Medical Expert Suspected of Bias in Case of Disabled Woman in Danger of Death by Starvation
excerpt
Supporters of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation have learned that Dr. Bambakidis and attorney George Felos may have had a personal relationship prior to Dr. Bambakidis being assigned to the case on April 24, 2002. In marketing materials promoting his seminars, Mr. Felos notes that he has served as a Governor for the American Hellenic Education Progressive Association. Upon research, supporters discovered that the Ohio chapter of the American Hellenic Education Progressive Association was managed by Dr.
Bambakidis' brother Gust. Moreover, Gust's son Nicholas had worked with Dr. Bambakidis.
During testimony in 2002, Dr. Peter Bambakidis was asked repeatedly by attorney Patricia Anderson (representing Bob and Mary Schindler) if he had any personal relationship with attorney George Felos. Dr. Bambakidis insisted that he did not know of Mr. Felos prior to being appointed by Judge Greer though he could not provide sufficient explanation as to his appointment nor had he ever testified in any similar court case prior to the 2002 trial of Terri Schindler-Schiavo.
In June 1998, soon after Michael asked the court for permission to remove Terri's feeding tube, the court appointed Richard Pearse as Terri's guardian ad litem. His job was to investigate the facts of Terri's case and represent her interests in court.
At the 2000 trial, Pearse concluded that he had not found clear and convincing evidence that Terri would have rejected life support.
Pearse said he was troubled by the fact that Michael waited until 1998 to petition to remove the feeding tube, even though he claims to have known her wishes all along, and that he waited until he won a malpractice suit based on a professed desire to take care of her into old age. As her husband, Michael would inherit what is left of her malpractice award, originally $700,000, which is held in a trust fund administered by the court. Accounting of the fund is sealed. But Michael's lawyer, George Felos, said most of it has been spent on legal fees associated with the custody dispute.
Pearse also said he did not find Joan and Scott Schiavo's testimony credible.
Greer ruled in Michael's favor. Appeals by the Schindlers failed. A state appeals court upheld Greer's decision; the Florida and U.S. supreme courts declined to hear the case. And on April 24, 2001, hospice staff stopped feeding her. But two days later Pinellas County civil court Judge Frank Quesada ordered that feeding be resumed when evidence suddenly surfaced suggesting that Michael never really knew what Terri's wishes were.
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/sep/03091707.html and again...Felos admitted the money has been used for legal fees....WHY IS THIS NOT BEING CHECKED INTO???
to self....wrong link for this info...
the following have links to GAL Pearse
only excerpts referencing GAL Pearse will be copied from the link IOW there is more info at each link.....
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/kentucky/news/nation/7002611.htm Ironically, at the beginning of the case in 1998, it was Felos who requested an independent guardian for Terri Schiavo.
Attorney Richard Pearse was appointed, and he issued a report to Judge Bruce Boyer, who then was handling the case. In the report, Pearse said Michael Schiavo was not a credible witness to his wife's end-of-life wishes because he waited several years before coming forward with the claim that she wanted to die. Pearse also noted that Michael Schiavo would benefit financially from her death and be able to move on with his life.
After the report was issued, Felos attacked it and Pearse, and asked that Pearse be removed. Boyer complied.
Boyer never replaced Pearse. And Pearse said he believes a major opportunity was missed because Terri Schiavo has not had her own lawyer in the five years of litigation that have followed.
"One of the interesting and ironic aspects of this case is that all of the parties have portrayed themselves as representing her interests," he said. "It's always desirable that a person in Terri's position have an independent representative who has no particular interest in the case other than Terri."
Anderson, who began representing the Schindlers in 2001, said the failure to replace Pearse has hindered the parents' case because Michael Schiavo, as Terri's legal guardian, controls her medical care and even her visitors.
"The parents' hands are tied in terms of what evidence they could present," she said, "because they didn't have access to Terri. They're not even permitted to know if she's been running a temperature. If a guardian ad litem had been appointed, it would have been a different story."
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:gdE38o7trdMJ:www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp%3FARTICLE_ID%3D35055+pearse+guardian+terri+schiavo&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 Attorney Richard Pearse was appointed to be guardian ad litem [guardian for the litigation] – or GAL – by probate Judge Patrick Caddell and charged with investigating the case, and issued a 10-page report in Dec. 1998.
Pearse urged in no uncertain terms that the petition for removing the feeding tube be denied.
He also recommended that a guardian ad litem (not necessarily Pearse) be appointed to protect her interests.
And he made it clear that he did not believe Schiavo's sudden recollection of Terri's wishes.
"Regarding the pending petition filed by Mr. Schiavo to withdraw the gastric feeding tube which sustains the ward, he claims that the ward told him after their marriage that she would not want to be kept alive artificially," Pearse wrote. "Mr. Schiavo indicated strongly to [Pearse] that his petition to withdraw life support has nothing to do with the money held in the guardianship estate, which he would inherit upon the ward's death as her sole heir-in-law."
He continued: "The only direct evidence probative of the issue of the ward's intent is the hearsay testimony of the ward's feeding tube which would inevitably result in her death" However, his credibility is necessarily adversely affected by the obvious financial benefit to him in the event of her death while still married to him. Her death also permits him to get on with his life."
That Schiavo's attitude and actions changed as soon as the money from the malpractice suit was in the bank was not lost on Pearse.
"From that point forward, the ward's husband has isolated the ward from her parents, has on at least one occasion refused to consent for the ward to be treated for an infection, and, ultimately, four years later, has filed the instant petition for the withdrawal of life support on the basis of evidence apparently known only to him which could have been asserted at any time during the ward's illness," he said.
"Since there is no corroborative evidence of the ward's intentions, and since the only witness claiming to have such evidence is the one person who will realize a direct and substantial financial benefit from the ward's death, the undersigned guardian ad litem is of the opinion that the evidence of the ward's intentions developed by the investigation, does not meet the clear and convincing standard."
Charging Pearse was "biased" towards Schiavo, Felos promptly had Pearse removed as guardian ad litem. No one was appointed in his place.