Originally Posted - July 27, 2006

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PINELLAS COUNTY---Two attorneys with connections to the Terri Schiavo case are among the 26 applicants seeking appointment to one of two vacant circuit judge positions in the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Pinellas and Pasco Counties.

Pamela A.M. Campbell, the attorney who allegedly committed the fatal error in the Schiavo case which served as the basis for the denial of all future appeals, sounding the death knell for Terri Schiavo, and Robert "Bo" Michael, the son of the man who signed the original guardianship order appointing Michael Schiavo as plenary guardian of the incapacitated woman, are among the candidates who will be interviewed by the Sixth Judicial Circuit Nominating Commission on Aug. 1.

Michael is already on the Sept. 5 ballot as one of two candidates for a new position approved by the 2006 Legislature.

The applicants are vying for the vacancies created by the retirement of Circuit Judge James Case and the Supreme Court's removal from office of former Judge John Renke. Both sitting Pinellas County judges, Shawn Crane and Dorothy Vaccaro, have previously been finalists for vacant circuit positions.

Also among the applicants are three Sixth Judicial Circuit magistrate/hearing officers: Joseph Flannery, Joe Lovelace and Beverly Plummer. All three oversee court proceedings directed to them by judges as a way of providing an expedited forum for the resolution of legal matters while preserving the right to due process.

Michael, Glenn Martin and Pat Siracusa are candidates in elections that will fill three vacant circuit judgeships in the fall. Martin is one of three candidates seeking to replace retiring Judge Crockett Farnell, and Siracusa is one of three candidates to replace retiring Judge Brandt Downey. Nathaniel Kidder and George Brown are among four candidates vying for two new county judgeships that were created by the Legislature. They are not seeking the same seat in the election.

JNC Chair Emory Wood said interviews, beginning at 9 a.m. on Aug. 1, will be conducted in the third floor conference room in the Judicial Reception area of the Pinellas Criminal Justice Center, 14250 49th St. North, Clearwater.

Following the interviews, the JNC will present Gov. Jeb Bush with a list of at least three names and no more than six for each position. By law, Bush will have 60 days to select appointees from the JNC's list.

In addition to the sitting judges, hearing officers and candidates, those who have applied for the two positions are: Pamela Cole Bell, Michael C. Berry Sr., Dan Kevin Duryea, Pamela Ann Meacomes Campbell, Loula Giannet, Brian C. Guenther, Allyson Hughes, Randall Love, Victor Gerald Meaders Jr., Tonya Oliver, Matthew H. Perry, Michael Eric Rosario, Charles Malouf Samaha, Joseph Sowell, John E. Tuthill, and Lanell Williams.

Michael, 45, is the son of retired Pinellas-Pasco County Circuit Court Judge Robert Michael. On June 18, 1990, the senior Michael, without the knowledge of Robert and Mary Schindler, parents of Terri Schiavo, held a hearing on the guardianship petition of Michael Schiavo who was represented at the time by St. Petersburg attorney Daniel Grieco. Greico is the same attorney who appeared at the hospital within 48 hours after Terri mysteriously collapsed at her home on Feb. 25, 1990. Michael was an employee of Augustino's, a restaurant owned by Grieco.

At the June, 1990 hearing which was not attended by the Schindlers or their representative because they had not been given notification, Judge Michael Sr. ruled that there were no conflicts of interest and appointed Michael Schiavo plenary guardian or in order words, full guardian who had total control to exercise all delegable legal rights and powers of the ward, Terri. Michael and Grieco had told the court that the Schindlers had no objection to him being named as guardian.

In his order, the elder Michael falsely stated that notice of petition and hearing had been given to all known next of kin pursuant to Florida guardianship law. The Schindlers say they never received notice, a statement borne out by the records on file in the Schiavo case at the Pinellas County Clerk's office. There is no time-stamped affidavit on file as required of notice of service of the guardianship petition and scheduled hearing to the Schindlers.

The elder Michael is currently vice chairman of the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary, founded in 1983, seven years before Terri's collapse. The seminary is an independent evangelical seminary offering degrees and educational programs.

Michael Jr. is a former assistant attorney general under Charlie Crist. He has vied unsuccessfully three times for a judgeship since 2000.

Many critics have charged that Campbell's inexperience and errors at the January, 2000 trial as well as Campbell's failure to do the proper pre-trial preparation and present expert medical witnesses, cost Terri Schiavo her life. A review of the record and the relationships involved indicate that Campbell was ethically prohibited from even representing the Schindlers.

She not only lost the case at trial, but the trial error committed, stating in her opening statement that ''We do not doubt that she's in a persistent vegetative state", was the basis for the Schindlers to lose in every other court all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Once a case is tried and decision made on the merits, it is virtually impossible to have the decision reversed on appeal. Appellate courts review the merits of the case, not the credibility of the witness and thus when Greer ruled that Michael Schiavo's self-serving hearsay testimony was credible that Terri would not want to be kept alive, the die was cast for a denial at every appellate level.

Campbell made virtually no attempt to impeach Michael Schiavo's testimony or that of Scott and Joan Schiavo, to show the blatant discrepancies and false statements that he had made under oath previously.

Campbell obtained her law degree in 1989, served as president of the St. Petersburg Bar Association in 1998-99 during the time she was representing the Schindlers; president of the Stetson Alumni Association, 2001-02 and on the executive committee of the Masterson Inns of Court, serving as co-president this past year.

Campbell became involved in the guardianship case at the request of Glenn Woodworth, the attorney who represented Michael Schiavo in the 1992 medical malpractice trial when Schiavo claimed, and it has now been learned that the claim was fraudulent, that Terri's injuries had been caused because doctors who had been treating her had allegedly failed to diagnose bulimia and a potassium imbalance which had supposedly caused a heart attack resulting in her injuries.

However, Pinellas County medical examiner Dr. Jon Thogmartin ruled that Terri didn't have a heart attack, didn't suffer from bulimia and didn't have a potassium imbalance.

Campbell, hired by a Schiavo attorney, a conflict in itself, represented the Schindlers although she was ethically precluded from doing so, having bought out the law practice of Mark I. Shames, one of the judges in the guardianship matter. She recently lauded George Greer, the death judge in the case who caused her client's daughter to lose her life----a life the Schindlers so desperately wanted to save.

When first deciding to challenge their son-in-law for the guardianship of their daughter, the Schindlers consulted a St. Petersburg attorney about removing Michael Schiavo and discussed the case at length with him.

Unfortunately, the Schindlers did not have the amount of money the attorney demanded as a retainer to take the case.

That attorney, Shames, then became the judge in the case-----a totally prohibited conflict of interest and Campbell bought out Shames' law practice and became the Schindlers' attorney.

Thereafter, Shames, the attorney-judge, approved the hiring of George Felos as the attorney for Schiavo to be paid from the trust fund and the stage was set for judicial homicide.

Since the inception of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo case in the Florida courts, it appears the fix has been in. 7-27-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette