Originally Posted - May 26, 2006

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Do you remember the television quiz shows of the Fifties?

On Tuesday nights, everything came to a halt while America watched The $64,000 Question.

Those game shows quickly became the Quiz Show Scandals, the producers and sponsors tampered with the results, rigging the winners----kind of like the Terri Schiavo case and the January, 2000 trial in Pinellas County probate court with Judge George Greer presiding.

Just like the quiz show Twenty One, Michael Schiavo got in the box and was asked questions during the malpractice trial in 1992, the guardianship challenge in 1993 and the Death Trial, Schiavo I in January 2000.

One of Twenty One's biggest winners who quickly rose to fame was Charles Van Doren but when allegations of cheating were first circulated, Van Doren repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. But then finally before a U. S. Congress subcommittee on Legislative Oversight (no, not healthcare), he admitted that he had been given questions and answers in advance of the show, saying "I was involved, deeply involved, in a deception. I have deceived my friends---and I had millions of them", Van Doren testified.

How deep does the deception go in the Terri Schindler Schiavo case?

Michael Schiavo's already gotten his big pay-off, back in late 1992 when one insurance company forced one doctor to settle a malpractice claim out of court for $250,000. The Florida Department of Health later exonerated that doctor, Dr. Joel Prawer, and expunged his record, finding that there was no negligence on his part at all in his medical care of Terri.

He stashed the proceeds of Terri's $10,000 life insurance policy in a safe deposit box, with the bank employee standing by, acknowledging that she knew it was wrong by saying that she "wasn't supposed to be seeing this". Why did Prudential Insurance Company pay out on Terri's life insurance policy 15 years before she died?

By the end of 1992, a jury had awarded him a net sum of about $300,000 for "loss of consortium" and a net award of about $750,000 was placed into a trust fund for Terri, incapacitated as the result of a sudden, unexplained collapse in February 1990.

What happened during those early morning hours of Feb. 25, 1990, hours after Terri and Michael had argued about her spending $80 at the hairdresser's? Even Michael's brother Scott admitted to a Philadelphia newspaper in October, 2003 that Terri and Michael had argued all day just hours before her mysterious collapse.

Despite evidence of domestic violence and violations of state laws concerning vulnerable adults, repeated demands for a criminal investigation into the Schiavo case have fallen on deaf ears, steadfastly blocked by state attorney Bernie McCabe claiming that the statute of limitations had passed, despite evidence of ongoing criminal wrongdoing in the case for which the meter was and is still running.

And it continues. Although a complaint with documentation was submitted to McCabe at his Clearwater office on April 25 in regard to provable false statements made by Michael Schiavo on his employment application with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department in July, 2004, well within the statute of limitations, McCabe has refused to acknowledge the complaint and won't respond to inquiries about it.

If Michael Schiavo makes false statements on his employment application about how many traffic tickets he has, would he lie about other things too, like knowing what his wife's wishes were about living and dying?

The complaint submitted last month to McCabe also raises the issue of the false sworn guardianship application filed in June, 1990 on which Schiavo swore under penalties of perjury that he was the recipient of an AS degree from Bucks County Community College. He only attended Bucks County for a year and the registrar's office has produced a written statement affirming that he received no degree. That statement was attached to the complaint along with his abstract of arrests on file with the Pinellas County Clerk of the Court and the falsified guardianship application, documentation to substantiate that Michael Schiavo has filed false written instruments.

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 institution 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.

That would include licenses in respiratory therapy and nursing and that would include his employment as a "nursing supervisor" at the Pinellas County Jail.

The Florida Department of Health and Probable Cause Panel of the Florida Board of Nursing has also been provided a copy of the statement from the college registrar's office.

On Florida, the statute of limitations on a false instrument or statement doesn't start running until the falsity is discovered and in the case of the falsified guardianship applications, that wasn't until 2004. In the case of a third degree felony, the statute of limitations is three years and thus prosecution could be commenced as late as 2007.

There are numerous documented cover-ups in the Schiavo case. It appears Michael Schiavo has been given carte blanche to do whatever he wishes to do without fear of prosecution---total immunity. He's violated court orders, he's made false written statements, he's given perjured testimony of material facts-that's all been established.

There's documented evidence that Michael Schiavo intentionally refused to cooperate with an investigation initiated by the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, there's proof that supervisors in Florida's Department of Children and Families refused to let investigations of alleged abuse, neglect and exploitation in the Schiavo case go forward well before the spring of 2005, and one special agent for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement says that McCabe allegedly told FDLE agents to close an investigation in the Schiavo case after they had determined that probable cause existed that a crime had been committed. If that's true, such would be an obstruction of justice and interference in a police investigation.

The $64,000 question is why?

In 2003, when Robert Schindler Sr. filed a complaint with McCabe and the state attorney's office, he was called by one of McCabe's assistants and told that he didn't see any crimes for investigation. Robert Lewis, a campaign contributor to death judge George Greer, said that the statutes of limitation for prosecution for perjury at the 2000 trial had expired, that Terri's bills were being paid so there was no need to look into the handling of her finances, (so much for an investigation into alleged Medicaid and Medicare fraud) and that while the bone scan discovered in 2003 may have shown injuries to Terri but said if Michael Schiavo had beaten Terri and strangled her or caused her injuries in some other way, it was beyond the statute of limitations.

There is absolutely no dispute that Terri died at the hand of Michael Schiavo. Throughout the country, on any given day, feeding tubes are removed and people die. But the motives and facts are not the same as in the Schiavo case.

There is no statute of limitations for murder.

The statute of limitations has not expired on issues in the case.

It is Bernie McCabe who consistently rebukes efforts to open an investigation in any aspect of the Schiavo case, despite documentation of wrongdoing. So just what connections does McCabe have and why is he protecting Michael Schiavo----or is it others that he's protecting, people who are judges and lawyers and other professionals? Are they afraid that if they don't protect and insulate Michael Schiavo that it will be a domino theory, once one falls they will all tumble? United we stand, divided we fall?

McCabe was elected state attorney in September, 1992, the same year that Greer was first elected to the Sixth Judicial Circuit. He had been an assistant state attorney since 1972. From 1972 until his election as state attorney, he held the positions of chief assistant state attorney, executive assistant state attorney and division director in St. Petersburg and in Pasco County. In other words, McCabe has been in control of the state attorney's office since Feb. 25, 1990.

McCabe also served as the chairman of the search committee for a new medical examiner for Pinellas County in 2000 after Greer had issued his death order in the Schiavo case and McCabe had forced the former medical examiner, Joan Wood, out of office. Not only did McCabe insure that there would be no criminal investigation into the death of Terri Schiavo and other peripheral matters involving Michael Schiavo, but he also had a key role in choosing the medical examiner who conducted the Schiavo autopsy, Dr. Jon Thogmartin.

After the autopsy findings in the Schiavo case were made public in June, 2005, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush asked McCabe to open an investigation into the matter, citing the gap in time between when Michael says he first found Terri and when he called 911. He told the medical examiner and Larry King he found her at 4:30 a.m.; he told MSNBC's Matt Lauer he found her at 5 a.m. and now in his book, in order to get it as close to the 5:40 a.m. 911 call that he can't change, he says he heard the "thud" at 5:30 a.m. when he was getting up to go to the bathroom and called 911 in less than a minute. He still hasn't explained why he didn't administer CPR even though he was trained in the life saving procedure.

Instead of maintaining confidentiality and conducting a meaningful investigation after the Governor's request, McCabe eagerly gave an interview to The New York Times, saying that he had no intention of conducting any investigation and essentially scoffing at the idea, even laughing that the Governor would think that the state attorney's office might actually conduct an investigation into a criminal matter, particularly an unexplained death.

McCabe told The Times that he had seen nothing to indicate that a crime was committed indicating that he had a closed mind in the matter, the same closed mind he'd had in the matter since Feb. 25, 1990 when he was division director in St. Petersburg. Why did he not conduct any investigation in 1990?

After making his position known to The Times, it took him two weeks to tell the public and the Governor.

McCabe indicated to The New York Times on June 22, a week after the autopsy, "In this circumstance, that (a criminal predicate) does not exist at this time. So what I'm attempting to do is respond to the governor's request by conducting what I'm calling an 'inquiry' to see if I can resolve the issues he raised".

According to the Times columnist, McCabe then chuckled at his use of the word inquiry, "It may be a distinction without a difference".

The unjustified death of an innocent disabled woman is no laughing matter, especially when the person making the decision to end her life lied in order to obtain the authority to do so.

That's pure fraud.

The $64,000 Question in the Schiavo case is who's protecting Michael Schiavo and why?

The who part of the answer appears to be Bernie McCabe.

It's going to take a little more work and a domino to find out why.    5-26-06