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The Terri Schiavo case has come full circle.
Payback time.
Pamela A.M. Campbell (left), the attorney who allegedly committed the fatal error in the   Terri Schiavo case which served as the basis for the denial of all future appeals and set the stage for the unprecedented death of a disabled person by judicial order, has been named to the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court by Gov. Jeb Bush where she will now sit alongside Judge George W. Greer, Schiavo executioner; Mark Shames (right), Schindler betrayer and John Lenderman, brother of Martha Lenderman, George Felos compadré and fellow hospice board member.
 Bush failed to take the steps that he was constitutionally and statutorily empowered to do to save the life of Terri Schindler Schiavo, instead calling a news conference and announcing to the world that he was going to take her into protective custody, thus effectively, and perhaps intentionally, ruining any chance of doing so.
 Although he is empowered to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate numerous allegations of wrongdoing in the Schiavo case, Gov. Jeb Bush has steadfastly refused to do so.
 After Bush's highly irregular press conference immediately prior to Terri's death in March, 2005, Judge George Greer had immediately issued an order that he would arrest the Governor if he tried to take Terri into protective custody, ordering the Florida Department of Law Enforcement not to do their job, with snipers in place on the rooftops to ensure that Terri Schiavo would die.
Campbell will fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Judge James Case and will escape election and approval by the public in a blatant political reward and political payback leaving the door wide open to even more questions if the Schiavo case was predetermined from inception and "fixed".
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 and endangered the disabled and elderly nationwide in the Schiavo case precedent. A review of the record and the relationships involved indicate that Campbell was ethically prohibited from even representing the Schindlers.
And now she's going to be a judge?
She not only lost the case at trial, but the egregious trial error that she 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 stated during her open statement at trial that Terri was in a persistent vegetative state instead of presenting legal arguments and witnesses which would have shown that she was not PVS but rather in a minimally conscious state, alert of her surroundings and responsive. Greer not only ordered the removal of Terri's feeding tube, but also ordered that the brain damaged woman not be feed orally and refused to allow swallowing tests. Florida statutes specifically prohibit the withholding of food and water from an individual.
 Campbell made virtually no attempt to impeach Michael Schiavo's testimony at trial or that of Scott and Joan Schiavo, to show the blatant discrepancies and false statements that Schiavo had made under oath previously nor did she attempt to block the self-serving hearsay testimony of Schiavo and his family members about Terri's purported death wish. Self-serving hearsay is inadmissible by law but Campbell never challenged it.
During the trial, after Schiavo's brother Brian Schiavo had sat in the  courtroom for three days, listening to the testimony of the other witnesses rather than being sequestered outside the courtroom, when Felos called Brian Schiavo to the witness stand, Campbell never objected. It was only after a public outcry by the people the in the courtroom that Brian Schiavo was prohibited from testifying on behalf of his brother.
And when Felos harassed and badgered Mary Schindler on the witness stand, confusing her and eliciting conflicting testimony, Campbell never objected.
 Many of the alleged "facts" present by Schiavo attorney George Felos at trial are in dispute but there was no opposition to their admission at trial by Campbell and virtually no attempts were made to impeach Schiavo's witnesses. Felos was allowed to enter testimony into the record for which no proper foundation had been laid, at times leading even Judge Greer to incredulously ask Campbell if she wasn't going to object.
Although only medically qualified experts can render medical opinions at trial, Michael Schiavo freely testified to Terri's medical condition without being properly qualified but Campbell didn't object. Michael Schiavo was no expert medical witness.
She didn't object to leading questions posed to Schiavo by Felos and consistently failed to object to hearsay testimony including Schiavo's testimony that none of the doctors had ever informed him about treatment options. Such hearsay is not admissible as the alleged doctors were not available for cross examination. On pages 45 and 46 of the trial testimony, Schiavo offers totally unqualified medical opinion to which Campbell never objected.
Q. Do you know of any treatment method or drug or thing that can be done which will improve Terri's condition?
A. No. I don't.
Q. Has any doctor informed you there is any treatment method, drug or thing that can be done to improve Terri's condition?
A. No.
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.
Her biography shows that she was a legislative aide in the Florida House of Representatives from 1975-80; court appointed administrator by Judge Robert Beach for a major land development in receiverships from 1980-82; special assistant in the U.S. Senate from 1983-4; political consultant with Associated Consulting Group, 1082-83 and 1984-86; member, Florida Board of Medicine, 1989-93; Operation PAR, chairman, 1995; Board of directors, 1989-96; recipient, 2003 Professionalism Award, St. Petersburg Bar Association; 2003 Richard T. Earle Jr. Award, Masterson Inn of Court.
Campbell had egregious conflicts of interest in the Schiavo case, making it appear that the "fix was on" from the beginning and controlled Terri's destiny and untimely death.
She became involved in the Schiavo 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 and who had tried to order Terri's death in 1998 without the knowledge of her parents.
Campbell has even 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 $15,000 that Shames demanded up front as a retainer to take the case. It has been erroneously reported that Campbell represented the Schindler family totally pro bono but such is not the case.
Unbelievably, 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----a deck stacked against the Schindlers and Terri.
Thereafter, Shames, the attorney-judge, approved the hiring of George Felos as the attorney for Schiavo to be paid from Terri's trust fund that was supposed to for Terri's rehabilitation and therapy. The stage was set for judicial homicide and Pamela Campbell was a key player.
 Campbell says that Judge Thomas Penick is one of her mentors. In 1994, the Schindlers' petition to remove the guardianship from Michael Schiavo was before Sixth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Thomas Penick and on Feb. 4, 1994, Penick had appointed court monitor Daniel P. Nievinski to investigate Michael and determine his fitness to be a guardian.
The monitor was directed to "review the court's case file and conduct interviews with any persons who may have information bearing on both the personal well being and financial affairs of the ward".
According to the Schindlers, within days Nievinski filed a report with Penick recommending that Schiavo be removed as guardian. Penick reportedly refused to accept the court monitor's report and instead appointed John Pecarek as a guardian ad litem on Feb. 17, 1994.
On March 1, 1994, Pecarek orally presented his report, recommending that Michael Schiavo remain as his wife's guardian. Without any chance for cross examination of Pecarek by the Schindler's attorney, James Sheehan, Penick closed the case and summarily refused any hearing.
The same day that Penick appointed Nievinski, the attorney for Sabal Palms filed a motion with the court for a temporary restraining order to keep Michael Schiavo off the property of the Sabal Palms Health Care Center and from contacting any of its staff or residents by telephone or by communication outside and off the property of Sabal Palms.
Penick denied the application.
Penick and Greer are Campbell's heroes and role models. Pinellas County residents might want to consider moving out of the county with Greer, Shames and Campbell now on the bench.
Woodworth and Campbell were both contributors to Shames' 1996 judicial campaign, so was gubernatorial candidate Attorney General Charlie Crist who consistently blocked all attempts to open a criminal investigation into matters related to the Schiavo case including alleged Medicaid fraud, alleged abuse, neglect and exploitation of a vulnerable adult and alleged civil rights violations.
Campbell contributed $500, the maximum possible, to Bush's 2002 campaign, buying yet another chunk of the gavel.
In January, Campbell, former president of the St. Petersburg Bar Association as is Shames, was honored by the St. Petersburg Bar Foundation as a "hero attorney".
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/122605HeroAttorney.html
Although the Schindlers were advised by various legal advisors to sue Campbell for
legal malpractice, they chose not to do so, instead focusing their efforts on trying to save Terri's life.
In June 2005, Campbell had presented an award for judicial excellence to the trial judge in the Schiavo case, death judge George W. Greer.
Campbell has served with Greer on guardianship committees and in a Joint Circuit Workshop on Guardianship Fees. Joining them in the workshop was Alison Carpenter, guardian of the property in the Schiavo guardianship and estate, all one big happy family with the attorney who was retained to save the life of Terri Schiavo instead aligning herself with the judges in the case, the lawyers and the guardians. 9-28-06
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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