a material fact, or practiced, or attempted to practice, any deception or fraud in their application and their examination, or in securing their eligibility for employment".

Schiavo signed the "applicant's certification and agreement" before notary public Priscilla Irvine who neglected to state whether or not he took an oath as to the honesty of the statements. The certification he signed stated that "it is agreed that any misrepresentation or omission by me in this application will be sufficient cause for its cancellation or rejection or dismissal from service of the Sheriff's Office if I am appointed. It is also agreed that I have answered all of the questions on this form completely. If not, this application may be rejected".

He then certified that the facts set forth in the application were true and complete to the best of his knowledge.

But they weren't and the public record that exists that proves that they weren't.

Instead of terminating Schiavo for the alleged omission and misrepresentations on his employment application, Sheriff Jim Coates promoted him and gave him an annual raise of over $11,000 plus benefits all at taxpayer expense.

According to informed and reliable sources inside the Sheriff's Department, a memo was circulated among department employees in late March 2005, asking sheriff's department members to donate some of their sick time to Schiavo because he had allegedly used up his accrued sick leave. In many government entities, using sick leave as personal leave is prohibited.

Reliable sources said that the internal memo stated that their "fellow employee, Michael Schiavo" was in dire need of such time in order to "grieve the passing of his wife". The memo reportedly said that it would be appreciated if anyone was willing to donate to Schiavo.

And donate they did. According to the records released by Linda Johansen, legal counsel for the sheriff's department, Schiavo received 136 hours-17 days--of donated leave which translated into $3,043 of taxpayer money for him to sit at the Woodside Hospice rather than do the job he was hired and paid to do.

According to the personnel rules of the sheriff department regarding the donation of sick leave or vacation time, the sheriff's office permits members to donate accrued sick leave or vacation leave to another member for a "medical condition". Such donations may take place only after all of the member's accrued personal leave banks have been exhausted.

The affected member must request such donations of time and the request must be approved by the sheriff or his designee prior to any announcement regarding the request being distributed within the agency.

According to the records, Michael Schiavo took the entire month of April, 2005 off after Terri's death, being paid mainly by donated leave even although he had worked less than six months before taking the extended leave.

Schiavo had placed Terri, at Woodside Park hospice owned by Hospice of Florida Suncoast in 2000 without the proper certification by two doctors and falsely stating that she was terminal, allegedly certifying to the court that he was unable to pay for her care.

In 1990, when Michael Schiavo filed his original guardianship petition which contained a perjured statement that he had received a college degree from Bucks County Community College when he had not, the court told him he couldn't own property. However, he testified in January, 2000 that he and Centonze owned a house together, a statement that the assessment records for Pinellas County does not support. Assessment records indicate that the house at 2807 Warrick Drive in Clearwater where they reside with their two children borne out of wedlock is owned by Jodi Centonze. Even though there is reportedly a court order in effect which prohibits Schiavo as a personal guardian from owning real estate, property records show that until March 27, 2003, he owned an interest in property formerly owned by his late parents at 12190 66th Ave., Seminole. The selling price is listed at $210,000. There is no action on file indicating that Schiavo was found in contempt of court for his alleged violation of the court order.

Ownership of property would be considered a spousal asset in considering Terri's eligibility for Medicaid and Medicare. However, it appears, according to Schiavo's own admission in his recently published book, that he intentionally hid assets from the court. He states that in 1995, he and Jodi built a house in Oldsmar with him using the money he had realized from the medical malpractice settlement in 1992. He admits to putting the house in her name-acknowledging a willful attempt to hide his ownership in the property. He discloses in the book that he had proposed to Jodi in October, 1994, long before he submitted his petition to the court in 1998 to kill his wife, Terri by the removal of her feeding tube.

In regard to his relationship with Jodi, at the January, 2000 trial, he testified that he had known her for five and half years and was in an intimate relationship with her. That would have put their initial meeting at about July, 1994.

However, in a sworn deposition given on Nov. 11, 1993, he testified he had met Centonze some three months previous in August, 1993, and admitted to having slept over at her house as early as 1993, apparently while he was living off his incapacitated wife's Social Security benefits.

Terri Schiavo's death sentence was imposed by Greer on the basis of the alleged credibility of Michael Schiavo's testimony concerning Terri's alleged wish that she would want to die rather be sustained by a feeding tube.

Instead of providing hospitalization, medical and dental insurance coverage from his employment with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office for his wife, Michael Schiavo allowed the taxpayer to pick up the bill while he was living his double life with Jodi and instead of using the money awarded by the court to fund her rehabilitation, he spent it on attorneys to secure her death and then petitioned to have the taxpayers pay for her care, successful in having Greer seal all the financial records.

In referring to their new house and 1995, Schiavo says "living together was an adjustment for us, just as it's an adjustment for every committed couple that does it". But in 1995, Schiavo had a wife, a disabled wife who he refused to divorce. "We had our hopes and dreams", Schiavo says of his relationship with Jodi, but I felt there were on indefinite hold because I also had Terri".

According to the certification report on file for Terri's admission to the hospice in 2000 after he wasn't successful in shoving the petition to kill his wife through the court without the knowledge of her parents, she was never properly certified and therefore her five year stay at the hospice, done under orders of Michael Schiavo at the time his attorney, George Felos, was chairman of the Hospice board of directors, was done illegally and may constitute Medicaid and Medicare Fraud in addition to other possible violations of both federal and state hospice law.

Felos failed to disclose his position as chairman of the Hospice board to the court, then resigning in 2001 amid public pressure and scrutiny after he and Schiavo had surreptitiously moved Terri to the facility without court authorization in April, 2000, reportedly as a result of arrangements made by Felos. By moving her to a facility where Felos was chairman of the board, all of Terri's caregivers were presumably under the total control of Felos and his client----but it appears that Felos knew, or should have known, that the proper certification had not been completed and that she was not eligible for hospice care. In fact, according to the hospice law, Terri Schiavo should have been allowed to be cared for in her home----or that of her parents.

Although money had been specifically earmarked by the court in the 1992 malpractice suit for Terri's rehabilitation, and despite Michael Schiavo having received a settlement too, in 2002 he petitioned the court and Greer for permission to place Terri on Medicaid and permission was granted. It's unknown if he disclosed to the court the $210,000 he received in 2003 from the sale of his parents house because Greer sealed all financial records at the request of Felos and Deborah Bushnell.

Schiavo told the court that virtually all the money from the jury award had been spent, although he apparently failed to fully disclose his assets, and in July, 2002, asked Greer to enroll his wife in the Medicaid program which would fund her stay at the hospice along with Medicare.

A review of the initial certification of Terri Schiavo for hospice care, the terminal diagnosis listed is "vegetative state".

Victor Gambone is listed as the attending physician who made the diagnosis on March 3,,2000, that "based on patient's diagnosis (vegetative state) and the current condition,, she had a limited life expectancy of less than six months or less". Gambone then testified under oath that she wasn't terminal, contradicting a sworn statement---a material fact.

The certificate indicates that there was "verbal confirmation" on March 3, 2000 by Victor Gambone with written certification on April 11, 2000, by William Moore, hospice medical director.

However, by law, the certification by two doctors had to be in writing and therefore the certification is not complete or acceptable.

The certification also claims that Terri's family was aware of both the diagnosis of terminal illness as well as the move to the hospice. According to a spokesperson for the Schindler family, that is untrue and further constitutes grounds that a false statement was allegedly filed with the federal and state government at the direction of Schiavo and Felos to obtain benefits which were not warranted and lacked the proper certification. Although Michael Schiavo had his own hospitalization and medical coverage, he apparently failed to cover his wife under his insurance and with Greer granting Schiavo's request for Medicaid, it appears a significant case of fraud may have existed----with Greer as an accessory. The list of false certifications, statements and applications made by Michael Schiavo is extensive. To date, he has not been held accountable for those alleged false statements and alleged fraud although complaints have been filed, but not acknowledged, by the state attorney's office of Bernie McCabe. The now proven false statements made by Schiavo in securing guardianship, employment and Medicaid would appear more than sufficient grounds for the unsealing of the financial records in the case and for a complete audit to be conducted.

However, with his recent public statements and appearances with Michael Schiavo and others who supported Schiavo in his efforts to kill his wife, George Greer's bias and conflict is well established publicly and would require his immediate recusal from any motion placed before the court concerning the removal of Schiavo as guardian in the estate of his life wife and the unsealing of financial records.

The certification for Medicaid and Medicare must be continuously renewed, according to law. For each period of hospice coverage, the hospice must establish written certification from a physician including that the recipient is terminally ill and has a life expectancy of six months or less. Documentation to support the terminal provisions must accompany the initial certification of the terminal illness and must be on file in the recipient's hospice record. It would appear that every six months from April, 2000 until March 31, 2005, a false statement concerning Terri's eligibility was submitted to the state and federal governments under penalties of perjury.

Under Section 409.913, Florida Statutes, fraud is defined as "an intentional deception is misrepresentation made by a person with the knowledge that the deception results in unauthorized benefit to herself or himself or another person. The term includes any act that constitutes fraud under applicable federal or state law.

So far, Michael Schiavo has been totally immune from accountability, protected by Greer, attorneys Felos, Bushnell and Daniel Grieco also with unknown individuals.

The Schiavo family has been busy with Florida's Division of Corporations, creating new limited liability corporations in the last year as finances and business entities are apparently primary on their minds now that Michael has succeeded in effecting Terri's death.

On July 22, 2005, about 3 ½ months after Terri's death, Schiavo and his new wife, Jodi filed Mijolini, LLC, apparently a combination of Michael and Jodi's names and those of their two children, Olivia and Nicholas. Initially the registered agent for the LLC was attorney Susan Carlson of St. Petersburg but on March 22, two months after she and Michael were married, Jodi Centonze changed the name of the registered agent to Jodi Centonze---no, not Jodi Schiavo but rather Jodi Centonze, her maiden name. She was identified as secretary/treasurer of the LLC with Michael as president.

The address listed for the principal place of business is their residence at 2807 Marrie Court in Clearwater, the same as it was in January 2001 when Michael was listed as a director of the now defunct insurance firm, Jerger and Centonze Insurance Agency Inc. although Schiavo was not a licensed insurance salesman or agent. That corporation was administratively dissolved in October 2002 for failure to file an annual report.

On the same day of the filing of Jodi naming herself the registered agent of Mijolini, Michael's brother, Brian Schiavo, submitted a new business registration under the name of Schiavo LLC with himself as the registered agent and with a business address of South Tamiami Trail in Venice. In June, 2005, he had registered a business known as Credible Marketing doing business in Osprey, Florida. Last month, on April 10, he changed the place of business to Venice.

As treasurer of Michael Schiavo's political action committee, TerriPAC, Brian Schiavo had filed a change in the PAC's statement of organization also in March with the Federal Elections Commission, adding the Bank of America in Miami as a depository.

The first quarter report 2006 for TerriPAC was filed by Brian Schiavo with the FEC in April, showing that total receipts were $8,124 with disbursements of $9,584 which includes $2,500 in federal candidate contributions to three federal candidates and $500 to Jim Davis, Democratic candidate for Florida Governor. Of total receipts of $18,516 since the PAC was formed in December, 2005, to date only $3,000 has been given to candidates. Of the $13,411 shown in disbursements, the majority of the money has gone to Derek Newton, political consultant or his affiliations. With the balance that was on hand from the end of 2005, the report showed that the PAC had a balance of $6,565 on hand as of March 31.

Michael claimed he had formed TerriPAC to hold politicians accountable, particularly Republicans who had tried to save the life of his disabled wife. But according to the website of the Federal Elections Commission, it appears that's it's Michael Schiavo who still isn't accountable.

According to the FEC website, TerriPAC treasurer Brian Schiavo still hasn't filed a response to a letter sent to him by the FEC on Dec. 21 requesting clarification regarding whether the political committee had any affiliated committees or connected organizations. Schaivo and the PAC were given until Jan. 20 by the FEC to file a response under a warning that failure to make an adequate response could be a factor the FEC would weigh in a decision about whether or not to audit TerriPAC.

"Requests for extensions of time will not be considered" Daniel T. Buckley, campaign finance analyst of the Reports Analysis Division told Schiavo. "Failure to comply with the provisions of the Act may also result in an enforcement action against the committee. Any response submitted by your committee will be placed on the public record and will be considered by the Commission prior to taking enforcement action".

In February, Bob Biersack of the FEC public information office told The North Country Gazette that no audit decisions regarding the 2005-2006 election cycle---including whether or not to audit TerriPAC---had been made yet by the commission. Biersack failed to respond to a recent inquiry about the status of the missing information. 5-09-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette