Originally Posted - June 2, 2006

return home

He says his mother died in June of 1997.

The truth: Clara Schiavo died in July of 1997.

He says that Suzanne, his wife's sister, is eight years younger than Terri Schindler Schiavo.

The truth: She's four and half years younger.

He says that on the second day after Terri's collapse in February 1990, Suzanne "showed up at the hospital all atwitter" because "she'd just gotten engaged and thought there was no reason not to share the news with her family members gathered around the bed where her sister lay in a coma, on a ventilator and had been given last rites…and was quite indignant that the family wasn't prepared to leave the hospital and join her and her fiancé in a celebratory dinner".

The truth: Suzanne Schindler became engaged three weeks after Terri's collapse.

He says that his first meeting with right-to-die attorney George Felos was in mid-1997, after his mother's death.

The truth: Court and financial records indicate that Michael Schiavo had signed a retainer agreement with Felos to get court permission to kill his wife in mid-March of 1997, some 3 ½ months before his mother died.

Is it a case of bad memory on the part of Michael Schiavo or outright fraud on the court and public?

He says that Terri's mother, Mary Schindler, refused to fly to California in December, 1990 to assist her son-in-law, Michael Schiavo, in caring for Terri after she underwent surgery to implant electrodes into her brain. He says that was because Mary Schindler instead spent two weeks helping Terri's sister, Suzanne move to West Virginia with her new husband.

The truth: Suzanne Schindler hadn't yet married in 1990, she was still attending college. She didn't marry until October, 1991 and didn't relocate to West Virginia until early 1992, two years after the implant surgery. Mary Schindler didn't visit Suzanne in West Virginia until 1993 when her granddaughter was born.

He says that Terri last talked with his sister-in-law Joan Schiavo at 9 p.m. on Feb. 24, 1990, hours before the collapse that changed her life forever and rendered her incapacitated.

The truth: Joan Schiavo testified under oath that the last time she talked with Terri was two days before she collapsed, not the night previous.

He says on page 30 of his book, "Terri: The Truth", or rather "the truth as how [he] saw it", that about a month and half after Terri's collapse, her EEG was "absolutely flat" but six pages later, says her EEG "showed minimal brain activity".

He relates that his brother Scott said that the infamous luncheon held following the death of his grandmother in 1988 was held at the Buck Hotel, a restaurant in Philadelphia.

The truth: Scott Schiavo testified under oath that the luncheon was held at a country club.

He relates purported testimony of Scott Schiavo which claims that the Schiavo family had to sit in his grandmother's hospital room for almost two days after the doctors resuscitated her despite a DNR order in place and they "watched this machine blow air into her and suck it out, until she passed away".

The truth: Scott Schiavo testified under oath at page 101 of the court transcript that his grandmother had died the same day, not two days later.

On page 111 of the Scott Schiavo testimony in January, 2000:

Q. How long was your grandmother on the ventilator?

A. From the early morning hours til mid-afternoon the same day.
SCOTT SCHIAVO TRIAL TESTIMONY PDF

Not only did Michael Schiavo totally fabricate the testimony of Joan Schiavo that he relates in his book, he has also fabricated and changed the testimony of Scott Schiavo. He says that Scott testified: "And Terri was sitting right to the left of me, and she turned around and looked me right in the eyes, and she said, "Not me, I would never want to be left that way. Don't ever let them do that to me".

"And that was just the statement. There's nothing to elaborate on. It was just those words, the way she looked at me right in the eyes. Just point blank, 'Not me. Don' ever let them do that to me'", Michael Schiavo says his brother told Judge George Greer, the judge who sentenced a woman to death on the testimony of three totally uncorroborated hearsay statements by three seriously conflicted witnesses, all in the Schiavo family.

The truth: The words allegedly expressed by Terri were based on a discussion of ventilators and machines, not basic life support of food and water. Scott Schiavo's trial testimony had been that Terri had allegedly said "I don't want to be kept alive on a machine", with absolutely no statement about food and water.

"Terri: The Truth" should be removed from the book shelves as it's so replete of documented false statements and misrepresentations, it is wholly unreliable and void of credibility as is Michael Schiavo. Dutton Publishing Company should be held accountable for circulating "Terri: The Truth", which contains many provable false facts which indicates that proper fact checking was not performed before publication, indicating a reckless disregard for the truth and demonstrates actual malice toward the Schindler family by Michael Schiavo as evidenced by his confirmation to Matt Lauer that the book "settles some scores".

Lie after lie after lie is exposed in Michael Schiavo's book, "Terri: The Truth", leaving the tome totally absent of credibility and establishing grave doubt about any of the statements and testimony that Michael Schiavo has ever made over the past 16 years about the sudden collapse of his wife, particularly about Terri's end-of-life wishes. Despite all the proven lies and misrepresentations, Michael Schiavo's testimony about Terri's wishes on Jan. 24, 2000 was deemed clear and convincing and was the foundation, along with unreliable, uncorroborated and biased testimony of his brother and sister-in-law, for the death verdict of Terri Schindler Schiavo.

Claiming that you have a bad memory when questioned on the stand and in interviews is one thing but to recklessly make false statements in writing when the transcripts and other documents are available for verification and fact checking constitutes a total reckless disregard for the truth.

Questions would also have to be raised why the mainstream media and even the St. Petersburg Times has not compared the statements made in the book by Michael Schiavo which the actual court transcripts and other facts of the case.

In his work of fiction, Michael Schiavo not only misrepresents and actually fabricates trial testimony allegedly given by his ditzy sister-in-law, Joan Schiavo, but a close examination of the incidents and events leading up to the January, 2000 trial on Schiavo's petition in the Pinellas County probate court of Greer for a court order to end his wife's life would seem to evince clear and convincing evidence of premeditated homicide, a pattern of acts and decisions made by Michael Schiavo with the intent to kill his disabled wife, not because it was her wish, but because it was his. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/052106JoanSchiavo.html

State attorney Bernie McCabe, state attorney general Charlie Crist, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement can claim that the statute of limitations has expired for charges of alleged perjury, false instruments and domestic abuse, but there is no statute of limitations on murder.

A look at the testimony that Schiavo cites in the book, attributed to his brother, Scott, also indicates that it too, along with Joan Schiavo's as cited in the book, is a total fabrication and not the actual testimony given by Scott at the death trial in January, 2000.

Interviews given by Scott Schiavo also indicate that he knew that Terri and Michael had argued heavily the day of her collapse. Had an interview that Scott Schiavo gave on March 31, 2005, to the John and Ken Show in Los Angeles, California, at KFI AM 640 radio station, been made on the witness stand, he could be criminally charged with making false statements. SCOTT SCHIAVO RADIO INTERVIEW (Requires Windows Media Player)

Scott Schiavo said in the March 31, 2005, radio interview that his brother Michael had stayed at the Woodside Hospice for the entire two weeks, "day in and day out", after the feeding tube was removed. Michael himself dispels that in his book, citing occasions when he left the hospice.

Uncorroborated hearsay appears to be the norm for the Schiavo family, they apparently believe that they can say anything they wish without fear of it being controverted because there are no witnesses to their contrived hearsay, only Terri could refute it.

In the radio interview, Scott relates instances that allegedly occurred at the hospice on the morning of March 31, 2005, shortly before Terri died. Scott Schiavo has no personal knowledge of the events he relates. He wasn't present at the hospice at any time during the two weeks and definitely not on March 31. Witnesses say that upon arrival of Michael's brother Brian at the hospice, he proudly walked in front of the people milling around outside and spit on the cross in front of the hospice.

Scott Schiavo's entire credibility becomes even a greater issue when he maliciously attacks Terri's father in the radio interview, falsely stating that Bob Schindler Sr. "lost his business because he got caught stealing from his partners and had no money", a provable false statement made with a reckless disregard for the truth. Even that contradicts his brother Michael who states on page 18 of his book that "Mr. Schindler had not worked since moving to Florida. The family was living off the money he'd received from the buyout of his share of the equipment business".

Scott further adds in the radio interview that from 1993 until 1997, "all agreed that Terri should be alive" which is totally contradictory to the facts and contrary to Michael's written statements in his book. Why would anyone ever believe that the testimony that Scott Schiavo gave in January, 2000 in the Pinellas County Court?

Michael Schiavo has testified, acknowledged in his book and it is an accepted fact that he issued on order in late 1993 to not treat his wife's urinary tract infection, knowing full well it would result in her death, an order the nursing home refused to follow because it is prohibited by law to withhold treatment. However, if one was to believe Scott Schiavo, the reason why the order was rescinded and treatment rendered to Terri was because his brother "couldn't deal with it" and ordered her removed to the hospital.
Despite George Felos having told Michael in 1997 to find anyone he could who may have known about Terri's wishes, Scott Schiavo said in his radio interview that Michael had never asked him but he told Michael prior to the 2000 trial that Terri had told him she wouldn't want to live-----albeit the discussion was about a DNR, ventilator and machines, not about a feeding tube.

According to Michael Schiavo;s "truth", in relating a story about Terri's wish to die, he tells of a purported conversation with Scott Schiavo who allegedly stated, "We were talking about it one day and I said, 'Mike, she made the statement to me that she would never want to be kept alive like this'.

"He said, 'What do you mean? And I told him the story".

This is wholly contradictory to Scott Schiavo's sworn testimony in January, 2000, at page 105 and 106 of the court transcript and as related in "Terri: The Truth".

CONSTANCE FELOS: When did you first mention this recollection of that event?

SCOTT SCHIAVO: When did it?

FELOS: How did it come about?

SS: How did it?

FELOS: How did you…how did it come about that you mentioned that you remembered this event at your grandmother's funeral?................

FELOS: When you say this was all coming about, like when, the last couple of years or…..

SS: No, no, it came up where I spoke to Mike's lawyer about it if I had ever heard Terri mention this or that.

In his sworn testimony, Scott Schiavo said that his first recollection of the funeral luncheon was in the fall of 1999, after guardian ad litem Richard Pearse's report and after prodding by George Felos. He admits that he had never discussed it with his brother.

Page 107 of the court transcript

MS. FELOS: Do you remember approximately when that was when you talked to-it was Mr. Felos I presume.

SS: He called me on a Sunday morning

FELOS: Within the last year?

SS: Yes, it was either September or October.

FELOS: Okay

SS: I work 7 days a week

FELOS: Of '99

SS: Yes

FELOS: Okay. I don't have any…maybe I do. Excuse me, with respect to the last question when you spoke to Mr. Felos sometime in September or October of '99, did you tell Mike about this before that time or after you spoke with Mr. Felos? SS: It was after. It was after Mike…because Mike had…I talked to Mike. Told him I spoke to his lawyer. He asked me how it went. I told him 'Everything I know Mike'. He had said what was that? I said, do you remember grandmom's funeral at the dinner? He said I didn't think about that. I said my mother used to kid me saying that if you want to know something, call Scott because he knows it. I seem to remember stuff for some reason.

FELOS: Thank you. I have no further questions.

Michael Schiavo says his brother never told him about the purported luncheon conversation. Who's telling the truth?

On page 144 of "Terri: The Truth", Michael Schiavo says that Scott Schiavo's testimony "illustrates precisely why it never came up years earlier, why I was NEVER told of the brief but poignant exchange".

Michael says that Scott recounted what he told Judge Greer had happened back in February 1988, and cites what he claims is Scott's testimony but what he cites is not the testimony given.

"My father's mother, Helene Schiavo, had severe heart disease. She'd already had open heart surgery and when she went back into the hospital she was very clear that she wanted a DNR order on her chart. She had taken a turn for the worse, and the people working at the hospital never respected it. And they ended up resuscitating her and putting her on a ventilator.

"Basically, she was gone and we had to sit there for---it was a Friday and it was almost two days that we sat there and watched this machine blow air into her and suck it out, until she passed away.

"Mike and Terri were not there at the time. We went to lunch afterward at a restaurant called the Buck Hotel. We were all sitting around this table---all the brothers and their wives and a couple of my cousins---and I made a statement how upset my grandmother would've been if she would have known that they did this to her, and how upsetting it was for the whole family.

"And Terri was sitting right to the left of me, and she turned around and looked me right in the eyes, and she said, "Not me, I would never want to be left that way. Don't ever let them do that to me".

"And that was just the statement. There's nothing to elaborate on. IT was just those words, the way she looked at me right in the eyes. Just point blank, 'Not me. Don' ever let them do that to me'"

Funny, although Michael Schiavo sat next to Terri on her, left, he never recounted hearing those words.

Those words are not the words that Scott Schiavo attributed to Terri during his sworn testimony. At trial, he said that during the conversation about resuscitating his grandmother and placing her on a ventilator, Terri had allegedly stated, "If I ever go like that, just let me go (don't resuscitate). Don't leave me there, I don't want to be kept alive on a machine".

Terri Schiavo wasn't being kept alive on a machine. She breathed on her own, she wasn't in a coma, she had no tubes in her arms or nose. She was fed and hydrated three times a day by a gastric feeding tube.

Scott Schiavo's testimony, his interview and the statements attributed to him by Michael in his book are contradictory and in fact, it is clearly evident that the testimony that Michael Schiavo attributes as Scott Schiavo's is not the testimony which exists in the court transcripts.

Clear and convincing evidence was the threshold that Michael Schiavo and his attorneys had to meet in order to get court approval to kill his wife and although Schiavo relates in his book at page 115 that in what he claims was his "first meeting with George" Felos, "George asked me to tell him all the times that Terri had, in various ways, expressed her desire not to live the way she was being kept alive, and I went through each of them. He told me to track down everyone who might be able to testify to Terri's wishes, even though he explained that it was possible that just my testimony would be enough for the judge to conclude that there was clear and convincing evidence that Terri would not have wanted to live this way".

That was in mid-1997. At that time, neither Scott Schiavo or Joan Schiavo had offered any testimony or statements about their purported remembrances of Terri's wish to die and didn't do so until the fall of 1999 after prompting by George Felos.

The guardian ad litem appointed by Judge Greer to investigate the situation after Schiavo filed his petition in May, 1998, to remove the hydration and nutrition of Terri in order to kill her, asked Michael during late 1998 if there was anyone who could corroborate his self-serving hearsay that Terri wouldn't want to be kept alive by a feeding tube. Michael said no. In his report filed with the court on Dec. 29, 1998, in which he recommended NOT removing the feeding tube, Richard Pearse said that Michael "had filed the instant petition for the withdrawal of life support on the basis of evidence apparently KNOWN ONLY TO HIM which could have been asserted at any time during the ward's illness". However, he had not done so until the Schindlers filed their guardianship challenge in 1993 and Michael was in danger of losing control of Terri's trust fund.

Pearse wrote "since there is no corroborative evidence of the ward's intentions and since the only witness claiming to have such evidence is the one person who will realize a direct and substantive financial benefit from the ward's death, the undersigned guardian ad litem is of the opinion that the evidence of the ward's intuitions developed by GAL's investigation does not meet the clear and convincing standard. The credibility of the witness is a factor to be considered in determining whether the evidence is clear and convincing".

The credibility of the entire Schiavo family and in particular Michael has always been at issue and becomes more of an issue with each interview and in particular, with the publication of Michael's book.

As of Dec. 29, 1998, Schiavo, Felos, Greer and Pearse knew that there were no other witnesses so it appears that some witnesses were manufactured. Pearse made it clear that as of the end of 1998, based on only the self-serving, uncorroborated hearsay of Michael Schiavo, there was no clear and convincing evidence that Terri Schindler Schiavo wanted to die.

Both Joan Schiavo and Scott Schiavo testified that the first they "remembered" any alleged statements by Terri was in September, 1999, nine months after the Pearse report and only a few short months before the January, 2000 trial. In both cases, they testified that they were approached by Felos. They didn't have any recollections and tell Michael Schiavo or his attorneys, his attorney contacted them and apparently told them that Michael Schiavo needed more evidence in order to get a court order to kill his wife.

But then Felos was pursuing his personal agenda and had a lot riding on the Schiavo case, and he knew he needed to meet the clear and convincing standard in order to advance his euthanasia agenda. He needed more witnesses.

According to statements made by Michael in the following an argument with his fiancé , Jodi Centonze, and alleged threats on the lives of their children shortly before the feeding tube was to be removed from his wife, Michael called Felos and told him he wanted to "give up his fight" to kill his wife.

But Michael writes that Felos refused to honor his decision and "persuaded him not to" allow Terri to live. Schiavo writes that Felos "reminded me that we had to realize that it wasn't just about Terri anymore. It was about the rest of the people who didn't want the government telling us how we could die and when we were allowed to decide that we didn't want further medical treatment".

He writes that euthanasia advocate Felos told him "and it was about who has the right to make decisions between a husband and wife", never mind that the husband was severely conflicted, a suspect in the abuse, neglect and exploitation of the ward and that her death verdict had been based on self-serving hearsay testimony.

With his written words, Michael Schiavo has indicated that it wasn't about Terri's right to live, it was about the personal wishes and agenda of George Felos.

Michael Schiavo's revealing statement not only indicates a clear ethical violation by Felos but solidifies the long held belief of many that the Terri Schiavo case wasn't at all about Terri's wishes, it was the test case for America's death culture. George Felos and his right-to-die sect used Terri Schiavo for his own purposes and she was truly the guinea pig for the euthanasia cult and others who have eyes on bailing out the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid systems.

And he needed witnesses to support Michael's uncorroborated self-serving hearsay which Richard Pearse hadn't bought.

On Jan. 24, 2000, when Michael Schiavo testified under direct examination by Felos, when asked about Terri's purported statements following his grandmother's funeral in Philadelphia in 1988, Michael sidestepped the question, deferring to Scott.

FELOS: Do you recall any conversation at the funeral, the funeral luncheon that, regarding the issue of your grandmother's life support?

SCHIAVO: I vaguely remember a conversation that happened but my brother, Scott had the conversation. He would know better about the conversation.

Michael Schiavo was sitting next to Terri when she allegedly made the disputed statement.

Both Scott Schiavo and Joan Schiavo testified that the remarks that Terri had allegedly made in regard to advance directives were in context to ventilators and machines, not feeding tubes which weren't considered artificial life support in Florida until Felos had the law changed in 1999 with the help of his fellow director on the board for Hospice of Florida Suncoast, Gus Bilirakis.

Although Terri's good friend and workmate, Jackie Rhodes testified during the January, 2000 trial about Terri's wishes, about the problems in the marriage of Terri and Michael Schiavo, about the abuse and talk of divorce, Judge Greer never mentioned her testimony in his now infamous 2000 death order. If one was to read that order, one would never know that Jackie Rhodes had testified in addition to Mary Schindler and Terri's long-time friend Diane Myer.

In his order of Feb. 11, 2000, dictating the death of brain injured Terri, Greer based his decision solely on testimony given by Joan Schiavo and her brothers-in-law, Michael and Scott Schiavo, testimony which was all hearsay, none of which can be corroborated. All three had free rein to say whatever they wanted to say without fear of having their testimony refuted because the only witness who could tell the truth couldn't testify on her own behalf and if she could have, they're wouldn't have been any trial and Terri Schindler Schiavo would be alive today.

"The court has reviewed the testimony of Scott Schiavo and Joan Schiavo and finds nothing contained therein to be unreliable", Greer wrote. "The court notes that neither of these witnesses appeared to have shaded his or her testimony or even attempt to exclude unfavorable comments or points regarding those discussions. They were not impeached on cross-examination. Argument is made as to why they waited so long to step forward, but their explanations are worthy of belief..."

Hardly.

"The court specifically finds that these statements are Terri Schiavo's oral declarations concerning her intention as to what she would want done under the present circumstances and the testimony regarding such oral declarations is reliable, is creditable and rises to the level of clear and convincing evidence to this court".

The statements of Scott and Joan Schiavo and those of Michael Schiavo, particularly as presented in his book, clearly indicate that the testimony given at the January, 2000 trial was totally unreliable and in all likelihood, total fiction, certainly not clear and convincing evidence that a woman wanted to die.

In an interview given to the Philadelphia Inquirer which appeared on Nov. 2, 2003, Scott Schiavo told the reporter that Terri and Michael "had been arguing all day on Feb. 25, 1990". Terri collapsed that night. 6-02-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette