Originally Posted - May 24, 2006

return home

Not only did Michael Schiavo collect $10,000 from his wife's life insurance policy and stash the proceeds in a safe deposit box in First Union Bank, but from the time of her sudden collapse in 1990 until approximately the middle of 1992 when the payments stopped, he lived off her paycheck from Prudential Insurance Company, according to his own sworn testimony.

Now, in his book, "Terri: The Truth", he's claiming that from the time of his wife's collapse until he allegedly returned to work three or four months later, he had continued to receive his paychecks from Agostino's where he was employed.

That too differs from sworn testimony he's already given, having previously stated that he didn't work for over a year after Terri's collapse.

He also allegedly lived off Terri Schindler Schiavo's Supplemental Security Income (SSI) check of approximately $600 per month for over two years until the court award was handed down from the medical malpractice claim in late 1992.

Can an able bodied spouse use his disabled wife's benefits to support himself?

Bob Schindler Sr. says that he's asked the supervisor of the Social Security Administration's office in Pinellas Park that question. He says that after he revealed to the Social Security Administration that Michael had admitted in a 1993 deposition that he was using Terri's SSI money for his own expenses, the supervisor said that in order to investigate any Social Security abuse, Terri's entire file would have to reviewed. The supervisor told Terri's father the file is located in Baltimore and would take two weeks.

Terri's father says that the SS supervisor told him that the file would reveal who had received the Social Security checks, the designated purpose for the money and the forms that were filed initially. It would also contain accounting forms that are submitted to Social Security periodically by the recipient, or her guardian, stating how Terri's Social Security money was paid out.

According to the senior Schindler, assuming Schiavo received Terri's Social Security checks, and Mary Schindler says he did, and if he filed an accounting of how he used the money, the Social Security Administration can verify the integrity of his disbursement statement.

Terri Schindler-Schiavo suffered serious brain damage as the loss of oxygen and blood flow to her brain in suspicious circumstances at her Florida home on Feb. 25, 1990, at age 26. The only known witness to the incident was her husband, Michael Schiavo.

The handicapped woman died March 31, 2005, at age 41 after her husband obtained a court order from Pinellas County probate court judge George Greer to remove her nutrition and hydration following a long, contentious court battle against her parents. Terri died without ever being able to recount what really happened on that winter evening when her life was forever changed.

The money trail has long been an issue in the Schiavo case as well as inconsistent testimony and contradictory statements by Michael Schiavo what happened on Feb. 25, 1990. In 1992, after suing two of his wife's doctors, Michael Schiavo received a net award of approximately $300,000 for loss of consortium and a net award of approximately $750,000 was given to Terri for rehabilitation and therapy. Another $250,000 was paid in an out-of-court settlement in August, 1992 but it is unknown at if that money was paid directly to Michael Schiavo or placed in a trust fund for Terri. Schiavo had ceased living with his in-laws in May, 1992 and lived with his parents until March 1994. After he won the guardianship challenge raised by the Schindlers in early March, 1994, he got his own apartment, bought himself a Jeep and moved Terri from Sabal Palms Nursing Home to Palm Gardens, discontinuing all rehabilitation and therapy by the end of March, 1994.

Shortly after he received the malpractice award in early 1993 and after a bitter argument with her parents on Feb. 14, 1993, he met Jodi Centonze in July, 1993. By the fall of 1993, he ordered the nursing home not to treat his wife's urinary tract infection after Dr. Patrick Mulroy had allegedly advised him not to do so. When his plan to kill Terri by withholding treatment from her didn't work because the nursing home said it was illegal to do so, he then waited a while and made an unsuccessful attempt in 1997 to obtain court permission to withdraw her feeding tube without notifying her parents. He formally petitioned the court to withdraw Terri's feeding tube to end her life in May 1998, seeking and obtaining court permission to use the money in her trust fund earmarked for her rehabilitation to instead pay for his attorney's fees to end her life.

At the time of the guardian ad litem's report in late 1998, it was reported that there was about $776,000 in Terri's trust fund, reportedly invested in mutual funds, treasury notes and stocks.

Michael had quickly commanded guardianship in June, 1990, with the assistance of attorney Daniel Grieco, his employer. Grieco had notarized the guardianship application which Schiavo had signed under oath, under penalties of perjury, saying that he had earned a degree from Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania when he hadn't. His guardianship application contained other false statements sworn to under oath too, such as employment data which as presented, states he was employed in Florida three years longer than he even lived in the state. Once he obtained the guardianship with false statements, he then refused to inform her parents of medical information and medical records concerning their daughter, controlling all visits to Terri and in essence, controlling every aspect of her life------and death. Even after he was court ordered to provide medical information to her parents, he failed to do so and the court failed to find him in contempt of court.

Schiavo has given multiple conflicting reports of what time he allegedly found his wife in the early morning hours of Feb. 25, 1990, of how he reacted, of what time he summoned emergency medical services for her and the length of time involved in summoning help. Instead of calling 911 immediately, it appears that he instead called Terri's father, Bob Sr., and then only called 911 after her father told him to do so.

As recently as late March this year, when conducting an interview with Matt Lauer of MSNBC, Michael stated that he heard the infamous "thud" and found Terri collapsed in the hallway near the bathroom about 5 a.m. The time frame became an issue and it appeared by his own testimony that he had waited up to 70 minutes to call 911 and then only after he first called Terri's father. Schiavo states in his just published book that he heard the "thud" at 5:30 a.m. as he was getting out of bed to go to the bathroom. He claims he rushed to Terri's side, picked her up, put her back down and within a minute, had placed the call to 911.

At the time he gave the Lauer interview, the book had already been published and he still was telling a contorted story of what time he found his wife.

In October, 2003, he told Larry King and a national television audience that at 4:30 a.m. in the morning he was getting out of bed "for some reason". He told Larry King he'd called Terri's brother, Bobby. He didn't call Bobby, he called Terri's father. Her father called Bobby.

No matter how much he doth protest, there is a window of 70 minutes by Michael's own account between the time he told Larry King he first found Terri and the time of the call he placed to 911.

He claims he's been cleared by the "investigation" conducted by state attorney Bernie McCabe of Pinellas and Pasco Counties. There's never been any investigation of Michael Schiavo because McCabe and former Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice refused to open an investigation into the matter and although investigators from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found probable cause to do so, they were told to close the file and that no investigation would go forth.

A closer look at the sworn depositions and trial testimony given by Michael for the medical malpractice trial in 1992, guardianship proceedings in 1993 and through the January, 2000 trial in Pinellas County probate court before Greer which resulted in Terri Schiavo's death order, show repeated discrepancies and contradictory testimony given by Michael Schiavo.

Even more discrepancies come to the surface in his written statements in his book.

It is also noted that the police report of the St. Petersburg Police Department used as part of the autopsy was "recreated" by the Officer Philip Brewer on October 22, 2003, 13 years after the fact, because it allegedly could not be printed off the microfilm on which it was stored. In the Oct. 27, 2003, Michael gave an interview on the Larry King Show, some of which was contradictory to the police report.

Since that interview with Larry King, Michael Schiavo has never given sworn testimony or a sworn deposition although attempts have been made on several occasions to depose him as part of the guardianship proceeding. Both he and his now wife, Jodi Centonze, were successful in dodging the depositions. Attorney Pat Anderson who represented the Schindlers from 2001 until September, 2004, says that during the entire period of her representation of the Schindler family, Michael Schiavo never uttered one word under sworn testimony and she was unsuccessful in attempting to depose him, shielded by Greer. Schiavo admits in his book that in the summer of 2004, when Pat Anderson had undertaken legal action to depose Schiavo's live-in girlfriend and mother of his children, once again attorney Daniel Grieco interceded, representing Jodi and blocked Anderson from taking her deposition.

At the time of Terri's collapse, Michael was working at Agostino's Ristorante, a restaurant owned by attorney Grieco. Within 48 hours after she had been admitted to the hospital on Feb. 25, 1990, Grieco arrived at the hospital. Grieco consulted with Terri's parents outside the Intensive Care Unit waiting room, recommending that they sign documents that would allow Schiavo to handle Terri's medical affairs on the pretense it would expedite Terri's emergency treatment.

In a deposition given in November, 1993, Michael Schiavo said he left his job at Agostino's in order to care for Terri. However, in sworn testimony at the January, 2000 trial, he said that he went back to Agostino's for a month or so in 1990 and worked part-time under new ownership, a statement he makes again in his book indicating that the testimony he gave under oath was false. When the business went "belly up" in approximately December, 1990, he says he went back to school.

But then there's the deposition he gave for the medical malpractice case on July 27, 1992. Michael testified under oath that he did not work from the end of 1990 until he became employed at the Freedom Square Nursing Pavilion as a nurse's assistant in June, 1992.

In comparing Michael Schiavo's sworn testimony at trial and depositions and his book, it's hard to find him telling the same version of anything twice.

In his deposition given in November, 1993, he testified he had been attending St. Petersburg College for two and half years, indicating that he had entered the college in approximately June, 1991. In testimony on Nov. 5, 1992 for the medical malpractice trial, he testified he had started attending St. Petersburg College approximately a year prior indicating enrollment in September, 1991 and was looking to finish in 1994. At the January 24, 2000, trial, he testified that he didn't work from the end of 1990 until he went back to school in 1993.

Schiavo states in his book that all the time off work that he stayed with Terri, his paychecks continued. Perhaps an IRS audit of both Grieco and Schiavo should be conducted in addition to a review of Terri's Social Security records as well as Medicaid and Medicare, all of which add up to one more reason why the financial records of Terri's trust fund, sealed by Judge George Greer on request of Schiavo and his attorneys, Deborah Bushnell and George Felos, should be unsealed and audited.

While he testified in January, 2000 that he didn't go back to school until 1993, in November, 1993 he testified that he had just graduated EMT school and was starting in respiratory therapy in August, 1994.

Although he had testified in 1992 that he was employed at Freedom Square, he then testified under oath before Judge George Greer on Jan. 24, 2000 that from the beginning of 1990 until 1996, he was unemployed.

So which is it? And his testimony about Terri's wish was found to be credible, clear and convincing evidence on which to cause the death of an innocent handicapped woman?

At the November, 1993 deposition, when asked what he lived on between April, 1991 and January, 1993, Michael said that he had "collected Terri's life insurance" and lived on that along with some money that he had. When asked what money he had used for Terri's treatment during that time, he said that they had conducted fundraisers for that and had raised "maybe $20,000" which had been placed in a separate trust at First Union Bank.

At another time, he testified the amount raised had been $50,000.

Fund raisers were conducted by her parents as well as Michael during the fall of 1990 after Prudential refused to cover the cost of the implant surgery because it was experimental. Terri had worked for Prudential prior to her injury and was insured by the company. As of 1990, prior to the medical malpractice lawsuits brought by Michael against Prudential Insurance Company and prior to the malpractice settlements, Schiavo and the Schindlers were still speaking.

Schiavo says in his book that as of June 30, 1990, Prudential had agreed to pay for Terri's rehabilitation and she was moved into Bayfront Rehabilitation Center in St. Petersburg.

In November, 1990, Michael accompanied his wife to San Francisco where the surgery was performed to implant platinum electrodes into Terri's brain, electrodes which were reportedly never removed and remained in Terri's brain for 15 years. According to medical experts, leaving the electrodes in her brain could have caused infection and medical complications.

Bob Schindler Sr. agrees that the amount raised for the trip was $50,000. He says that although corporate Prudential Insurance Company had refused financial assistance for the trip and surgery, Prudential employees from branch offices around the country donated about $30,000 to Terri. He says fund raisers and the community raised another $20,000.

While Michael claimed that he did not use any of the funds from the trust fund for his own personal living expenses, he did admit that he paid for his living expenses from the fund for the month or more that he was in California at the time a stimulator was implanted in her brain. That's one version.

Terri's mother, Mary Schindler, says she was present at the First Union Bank in 1990 when Michael placed $10,000 from Terri's life insurance policy with Prudential in a safe deposit box. To date, no accounting has been found to explain how Michael Schiavo used the proceeds from Terri's life insurance policy nor has any accounting been produced by Michael for the $250,000 received in August, 1992.

Mrs. Schindler says that none of the expenses for Terri's trip to California in November 1990 were paid for by insurance. She says that the monies from the fundraisers paid for the plane fare, the private nurse as well as Michael's hotel and meal expense for the month they were in California. She said that although the surgery for the brain implant was done without cost at the University of California at San Francisco Hospital because it was experimental, it was necessary to pay for the week-long rehabilitation afterwards. She says that Michael used monies from the fundraisers to fly home to Philadelphia for Christmas because he didn't want to be alone.

He then flew back and brought Terri home from California in late January 1991.

He testified in November, 1993, that from the time he left his employment in 1991 until January, 1993, he had lived on Terri's Social Security checks which he says were given to him to help him live. He said that Terri could not get Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare initially because she was receiving her monthly paycheck as a benefit. Prudential had paid her medical insurance and life insurance and also paid her salary for a year after the incident, money which he used to support himself while he was unemployed.

Michael later testified at the January, 2000 trial that he had not received Terri's Social Security checks during that time. He also testified that she received disability payments from Prudential and that he had sued Prudential to obtain Terri's "rehab benefits". According to the court records, his suit against Prudential was dismissed.

He said he had received a payout from Prudential from insurance proceeds, her life insurance but he didn't disclose how he had used it, instead hiding it in a safe deposit box.

Mary Schindler says that Michael did receive Terri's SSI checks which amounted to about $589 a month. She said they came to their mail box when Michael was living with them. "I saw them", she says. 'I used to get the mail. They came directly to him. He used them to live on".

So he testified under oath at the January, 2000 that he hadn't received Terri's Social Security checks. That's the same trial that he offered his self-serving hearsay testimony under oath, about Terri's purported train conversation back in the mid-80s when she supposedly indicated she wouldn't want to be kept alive by a feeding tube albeit feeding tubes weren't medical treatment at that time but rather basic life support.

He said in his 1993 deposition that that he had opened the safe deposit box at First Union Bank in 1992, placing in it the $10,000 that he had received under a "living needs benefit" from Prudential and that he had "stuck it there for safekeeping". Mary Schindler says he received the money in 1990, not 1992 and she personally witnessed him stashing it in the safe deposit box, accompanied by a bank employee who stated that she "wasn't supposed to be seeing this". There is no indication what else he may have "stuck" in that safe deposit box for safekeeping or why the money was not deposited in the bank in an account for Terri.

Although both Schiavo and his attorney, George Felos, repeatedly insisted at the time of her death and in other court proceedings that she could not feel pain and did not respond to stimuli, in his sworn deposition in July, 1992, Michael said that "she'll respond to noise, she'll respond to pain". He reiterated that at the medical malpractice trial in his sworn testimony of Nov. 5, 1992. And he reiterates it in his book.

According to the court dockets, Michael Schiavo's testimony is inconsistent, even in testimony given just days apart as in a person who can't remember their lines in a play. In testimony at proceedings on Jan. 24, 2000 before Judge Greer, Schiavo said that while he was aware of a "demand" letter sent in 1993 on his behalf by attorney Jan Piper to Terri's father, Bob Sr., he could not recall that it was demanding payment of alleged credit card debt. However, three days later on Jan. 27 in rebuttal testimony, he strongly and emphatically testified that Bob Schindler owed him money because he had used his credit card to purchase a lounge chair and had not repaid him, apparently having a jolt of memory. He also then claimed that Schindler owed him $2,000 for a car. In other testimony, Michael acknowledged that the Schindlers had helped him and Terri pay their rent and that they had lived at Schindlers' $400 a month condominium without paying rent. He couldn't recall if the Schindlers have given him $900 to help with moving expenses.

At the January, 2000 trial before Greer, Schiavo and Felos had no objections to having the media hear Michael's version of events. However, they attempted unsuccessfully to close the court to the media and public on cross examination of Schiavo by Pamela Campbell, the attorney then representing the Schindlers.

The inconsistencies in Schiavo's testimony are shown throughout his sworn testimony and depositions indicating virtually a total lack of credibility, and the inconsistencies continue throughout his book. Although he and others were later to claim that Terri's sudden collapse could have been attributed to her consumption of large amounts of ice tea, in his deposition for the medical malpractice trial in July, 1992, when directly asked if she drank large amounts of fluid including iced tea, he testified "not ice tea, not that I can recall, no". He changed this testimony at the malpractice trial in November, 1992, then testifying on prompting that she drank a gallon of iced tea a day.

In regard to his relationship with Jodi Centonze, 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.

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. In his book, he says he met Centonze in July 1993 in the dental office of his friend and that he proposed to her in October, 1994.

If questions can be raised if Schiavo gave false testimony at the 2000 trial about how long he had known Jodi Centonze, what credibility would be assessed to his testimony regarding the alleged comments Terri had made to him some 15 years previously. How reliable was his testimony regarding Terri's end of life wishes, wishes he never recounted at the malpractice trial in 1992 when he was seeking a financial settlement, saying he would take care of Terri and bringing forth witnesses who estimated her life expectancy to be 50 years so that his financial award would be higher? He didn't tell the jury then of his intent to kill his wife using insurance settlement proceeds to do so.

There are repeated contradictory statements made by Schiavo in regard to the events relating to Terri's collapse and his response to the collapse including the alleged delay of him summoning emergency medical services for his wife. And the discrepancies and outright false statements under oath continued from 1990 and still continue today.

Material facts---Michael Schiavo has given conflicting and contradictory testimony under oath concerning material facts. Perjury is the act or crime of knowingly making a false statement (as about a material matter) while under oath or bound by an affirmation or other officially prescribed declaration that what one says, writes, or claims is true.

"Material matter" means any subject, regardless of its admissibility under the rules of evidence, which could affect the course or outcome of the proceeding. Whether a matter is material in a given factual situation is a question of law.

Under Florida Statutes, Section 837.021, perjury by contradictory statements is a punishable as a second degree felony. The statute states whoever, in one or more official proceedings, willfully makes two or more material statements under oath which contradict each other, commits a felony of the third degree. The prosecution may proceed in a single count by setting forth the willful making of contradictory statements under oath and alleging in the alternative that one or more of them are false. It is not necessary to prove which, if any, of the contradictory statements is not true.

Section 837.02 provides for perjury in official proceedings, that whoever makes a false statement which he or she does not believe to be true, under oath in an official proceeding in regard to any material matter, commits a felony of the third degree. Knowledge of the materiality of the statement is not an element of the crime of perjury and the defendant's mistaken belief that the statement was not material is not a defense.

Florida Statutes, Section 817.567, Making False Claims of Academic Degree or Title say that no person in the state may claim, either orally or in writing, to possess an academic degree….or the title associated with such degree, unless the person has, in fact, been awarded said degree from an institute as defined by statute". A person who violates this provision of law is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree and by law, in addition to any penalty imposed by the statute, a violator shall be subject to any other penalty provided by law, including, but not limited to, suspension or revocation of the violator's license or certification to practice an occupation or profession.

In 1990, when Michael Schiavo filed his original guardianship petition, 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, indicating 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 that court order, protected again by George W. Greer.

Schiavo says in his book that in 1995, he and Centonze built a house together in Oldsmar but that they put it in her name. That would appear to be have been an intentional hiding of assets by Schiavo.

Despite the multiple discrepancies in the court testimony given under oath by Michael Schiavo, obvious to anyone reading the court transcripts, Judge Greer found Michael Schiavo credible over her mother, her best friend and a friend of 20 years.

Based on the sworn testimony of Michael Schiavo, the statements made in his book and the recorded interviews with Larry King, Matt Lauer and others, the clear and convincing evidence is that Michael Schiavo didn't tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

There is no statute of limitations for murder, especially premeditated murder. 5-24-06