Originally Posted - March 4, 2007

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'Tis the season of awards. First there were the Golden Globe awards in January.

Then the Grammys and last week, the Academy Awards.

Now it's time for the North Country Gazette's annual Golden Broom award, given to the public entity which best uses creativity and ingenuity to sweep wrongdoing under the rug, promoting a culture of deception, corruption and distrust.

This year's award has dual recipients-- Florida's Commission on Ethics and the Attorney General's office of Charlie Crist (left)---for their innovative "investigation" of various public officers in their official positions appearing in a political commercial to promote the reelection of Pinellas County probate court judge George W. Greer (right), using the public payroll, a sheriff's patrol car, sheriff's uniforms and a county courtroom to do so.

After an "investigation", the commission dismissed the complaint against four of the public officials, including ex-Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice, saying that Rice didn't corruptly use his position to secure a special benefit for two of his subordinate employees and that those employees didn't falsify payroll records.

The thing is, that wasn't the complaint!!

The dirt was swept under the rug and covered up, one more time.

That's like going being accused of rape and having a finding made that you didn't fail to use your turn signal, totally disregarding the rape charge.

The 30-second political commercial, filmed on July 2, 2004, showed Greer in judicial robes, in a courtroom, on the bench with his nameplate, leading the public to believe it was the Pinellas County courthouse---and it was, in Clearwater.

Appearing in the ad with Greer were public officers including Greer's bailiff, Alek Melnick who is employed by the Pinellas County Sheriff's office; William Cunningham, a uniformed officer of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office; James Hellickson, an assistant state attorney from the office of Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe (left) and Paula Shea, assistant public defender from the office of Sixth Judicial Circuit Public Defender Bob Dillinger (right).
Judge George Greer's Television Ad (need Real Player to view)

While the complaints against Melnick, Cunningham, Rice and Shea were found legally sufficient and passed on to the investigative stage, the complaint against Hellickson was shoved deep under the rug, totally disregarding the point of the complaint that he lent the influence of his office and title to advance and influence the political campaign of Greer---at Greer's request no less.

Greer, who gained international attention by ordering the death of a disabled woman by withholding all food and water from her, won reelection in 2004 with 65% of the vote.

In the weeks before the Aug. 31, 2004, primary, Greer raised an unprecedented amount of campaign contributions and waged an overwhelming advertising campaign, airing the televised political commercial nearly 1,800 times, financed by $162,000 in contributions, mostly from lawyers who practiced before him, compared to challenger Jan Govan's $27,000.

But Greer had privileges and influence that underdog Govan didn't have and reaped special benefits. Greer not only used a courtroom at the Clearwater courthouse to film his commercial, but he used the influence of the sheriff's office, state attorney's office and public defender's office to obtain votes, making it appear that all three agencies endorsed his candidacy when the law prohibits them from lending the influence of the office to candidates-----especially judicial candidates.

State law prohibits the use of governmental buildings for political purposes nor can any candidate use the service of any state officer or employee during working hours.

Ah, there's the key---during working hours. Thing is, the commercial was not only filmed on governmental property during working hours, but the officers who lent the influence of their positions as well as uniform and even a police car were all paid by taxpayer dollars. The commercial wasn't filmed on "their own time" on a Saturday or a Sunday or after 5 p.m. but rather on a Friday during regular work hours and all were compensated by the taxpayers for their time spent to promote Greer's candidacy, whether they took leave from their work schedule or not. Apparently even Greer engaged in political activity during working hours, while paid by taxpayers. There's no exemption in state statutes for judges.

Those that literally got caught with their pants down with their payroll records clearly indicating that they were paid for the time promoting Greer's candidacy, a violation of law, they then later said oh, the leave request must have gotten lost---similar to the dog ate my homework excuse.

Both Hellickson and Shea are state employees. Filming a TV commercial for political purposes inside the Clearwater courthouse is prohibited according to law and judicial ethics opinions issued by the Florida Supreme Court.

Hellickson and Shea were identified by their name and titles appearing on the screen, giving the appearance that the Pinellas County State Attorney's office and public defender's office, as well as the sheriff's department, were endorsing Greer, and that's why officers of those agencies were asked to appear in the ad rather than actors.

Although Hellickson appears in the commercial and it appears that he took leave time to do so albeit was paid by taxpayer dollars, the ethics commission decided the complaint against him was legally insufficient.

Hellickson was identified by name on the screen with the title of prosecutor. According to ethics opinions, it is not ethically proper and a violation of Canon 7 and Florida Statutes to use the title of prosecutor as only the state prosecutor may use the title of prosecutor. Hellickson is an assistant state attorney. The ethics commission chose to disregard previous opinions. Nevertheless, Hellickson lent the influence of the state attorney's office to Greer's political campaign, a prohibited act, and Greer reaped the benefits---all while the taxpayers paid.

In a prior investigation concerning the political commercial conducted by the Florida Election Commission, Hellickson had also told the FEC that he was "on his own time". His payroll records indicate that he reported for work on July 2, 2004, in the state attorney's office at 8 a.m. His time sheets indicate that he left the office between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., apparently to appear in the ad, and was compensated for it by the taxpayers as "vacation time".

In a sworn affidavit presented to the FEC by Shea, apparently prepared for her by Greer and/or his representatives, she stated under oath that she appeared in the commercial on her "own time". But according to Shea's payroll records, she was on taxpayers' time, she didn't take leave that day, she was paid in full for the day the commercial was filmed and her time cards showed that she was at work. She appeared in the commercial, with her title flashed on the screen, which would seem to firmly establish that she was engaging in political activity during working hours while being paid by the taxpayers.

Shea's defense was "with the permission of her supervisors, she appeared in the making of a television commercial wherein she endorsed candidate for public office George W. Greer". In other words, if your work supervisor tells you do something that violates the law, that makes you exempt from wrongdoing, at least in Pinellas County where it applies to George Greer and the Republican party.

While the other public officers said they couldn't remember the day of the commercial or the times, Shea claims that the commercial was filmed "near" her lunch hour on Friday, July 2, 2004, and that following her involvement with the filming of the commercial she did not return to work and took off the remaining portion of the work day, a claim that her payroll records do not substantiate and there is no request in the records for such time off as exists for Shea's other leave time.

The investigation showed that Shea's time slip did not indicate that she used any personal leave time and ethics commission investigator Ronald Moalli says that Shea was "unable to remember why she did not record her time off for July 2, 2004". Moalli concluded that "At best, this appears to be an administrative oversight on the part of respondent as opposed to some deliberate and intentional effort to manipulate her time record".

Ah yes, when caught with one's pants down, there's another "administrative oversight" and as with sheriff's officer and court bailiff Alek Melnick, there was no complaint that she falsified her records but rather that she used the influence of her position for political purposes during work hours and was paid to do so by taxpayers------and that was firmly established----but swept under the rug by the ethics panel.

There's so much dirt been swept under that rug in Pinellas County, that there's a huge mound of garbage in the middle of the rug that has a pervasive stink.

In two of the four complaints, the defense of two of the officers caught in black and white in violations of the law was "administrative oversight". What are the odds of that? Wonder how that defense would work for regular Joe Blow citizen, similar to the bad memory defense.

Rather than find that Shea had violated the law, the commission changed the scope of the "complaint" and dismissed it, based on a recommendation from Linzie Bogan, senior assistant attorney general in Charlie Crist's office.

Ah yes, there's Charlie Crist again, involved in covering up for Greer as he did so many times in the Schiavo case.

As attorney general, Crist was constitutionally charged with protecting the civil rights and liberties of the state's citizens but he did nothing to protect the rights and liberties of Terri Schiavo. He stood idly by and let her be dehydrated to death.

Crist consistently stayed out of the Schiavo case although he should have been front and center in the protection of her civil rights. Less than four months after she died a horrific death, Crist had the audacity to call the judges in the Schiavo case "heroes", breaking his silence, saying that he was proud of Greer and U.S. District Court Judge James Whittemore. While he claimed he wasn't endorsing the court rulings against reconnecting Terri's feeding tube which led to her death, others didn't see it that way.

And his senior assistant perpetuated the ongoing cover-up by rewording the ethics complaints involving Greer's political commercial, once again covering up.

Crist was caught red-handed in actually impeding justice in the Schiavo case and lying to the public. He blatantly told the public in a televised statement that there had been no complaints of abuse made to the state Department of Children and Families (DCF) a week after a DCF file in the matter was acknowledged in the Schiavo case. He lied to the public.

He said there had been no complaints when there is an envelope containing information about alleged abuse in the Schiavo case which was personally handed to Crist and which was later returned to the complainant without action---but with Charlie Crist's fingerprints. He cannot honestly say that he was not personally made aware of the alleged abuse, neglect and exploitation of Terri Schiavo. And yet he did nothing.

And his office continued the cover-up with Linzie Brogan, his senior assistant, acting as an advocate for the ethics commission, telling the panel there was no probable cause to charge the officers involved in the Greer commercial.

In a statement given to the FEC by Greer, he said that Hellickson volunteered to appear in the commercial but Hellickson told the FEC that Greer had asked him to appear in the ad. This is just one of the many discrepancies involved in sweeping the alleged improper actions of the public officers under the rug.

Under Judicial Canon 7, a candidate, including an incumbent judge for a judicial office that is filled by a public election between competing candidates cannot personally solicit campaign funds or solicit attorneys for publicly stated support.

Despite the statement by Hellickson that Greer personally solicited him for publicly stated support by appearing in his political commercial, state law prohibiting the use of governmental buildings for political purposes, and a sworn affidavit submitted by Kristia Reid-Bronson, chief of the Bureau of Election Records attesting that Greer had not filed the required Statement of Candidate forth in order to qualify for election, therefore violating Election Law and could not legally even appear on the ballot, the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission said "the matter does not constitute a violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct warranting further proceedings by the commission, sweeping the misconduct complaint against Greer under the rug.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/120106ProtectionSociety.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/080206ProbableCause.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/122606WebEntangles.html

According to the order signed by Norman Ostrau, ethics commission chairman, dismissing the complaint against Hellickson, "no factual investigation preceded the review". Despite Hellickson lending his name and position to influence the election of Greer, a prohibited practice, the complaint was ruled legally insufficient.

The other four complaints were ruled legally sufficient, sending them for investigation but ultimately, on recommendation of Crist's office, no charges were filed.

On Dec. 18, 2006, Bogan recommended that none of the complaints go forward in relation to the appearance of public officers in Greer's commercial, despite the overwhelming evidence, and on Jan. 31, the ethics commission accepted his recommendation and dumped the complaints.

Greer's bailiff, Alek Melnick, gave a statement under oath on March 16, 2006, to the Florida Election Commission claiming that he was on authorized leave while he was appearing in Greer's political commercial, also at the request of Greer. However, Melnick's payroll records indicate otherwise and show no leave time.

How does a public officer caught with his hands in the cookie jar get out of this one? Why, he claims that the request for leave time was lost which is why the official records for Pinellas County indicate that he was paid by taxpayer dollars during working hours to appear in a political commercial in a governmental building at the judge's request.

The ethics commission said they found no probable cause to believe that Melnick had "corruptly used his public position to falsify his payroll record".

However, there was no allegation before the commission that Melnick had falsified his payroll record but rather that he was politicking during working hours at the public's expense. Somehow the apples in the complaint got transformed to oranges.

The complaint against Melnick was filed under Florida Statutes 112.313(4) regarding unauthorized compensation under the section of law which states that "No public officer, employee of an agency, or local government attorney or his or her spouse or minor child shall, at any time, accept any compensation, payment, or thing of value when such public officer, employee, or local government attorney knows, or, with the exercise of reasonable care, should know, that it was given to influence a vote or other action in which the officer, employee, or local government attorney was expected to participate in his or her official capacity".

But Bogan and Moalli deep-sixed that complaint and rewrote their own.

According to the payroll records released by the Pinellas County Sheriff's office, Melnick was paid eight hours for that the day the commercial was filmed and his time records show no leave time indicating that he appeared in the commercial during work hours and county taxpayers paid him to engage in the political activity, a no-no.

Although there had been extensive publicity about Greer's alleged misuse of public officers and governmental resources for his political purposes, a public information request submitted to the sheriff's office for Melnick's payroll records, and an extensive investigation conducted of Greer by the Florida Election Commission when Melnick was interviewed and gave a statement, at no time prior to the ethics commission investigation did Melnick or the sheriff's office ever raise a claim that Melnick's supposed request for leave had been lost.

Melnick appeared for a deposition before commission investigator Moaelli with Robert Gualtieri in tow as his counsel. Gualtieri is the special counsel for the sheriff's office. AUDIO STATEMENT MELNICK

Florida Statutes state that it is illegal to misuse one's public position. No public officer, employee of an agency or local government attorney shall corruptly use or attempt to use his or her official position or any property or resource which may be within his or her trust, or perform his or her official duties, to secure a special privilege, benefit, or exemption for himself, herself or others---such as Judge George Greer.

In order to violate this standard, the public official must not only have acted to secure a special benefit but must have acted "corruptly", according to the ethics commission.

The state Legislature has defined corruptly as "done with a wrongful intent and for the purpose of obtaining, or compensating or receiving compensation for, any benefit resulting from some act or omission of a public servant which is inconsistent with the proper performance of his or her duties.

Moalli said in his report to the commission, "Other than to say that his leave slip was likely lost by his personnel department,[Melnick], when interviewed, was unable to explain why his payroll records for the day in question did not reflect that he used two hours of personal leave time" as he claimed he did after the complaint was filed with the ethics panel.

Melnick also suggested that the reason no leave slip existed and that his payroll records didn't indicate that he was "on his own time" albeit paid by the taxpayers was that the sheriff's office payroll section failed to properly document his time off.

Pass the buck.

The investigator's report says that "in a letter, (although it is unstated to whom the letter was addressed or when) Gualtieri wrote "I have inquired of our payroll department and of the timekeeper responsible for processing Deputy Melnick's leave request forms at the courthouse, and we have no record of a leave request form for Deputy Melnick on July 2, 2004". He continued, "As Deputy Melnick testified, he is assigned to the Clearwater Courthouse and his leave requests are forwarded via facsimile and/or inter-office mail for processing at the Criminal Justice Center, which is where his timekeeper works. It appears that Deputy Melnick's leave request (a request he can't substantiate and for which there is no witness) for July 2, 2004, was misplaced between the courthouses and did not reach the timekeeper for processing".

And the commission was quick to cover for him, saying that the fact that Melnick's personnel records "do not reflect two hours of leave time for the day in question appears to be more in the nature of an administrative oversight as opposed to a deliberate effort on the part of Respondent to manipulate his time records".

But there never was any complaint that Melnick "manipulated" or "falsified" his records, the complaint was the fact that he appeared in the political commercial of his "boss" during working hours and was paid for it, a direct violation of law.

One more time, Charlie Crist ran interference for Greer and Rice.

The complaint against Rice was that he authorized the use of a patrol vehicle and two officers, one in uniform, to secure a special benefit for his long time friend George Greer, a benefit that wasn't available to Jan Govan or any other judicial candidate.

Bogan played the age old shell game, a con in order to protect George Greer, Everett Rice, McCabe's office and the rest.

It wouldn't be the first time that it's been alleged that Bogan swept certain politically sensitive complaints under the rug.

Crist's AG office was the subject of multiple complaints while Crist was AG. Bogan himself was the target of criticism for his handling of complaints against members of the Florida Public Service Commission who attended a Miami Beach conference partially underwritten by the same utility companies that they were supposed to be regulating.

But Bogan managed to postpone a referral for trial against the commissioners for nine months after the ethics commission found probable cause to proceed, the delay giving enough time for the state Legislature to pass a bill which made all such conventions attended by the utility commissioners legal if they were paid for by the utilities.

In October, 2005, the Commission on Ethics voted to dismiss charges that the PSC commissioners broke state law because after the complaint was filed, the 2005 Legislature adopted an exemption to the PSC gift ban. Bogan was among the finalists for a judgeship in the Second Judicial Circuit but Gov. Jeb Bush passed by him, leaving him in the AG's office.

The passing of legislation which negated an ethics complaint is similar to the tactics used in the Schiavo case whereby the law was changed after Schiavo's petition was filed to end his wife's life with the legislature declaring that feeding tubes were suddenly artificial life support after Schiavo's attorney George Felos specifically sought the change. Otherwise, the cabal of Felos, Greer and Michael Schiavo couldn't have killed Terri Schiavo by removing her feeding tube but state statutes still prohibit the withholding even natural food and water from a person such as Greer decreed.

While Crist was still his boss, Bogan made his recommendation to the ethics panel that each of the complaints against Shea, Rice, Cunningham and Melnick be dismissed. He had already deep-sixed the Hellickson complaint and any involvement by McCabe's office in Greer's political commercial.

The dirt swept under the rug by the commission becomes even more transparent when comparing the testimony between Rice and sheriff's employees Cunningham and Melnick.

Melnick confirms he took part in the filming of the commercial, which is wise considering that he's shown in it twice, but while Greer admits in his statement to FEC that he personally asked Melnick to appear in the ad, Melnick tells a different story, claiming that either Cpl. Bob Winters of Sgt. Pete Sierchio asked him to appear in the commercial. Neither Winters or Sierchio recall the circumstances of Melnick's appearance. Someone's telling a story and it appears to be Melnick.

Melnick claims that through his "chain of command" he had the permission of then Sheriff Everett Rice to appear in the commercial.

Rice told Moalli that he recalls addressing the issue of deputies appearing in a commercial for his friend, Judge Greer's reelection. He says, "The word or question came to me whether or not Judge Greer could use a deputy for a campaign commercial and I said, 'only if the deputies are off-duty". He said he believed he conferred with the then Sheriff's Office General Counsel, Jean Kwall, concerning the matter.

Kwall's husband Louis, former assistant state attorney, was one of the attorneys who signed the letter soliciting contributions to finance Greer's campaign.

Louis Kwall has a long history with the good ole boy network in Pinellas County, having served as an assistant state attorney with Hellickson and McCabe. Kwall was the head of the Office of Consumer Affairs for the state attorney's office who frequently handled complaints concerning the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/022006GoodOleBoys.html

He left the state attorney's office and went into private law practice with attorney Raymond O. Gross. In 1988, Kwall ran the successful campaign for Rice for sheriff of Pinellas County. From 1992 to 1994, Kwall was chairman of the Pinellas County Republican Party. Gross became a judge in the Sixth Judicial Circuit with Greer.

In 1988 when the St. Petersburg Times was advocating an investigation of the Coopers Point land deal involving Greer, then serving as a Clearwater commissioner, Michael Kenton, the environmental management director for the city of Clearwater hired Kwall as his attorney. Ultimately no charges were brought against Kenton because Kwall's former associate at the state attorney's office decided that since Kenton had been a city employee at the time of the Cooper's Point deal, that he should be judged by the state Ethics Commission rather than criminally charged. http://thestraights.com/articles/coopers-point.htm (12-04-05)

Ah, the state Ethics Commission again. No criminal charges.

Rice maintains that he didn't speak directly to the deputies who appeared in Greer's commercial and that the use of the uniforms and the use of a patrol vehicle in the commercial was not discussed with him.

However, after the commercial aired and prior to the election, one Pinellas County resident called the sheriff's office to complain about the use of a county-owned patrol vehicle and uniformed deputy appearing in Greer's ad. According to the informant, a Pinellas Sheriff's employee who identified herself as "Linda" said that Sheriff Rice had authorized the use of the county-owned sheriff's car and the appearance of the uniformed deputy in Greer's TV commercial. An employee at McCabe's state attorney's office said the same informant that the appearance of Hellickson, assistant state attorney, was not "against campaign laws.

In a written statement to the North Country Gazette in August, 2006, Marianne Pasha, public information coordinator for the sheriff's office, stated that "Sheriff Everett Rice was aware of the deputy's appearance in the ad. We have no other records regarding the taping".

Although the issue of Melnick appearing in the ad while on the payroll was raised at that time and Gualtieri was in communication with the North Country Gazette, at that time there was no claim about any supposed "lost" leave request or dereliction of duty by the sheriff's payroll office.

Despite Bogan's recommendation and the ethics commission's refusal to bring charges against the quintet, there is significant evidence that the former sheriff who was a long-time personal friend of Greer, assistant state attorney, assistant public defender and sheriff's officers unlawfully used the influence of their positions and tax monies to influence the judicial election, ultimately control the outcome of the Schiavo case and the death of the brain damaged woman who was unable to speak for herself.

The other sheriff's officer appearing in the commercial was William Cunningham, in uniform with a Pinellas County sheriff's patrol car with lights flashing, the patrol car obviously county owned property.

Cunningham claimed that he wasn't on duty although he appeared in uniform in the commercial, raising the question if he can wear his uniform and operate a county owned patrol car during his off-duty hours. His payroll records indicate that he had requested approval for one hour "comp" time during the work day for which he was paid.

According to records obtained by The North Country Gazette from the Florida Election Commission, Greer's political consultant, Wayne Garcia, confirmed that Cunningham was filmed with the patrol car in the courthouse parking lot at about 8 a.m. on July 2, 2004, during working hours. His comp time was from 7 to 8 a.m. that day.

Moalli says that Cunningham acknowledged that the patrol car in the commercial is the patrol vehicle assigned to him. He claims that he parked his assigned patrol vehicle in a public parking lot on the west side of the Pinellas County Courthouse, at the request of the film crew, and that his segments in the commercial were filmed as he stood in front of the vehicle. Moalli told that commission that Cunningham said that although he asked permission from his supervisors to become involved in the commercial and that he used his personal leave time, he didn't inquire about the use of the patrol car as a backdrop in the commercial. He said he made that decision on his own and had no contact with Rice concerning the matter. "I had no qualms about that because I use my [patrol] vehicle on my own time at my discretion".

Cunningham was also represented by Gualtieri.

But the statute says that no public officer, employee of an agency or local government agency shall corruptly use or attempt to use his or her official position or any property or resource which may be within his or her trust……to secure a special privilege, benefit or exemption for himself, herself, or others------such as George Greer.

There is no provision in Florida law that would allow Cunningham to lend the prestige and influence of his position along with a county-owned patrol car and sheriff's uniform to the benefit of George Greer, a benefit which was not available to Greer's opponent.

The interpretation of the state statutes would be that the use of governmental buildings and property for political purposes is prohibited. The legislative intent of Florida Statutes is to prohibit the political activity of municipal officers and employees for the purpose of influencing an election and with the Hellickson, Shea, Cunningham and Melnick boldly using their positions for the purpose of influencing the election of George Greer, it's not only unethical, but illegal.

Rice says that an assigned patrol vehicle can be used by deputies for personal business.

If one subscribes to the statements made by Cunningham and Rice, then any patrol officer can wear his uniform at any time off-duty and use their patrol vehicle----and taxpayer paid gasoline---for personal business such as grocery shopping, running errands around the county, going out for dinner, taking the kids to ball games---all at taxpayer expense.

However, contrary to Cunningham's assertion that he can use "his" patrol vehicle on "his" own time at "his" discretion, General Order 15-1 of the sheriff's office issued by Rice on Oct. 24, 2002, regarding assignment and use of sheriff's motor vehicles dictates that "sheriff's office vehicles shall be driven only within the geographic limits of Pinellas County, except when in "hot pursuit", in the discharge of official duties, or as approved by a supervisor or competent authority.

This would seem to indicate that patrol vehicles can't be used for personal business, unless approved by Rice or other sheriff's department supervisor, establishing further evidence that the use of the patrol car in the political commercial was improper.

In essence, Rice is claiming that, despite Greer's commercial being aired nearly 1,800 times prior to election, that he had no knowledge of the deputies appearing in uniform or using a patrol vehicle in the commercial and because he doesn't "recall" these specific issues being brought to his attention, there's no violation of law.

Another bad memory defense.

While the complaint alleged that Rice misused his position as sheriff in order to provide a special benefit for Greer, the complaint was dismissed on the grounds that Bogan says Rice didn't misuse is position in order to secure a special benefit for his deputies.

But the cover-up doesn't involve just the offices of Crist, McCabe and the Pinellas County sheriff, then there's the Florida Ethics Commission itself.

The commission's members are Norman Ostrau, chairman; Albert P. Massey III, Michael W. Brown, Latour Lafferty, Charles Lydecker, Christopher McRae and Thomas P. Scarritt Jr.

Scarritt is past president of the Tampa Bay American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). He has served repeatedly as a Master in the ABOTA Masters in Trial Programs and is a former Master in the American Inns of Court.

The Tampa Bay chapter of ABOTA nominated the two judges most responsible for the death of Terri Schiavo, Greer and U.S. District Court Judge James Whittemore, to be the Jurist of the Year. They were chosen as dual recipients of the award.

AG Charlie Crist, Bogan's boss, presented the awards to them, saying that he was "proud" of them. "You are heroes to all of us", Crist said, "and your defense of the judiciary and what is right is beyond admirable".

Another past president of ABOTA is Gary Fox, attorney for Michael Schiavo in the medical malpractice trial of 1992 when Schiavo claimed that the doctors that Terri was consulting had failed to diagnose an eating disorder. That's because she never had an eating disorder, a fact determined by an AHCA investigation in 1995 which eventually cleared Dr. Joel Prawer of any negligence. The autopsy performed in 2005 also ruled out that Terri Schiavo had bulimia.

The autopsy report states that there was no evidence of bulimia and the assumption of bulimia presented at the medical malpractice trial had simply been accepted and not challenged. The medical examiner said there was absolutely nothing to support the theory of bulimia as presented by Michael's attorneys, including Gary Fox. He also ruled out the 15-year fallacy presented by the mainstream media (and Michael Schiavo (right)) that she had sustained a heart attack, saying that her collapse was the result of an "external problem outside of the heart causing the heart not to beat". He said there was no evidence that she had had any heart problems prior to her collapse and said that the fact she lived 15 years after her resuscitation was testimony to the strength of her heart".

It is significant to note that Pinellas County medical examiner Jon Thogmartin indicated that he based his autopsy findings on medical reports and records provided by Gary Fox, who was president of the Miami chapter of ABOTA in 1992 at the time of the malpractice trial. The medical examiner specifically noted that he could not have completed the autopsy without the reports given to him by Fox, but, he also indicated that "a lot of records have been destroyed" and that the case would remain open because of the missing documents in hopes that someone might come forward with them.

The cause of death of the 41-year-old brain damaged woman was officially undetermined according to Dr. Jon Thogmartin, Pinellas County medical examiner, and the investigation remains open.

Perhaps some of the missing records are among the documents that Schiavo told the St. Petersburg Times last March that he has packed away at the house he shares with the woman who he finally married after living with her for nearly a dozen years and fathering two child by her while he was trying to kill his wife.

ABOTA, Fox, Scarritt and others in the legal and judicial commune continue to embrace and protect Greer, tapping Greer to be a speaker for last month's National Jury Summit hosted by ABOTA in Las Vegas, perpetuating the good ole' boy network. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/2007/010407OnRoadAgain.html

ABOTA has also partnered with Greer to serve on the "faculty" of the "Journalist Law School" at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles last June, sponsored by the Florida chapters of ABOTA. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/051206SchiavoInsult.html

Therefore, it's not surprising that an ethics commission comprised of ABOTA members and a past president would opt not to pursue any ethics complaint directly related to Greer.

No matter how valid the complaint, how much evidence and substantiation involving players in the Schiavo case, the matter is always dismissed and buried.

Crist, McCabe, Greer, Schiavo, Fox and ABOTA---oh, what a tangled web they weave when they practice to deceive. 3-4-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette