Posted on 03/19/2005 3:37:05 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
TALLAHASSEE - As sheriff of Pinellas County, Everett Rice gave Michael Schiavo a job.
As a state legislator, Rice opposed a bill that would have blocked the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.
To Rice, the two acts are unrelated. But to some people who are using the Web to try to stop Terri Schiavo's death, they are just some of the evidence of "conspiracy, collusion and coverup."
Rice, a Treasure Island Republican and one of the Legislature's newest members, finds himself a target of an Internet attack accusing him of complicity to deny care to the Pinellas Park woman.
His chief critic is June Maxam of Chestertown, N.Y., who challenges what she calls "judicial tyranny." Working from a home computer near Albany, Maxam has been fighting New York judges who she said did not properly file their oaths of office.
Maxam writes for and co-owns The Empire Journal, an online newspaper. Her other targets include Circuit Judge George Greer, Attorney General Charlie Crist and Florida legislators who, like Rice, opposed a new feeding-tube law.
But Maxam has aimed most of her outrage at Rice, a four-term sheriff first elected to the Florida House in November. As sheriff, Rice declined to investigate charges of abuse against Terri Schiavo.
Other legislators have been receiving e-mails with copies of the anti-Rice articles attached.
Rice was unfamiliar with Maxam's Web site until Friday, and he laughed off her conspiracy theories. But they are an example of the intensity of the Schiavo debate in cyberspace.
Maxam has published online stories about Rice's hiring of Schiavo; Rice's longstanding friendship with Greer, the judge who ordered Schiavo's feeding tube removed; the role of Rice and Sheriff's Office equipment in a TV ad supporting Greer's re-election; and Rice's former membership on the board of a hospice where Terri Schiavo is a patient.
Weeks before he left the Sheriff's Office, Rice said, he hired Michael Schiavo for a job as a nurse in the county jail, near Largo. He began work Oct. 11.
"I hired him," Rice said, "but I never saw him. I don't know him. It's hard to find good nurses, and he was right at the top of the stack of applications."
While Rice hired Schiavo, he said, he is sure he acted on the recommendation of one of his assistants.
Rice said he and Judge Greer are friends, and he acknowledged making a TV ad and was on the hospice board several years ago, as an honorary member because he was sheriff.
Rice was one of eight Republicans in the state House who voted against a bill that would have prevented the withholding of food and water to incapacitated patients who did not make their intentions clear beforehand.
"I tried to vote my conscience and not necessarily do what's popular," Rice said. "I wasn't counting votes. I think the Republicans might have misread this thing."
Isn't that just lovely.
Thank you for the post, I was unaware of most of this.
I understand Greer fits in that category too.
Ain't nuthin' like the good ole boyz.
.......Last Rites Given
As judges at the local, federal and state Supreme Court levels considered and rejected attempts to block the feeding tube's removal, the Schindlers sat by their daughter's bedside while Monsignor Thaddeus Malanowski administered the last rites of the Catholic Church, the priest reported afterward.
Circuit Judge George Greer, who has repeatedly ordered the feeding tube's removal based on his findings at a 2000 nonjury trial, had granted special permission for Terri Schiavo to receive communion via her feeding tube prior to its removal.
Malanowski said he anointed Schiavo with holy oil, then used an eye dropper to transfer a few droplets of consecrated wine into the feeding tube.
``Everybody was calm and peaceful,'' the priest said. ``I thought the mother [Mary Schindler] might faint but no, the mother was strong until just a half-hour ago.''
Shortly before 1:45 p.m., almost an hour after the tube was supposed to be removed, hospice officials asked Mary Schindler and other family members to leave so the removal could take place, Malanowski said.
Michael Schiavo, who was with his wife when the tube was removed once before in 2003, found the prospect of being with her again too upsetting, so he didn't join her until after the procedure was over, said his attorney, George Felos.
Those present included Terri Schiavo's physician and a number of hospice workers, Felos said.
``It was a very calm, peaceful procedure with a degree of emotion, and those there felt the need to pray,'' Felos said.
The Schindlers did not learn the tube had been removed until about 3:30 p.m., when Mary Schindler ``broke down'' from the pressure, Malinowski said.
Minutes later, the Schindlers slipped one-by-one into a relative's car and drove away unnoticed by most of the crowd. ............
http://www.tampatribune.com/MGBCBB3DH6E.html
Fred Barnes was just on and he was defending Terri and saying who is it hurting for Terri to live? Then Cici Connolly (loser) and Mort started ganging up on him as if they really know the case. That is the problem, these people don't even know the whole story, they are basing their opinions on total and complete hearsay! LORD GIVE US STRENGTH!
CW, as things that have ever made me angry go, this is at the top of the list.
It must be unbearable for her family.
This that has happened to Terri Schiavo is at my top of the list as well, for the courts are being used for premediated murder. I think that no penalty is too great for Michael Sciavo, Felos, and Judge Greer. I have lost my faith in the judicial system over this. Terri is not being treated as well as the law demands for dogs in the state where I live. I am outraged!
Amen. Please Dear Lord, give Terri Schiavo and her parents strength.
Great post...time to start turning over the rocks...
Carolyn
What is it with the far left and their desire to defile Easter Week. Elian Gonzalez was kidnapped on Holy Saturday and Terri will most likely be taking her last breaths sometime around Good Friday. Is there important symbolism there?
That's heartbreaking, CW, simply a heartbreaking story. God Bless Terri's Mother and her Dad.
I have a daughter and a son.
I can't even begin to imagine it.
All her parents want is the right to care for her. They are not asking for anything else.
99.999999999% of the people who only read the title of the story are going to believe Rice is Condi Rice. Do you think maybe Steve has an agenda?
The authorities took away Elian and they carried off the Ten Commandments with outrage - how dare a judge display them. And Clinton pardoned even a pedophile. But who cares enough to help Terri, an innocent woman who by Judge Greer's orders and her estranged husband's desire is condemned to a horrific, slow death.
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