Originally Posted - December 30, 2006

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Another day, another lie.

Too many times Michael Schiavo has tried to explain away his conflicting stories regarding important issues concerning the incapacitating brain injury incurred by his wife by saving he has a bad memory.

In some circles, it's called self-decit; in others, it's a symptom of being a pathological liar.

The noun self-deceit has but one meaning: a misconception that is favorable to the person who holds it.

Figures won't lie but liars will figure and in the Schiavo case, there's little doubt that figures, monetary figures and greed, is what the case was really all about. Michael Schiavo just didn't figure it would take so long to kill his wife.

There's no question that the nucleus of the acrimonious relationship between Michael Schiavo and the Schindler family, parents and siblings of Terri Schindler Schiavo, is focused on an argument about money in Terri's nursing home room on Feb. 14, 1993, ironically the birthday of Schiavo's concubine, Jodi Centonze.

This was the same day that Sixth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Thomas Penick signed the amended order of plenary guardianship, giving Schiavo full control of all decisions regarding Terri's medical care as well as the money. With the money in hand and Penick's signed order, Schiavo told Terri's parents that day that they'd never see their daughter again. He told them he was hiring an attorney.

Thereafter Schiavo issued orders to not provide any medical information concerning Terri to her parents, issued a do not resuscitate order and tried to kill Terri by sepsis by issuing an order not to treat any infections, an order the nursing home refused to honor as it was unlawful under Florida law to withhold medical treatment. Unable to kill her by denying her care, he stopped all therapy and rehabilitation and put his plan in play to obtain court permission to kill his wife by cutting off her food and water.   PENICK ORDER

Twelve days after Terri had been released from Humana Hospital on May 9, 1990, Schiavo and his attorney and employer, Daniel Grieco, filed his falsified guardianship application with the court, asking to be appointed plenary guardian and falsely stating under oath that he had received a degree from Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania.

On June 18, 1990, Judge Robert F. Michael appointed Schiavo plenary guardian. Less than three weeks later, Judge W. Douglas Baird also issued an order declaring Schiavo as plenary guardian and yet again, after Schiavo had the proceeds of the malpractice claims in his pocket, Judge Penick again designated him as the plenary guardian.

At age 26, Terri Schindler-Schiavo had already confided to her friends and family that she wanted to divorce Michael Schiavo who had exhibited controlling and abusive behavior. She mysteriously collapsed at home during the early morning hours of Feb. 25, 1990, suffering debilitating brain damage when oxygen to her brain was shut off for four to six minutes.

Although those moments were to forever change his life as well as Terri's, Michael Schiavo has told multiple conflicting versions, always trying to condone and explain away the discrepancies by saying he has a "bad memory".

And there have been multiple inconsistencies by him about a lot of issues. As Abraham Lincoln said, no man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.

For 15 years, Michael Schiavo's anger, revenge, retaliation and hatred of the Schindler family fueled his battle to end the life of his disabled wife although it took him nearly eight years for him and his family members to remember that Terri had said she wouldn't want to be sustained by a feeding tube. Only after he was coached by George Felos for the need for a death wish, the euthanasia advocate he had hired to help him kill Terri, did Schiavo remember "Terri's wishes" and produce two family members to support him in his unsupported claim of inadmissible self-serving hearsay.

In 1991, portraying the grieving and loving husband, Schiavo sought money, suing two of Terri's doctors even though one of the attorneys first consulted told him he had no case. Ultimately, after Dr. Joel Prawer's insurance company settled Schiavo's claim against him for $250,000 in July, 1992 rather than take it to trial, the Agency for Health Care Administration found after its investigation that Dr. Prawer, a general practitioner, had not been negligent in his treatment of Terri Schiavo. In essence, Michael Schiavo had filed a fraudulent claim and wrongfully profited as did the attorneys, Glenn Woodworth and Gary Fox. Records indicate the attorneys gained $100,000 from the claim. Ethically, and perhaps legally as well, after the ACHA investigation concluded in 1995 that Terri had not been afflicted with bulimia as Schiavo and his attorneys tried to claim and that Prawer had not been negligent, the attorneys as well as Schiavo should have returned the money. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/112506SchiavoReview.html

Not only is the AHCA document clearing Prawer grounds to open the sealed financial records in the Schiavo case, but it also serves as compelling cause for an independent review of the autopsy results in the Schiavo case.

It appears that the Prawer document may have been intentionally withheld from the Pinellas County medical examiner by Fox in 2005 because a thorough medical investigation completed in 1995 by the state's health care agency distinctly and definitively negated all claims that Terri Schiavo had an eating disorder, the basis for malpractice claims initiated by Schiavo from which Fox profited handsomely and is still touting the award.

While the mainstream media has focused on the Valentine's Day argument of 1993 and has portrayed Michael Schiavo as the loving, attentive husband although multiple witnesses say otherwise, media members haven't followed through to challenge Michael Schiavo to produce the evidence to document his claim that he provided the therapy, rehabilitation and care on which the jury award from the 1992 medical malpractice trial was premised.

Time after time after time, Michael Schiavo's story has changed. He simply can't tell the same version twice but perhaps the most blatant of all lies is his claim made in a nationally televised interview with Larry King on March 27, 2005, that "98 percent of that money went to Terri's medical care". Larry King Transcript

Actually, most of it went towards the legal fees needed to gain judicial permission to kill her.

He played the compassionate husband when he was trying to schmooze the jury into awarding him big bucks. No mention then about her supposed wish to die. He and his attorneys were seeking $20 million in their malpractice claim against Dr. Stephen Igel, a gynecologist, telling the jury that Terri was "my life and I wouldn't trade her for the world. I believe in my….I believe in my wedding vows…I believe in the vows that I took with my wife through sickness, in health, for richer or poorer. I married my wife because I love her and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I'm going to do that".

That was in November, 1992. The Igel jury found that Terri had been 70% at fault for her condition, awarded Terri a gross award of $1.56 million and Michael, $686,700 for loss of consortium according to court records. These awards were reduced after attorneys' fees and costs were paid. This is in addition to the $250,000 Prawer settlement and approximately $50,000 which Michael had received through fund raisers before the malpractice awards, money for which he has never accounted.

On his website, Fox touts the Schiavo award, stating "$6,880,000 verdict, reduced by 70% comparative negligence, against a doctor who failed to diagnose an eating disorder which caused serious injury to plaintiff". http://www.stfblaw.com/TOCVerdictsandSettlements.jsp#verdict_9

Once Schiavo got the money in his fat little patties, his demeanor changed. He turned on the Schindlers, tried to shut them off from their daughter and began his quest to end her life, preferably while her trust fund was financially healthy.

That lie by itself is so egregious and so blatant, it should serve as the basis for the federal Department of Health and Human Services, the Social Security Administration, Florida's Department of Banking and Finance and the Florida Attorney General (now that Charlie Crist is gone) and Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration to open investigations in the financial aspects of the Schiavo case and more than sufficient grounds to unseal both the financial and medical records.

The public records which are available even though George Felos and Deborah Bushnell were successful in obtaining court orders to have the fee petitions sealed indicate that as of Jan. 14, 2002, more than $440,000 of the claimed $776,000 had been expended on legal fees, proving beyond all reasonable doubt that Michael Schiavo's claim that 98% of the trust fund had been spent on Terri's medical care was bogus.

It's inconvertible that after he received the money, he stopped all therapy and rehabilitation and set about a concerted, premeditated effort to end his wife's life.

It's way past time to make Michael Schiavo accountable, to stop allowing him to get away with unsubstantiated hearsay. The media and public should demand that the cabal of Michael Schiavo, his attorneys and Judge George Greer open those sealed financial records of Terri Schiavo's trust fund and show the public the money trail because Schiavo's claim that 98% of the money awarded for the rehabilitation and therapy of his ward was NOT used for her care and therapy.

That statement and his application for Medicaid and other sworn statements regarding the financial aspects of the case lend cause to unseal the records.

At this point Michael Schiavo apparently thinks he can lie with impunity because he knows the evidence which will prove he's lying has been sealed by the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Pinellas County and Judge George Greer, the judge which acted as the executioner of Terri Schiavo.

Michael Schiavo says he spent 98% of money in Terri's trust fund on her care yet the records show, before being sealed, that the majority of the money in Terri's trust fund was used for attorney's fees to arrange for her death. After the attorneys had virtually bled the account dry, then Schiavo, Bushnell and Felos successfully petitioned Greer for Terri to be placed on Medicaid. Even after her death, Felos filed another claim against her estate for more legal fees.

In April, 2005, after Terri's death by dehydration on March 31, 2005, 13 days after her feeding tube had been removed on order of Judge George Greer, Greer ordered that the Department of Children and Families release abuse reports relating to the Schiavo case.

In one of those reports, it is stated that when Schiavo was appointed plenary guardian in 1990, he reported assets of $20,800.

"In October, 1992, he turned over the finances to Barnett Bank Trust Co. and total assets listed as $139,000 (This is before the Nov. 10, 1992 med mal verdict but after the $250,000 insurance award from Prawer) In April 1993, South Trust Estate and Trust Co. took over and showed assets listed at $776,254.88.

Schiavo had remained guardian of Terri's property until Oct. 19, 1992, including her money, at which time he resigned and asked the court to appoint Barnett Bank to be the guardian of the property but he claimed that there was only $139,000. Attorney Beth Wilson and Barnett Bank signed a petition to appoint the bank as "successor/plenary guardian (incapacity-property) affirming that the property was solely a $139,000 bank account with no reference to the cash in the safety deposit box.

"In July 2002 Ms. (Alison) Carpenter was appointed guardian of finances and the information on assets is sealed by the court. In 2003, the guardian filed for medical benefits listing total assets at $50,828.88 Under 744.68(1) allows for recovery of expenses and attorney fees rendered on behalf of the ward. Mr. Schiavo has not controlled the finances since 1992 and all payments were court appointed". DCF Abuse Investigations - Part 2

This indicates that Schiavo did control the $250,000. Prawer's insurance company paid it out in August, 1992.

These state reports would seem to establish that Schiavo and/or his attorneys may have filed false reports with the court and would seem to be probable cause for state and federal agencies to petition the court to open the sealed financial records in the Schiavo case.

If Schiavo reported only $139,000 in assets in October 1992, this does not appear to be truthful in that the $139,000 represents the proceeds from the Prawer settlement but does not include the $10,000 stashed in a safe deposit box or any of his other assets.

In 1992, Schiavo collected $10,000 from Terri's insurance under a "living needs benefit" from Prudential. Schiavo said in a sworn 1993 deposition that he had opened a safe deposit box at First Union Bank in 1992. When asked what he had done with the money, he testified that he had "stuck it there for safekeeping. He reportedly never itemized how he spent the $10,000 nor did he account for the $50,000 that he had received through fund raisers for Terri.

Under the 1996 Bank Secrecy Act, such cash transactions of $10,000 or more are now required to be reported and are red flags for possible money laundering.

From the time of her sudden collapse in 1990 until approximately the middle of 1992 when the payments stopped, he lived off Terri's paycheck from Prudential Insurance Company.

By his own admission, Schiavo lived off Terri'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. That too should have been investigated.

In fact, in late 1994, Schiavo took $10,000 from Terri's trust fund to pay her share on a bank loan they had co-signed in June, 1989 to pay off "marital debts". Although the loan principal was $11,500, Schiavo didn't make any payments on it after Terri's collapse and by 1994, although Michael had received his share of the $630,000 consortium award from the 1992 malpractice trial, he hadn't paid anything on the loan and the debt had mushroomed to $18,000. Although he had received a net award of about $300,000 for "loss of consortium", and had $10,000 cash or more stashed, he petitioned Pinellas County Court Judge Thomas Penick to use Terri's trust fund to pay off her supposed "half" of the loan and Penick complied.

In a deposition in 1999, before the trial, Michael testified under oath that he had never received any money from Terri's trust fund since the implementation of his guardianship in 1990. He claimed he had never been reimbursed for any expenses, that he only thing he had been reimbursed for "her supplies" such as soaps and clothes.

However, the court records indicate otherwise and establish that one more time, Michael Schiavo had lied under oath. According to public court records of payments made from Terri's trust fund through Jan. 14, 2002, Michael Schiavo had been reimbursed $10,929, and not all for supplies.

The accountings show that on Oct. 4, 1993, he was reimbursed for a $1,500 legal retainer he had paid. He was given $3,525 on Dec. 8, 1994 for a promissory note and $5,904 on July 25, 1994 for reimbursement for legal fees paid to Stephen Nilsson.

On July 1, 1992, Penick had signed an order approving Prawer's $250,000 settlement, granting $100,000 in attorney's fees and reimbursement of costs totaling $10,546.46 to Fox and Woodworth.

On Jan. 25, 1993, Woodworth, Wilson and Schiavo signed the settlement approval from the Igel trial, listing the total settlement at $2.25 million with the proportionate share being allocated to the "use and benefit of Theresa Schiavo" at $1,563,300. Penick approved the settlement on Jan. 27, 1993, authorizing payment of a $51,669.21 lien for Medicaid benefits to be paid from the settlement money as well as legal fees. The initial inventoried value of the guardianship estate at that time was $776,254.69. As of April 30, 1998, at the time Schiavo formally filed his petition for a court order to kill his wife, the reported market value of the estate was listed at $713,828.85. The estate was reportedly invested in a diversified portfolio of stocks bonds, mutual funds and other securities.

According to a financial planner, with investments should have produced an annual income of at least $70,000 had it been managed properly which should have nearly doubled the trust fund, raising even more questions about the amount of the fund and giving more cause to unseal the financial records to learn where the money went, and why Michael Schiavo's application was approved for Medicaid benefits.

As of Jan. 14, 2002, court records indicated that $440,041,72, or more than 60%, had been paid from the trust fund to Schiavo, guardian ad litems John Pecarek and Richard Pearse; and his attorneys George Felos, Deborah Bushnell, Stephen Nilssen and Gwyneth Stanley. A sum of $55,459 had been paid to the First Union and Southtrust Banks for guardianship fees for the period of June 7, 1993 through Jan. 14, 2002, giving solid proof that Schiavo's public statement that 98% of Terri's trust fund had been spent on her medical care is false. How can there be any credibility to ANYTHING that Michael Schiavo says. Terri Schindler Schiavo's death order was based on self-serving hearsay created by Michael Schiavo---a death wish by his wife not recalled until nearly 10 years after her collapse, after he stood to inherit nearly a million dollars upon her death and after all of his other efforts to end her life had failed.

The records clearly indicate that as of January, 2002, more than half of her trust fund had already been spent on legal fees to cause her death by judicial homicide and that less than $350,000 remained, none of which was being used for her therapy and rehabilitation.

It was later learned that Felos was billing, and Greer approving, for Felos to pander to the press, to "deal with the media" indicating that Terri's money was being used to provide slanted news coverage of her condition and the court case from the trial in 2000 until her death in 2005.

Greer also approved money from Terri's trust fund, the jury award designated for her therapy and rehabilitation, to instead be used to pay her doctor, Victor Gambone a sum of $1,250 as an expert witness to certify that she was in a persistent vegetative state. Neurologist Dr. James Barnhill, longtime friend of Felos whose Dunedin office is doors away from Felos' law office and who has partnered with Felos in the right-to-die movement, received $4,200 for testifying under oath that Terri's brain had been replaced with spinal fluid.

Barnhill testified he had examined Terri Schiavo for 10 minutes and determined that she had no chance for recovery and was PVS. For that, Terri paid him.

Barnhill joined with Felos this past January to lead a program entitled "Advance Directives/End of Life Care and Neurology" on a five-night cruise from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas.

Barnhill had testified in the 1990 Estelle Browning guardianship case for Felos, the case on which Felos based the Schiavo case.

The court records give further cause for an investigation to be initiated into the handling of Terri's trust fund and Medicaid/Medicare claims as the DCF report indicates that "in 2003, the guardian filed for medical benefits listing total assets as $50,828.88".

In filing for Medicaid benefits, the total spousal assets must be reported thus Michael Schiavo was legally required to report his assets and income on the Medicaid application. At the time, Schiavo was employed full-time as a registered nurse in the emergency room at Morton Plant-Mease Hospital. That alone would not seem to meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid.

Additionally, by his own admission, Schiavo attempted to hide assets and violated the guardianship law which prohibited him from owning any property. On page 112 of his book, "Terri:The Truth", Schiavo states that "In 1995, Jodi and I built a house in Oldsmar. I had money from the malpractice award and Jodi sold her house and the rental properties she owned. We put the new house in her name. No contracts between us, nothing".

That admission of intentionally hiding assets would seem to be sufficient grounds for the state of Florida to initiate a fraud investigation and to open the sealed financial records.

The records had initially been sealed in 1996 and after the 2000 trial, Bushnell and Schiavo asked Greer to seal the fee petitions and Greer agreed, signing an order on March 27, 2000. Bushnell had charged $165 per hour initially but that was increased to $185. Felos initially was retained at $195 per hour but Greer approved raising his hourly rate to $225.

As of Jan. 14, 2002, the court files indicate that Felos had received $307,188 in fees and costs from the trust fund with Bushnell raking in $49,858 and Stanley, $10,668. Bushnell later admitted to receiving over $80,000.

The May 14, 1997 order signed by Judge Mark Shames allowed Schiavo to employ Felos for the purpose of obtaining a court ordered death, paying him a $2,500 retainer from Terri's trust fund at $195 an hour.

In a petition sworn on Nov. 30, 1993, Schiavo claimed the guardianship asset balance as of June 8, 1993 was $761,507.50.

There is absolutely no doubt that Schiavo's statement made on the Larry King show is false and multiple other statements made by him have been proven false.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/052406TheWholeTruth.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/052906BrokenVows.html

Confabulation is when a person makes up stories and at the same time believes them. The term pathological liar is not an official clinical diagnosis but many psychiatrists agree that pathological lying is often the result of a mental disorder or low self-esteem. It's also known as trying to cover one's butt. http://www.truthaboutdeception.com/confront_a_liar/public/pathological-compulsive.html

One definition of a pathological liar is someone who lies incessantly to get their way and does so with little awareness. A pathological liar is often goal-oriented (i.e. focused, tells lies to get his/her way). Pathological liars have little regard or respect for the rights and feelings of others and often comes across as being manipulative and cunning.
http://www.healthyplace.com/Radio/articles/pathological_liars.htm
http://www.faqfarm.com/Q/How_can_you_tell_if_someone_is_a_pathological_liar

Earlier this year, Ken Burke, clerk of the Pinellas Courts, said that he was following the order of Chief Judge David Demers to seal numerous cases and hide them from the public. Burke acknowledged that his staff had improperly sealed nearly 200 cases involving sexual violence since 2001.

In Hillsborough County, officials acknowledged that they had kept at least 14 cases off the computerized docketing system.

It appears that Burke's office was complying with a November 2004 order issued by Demers but legal sources say Demers had no authority to issue such an order for civil cases. In some cases, the clerk's office sealed the dockets even without a court order even though there is no authority allowing them to do so.

In Broward County, it was determined that more than 100 court cases had been sealed involving prominent people including judges and other public officials. If the court dockets haven't been made public, the public has no way of knowing that the case exists or what has transpired in the case and that may be illegal.

There has long been a question if the Schiavo financial records were legally sealed and if the sealing hides alleged mishandling of the trust fund money or more false statements.

The legal definition of probable cause is a reasonable belief that a person has committed a crime. The test the court of appeals employs to determine whether probable cause existed for purposes of arrest is whether facts and circumstances within the officer's knowledge are sufficient to warrant a prudent person to believe a suspect has committed, is committing or is about to commit a crime.

While the statute of limitations has passed in order to bring criminal charges for false statements made in some circumstances in the Schiavo case, it may not be too late in others. It's incumbent on the court, and relevant state and federal agencies to employ a forensic accountant to open the sealed Schiavo records and resolve the issue once and for all. 12-30-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette