Editorial
The Perfect Murder
Florida Officials Must Impanel Grand Jury On Alleged Schiavo Abuse
© The Empire Journal
It’s time for a grand jury investigation to be convened in Florida’s Terri Schiavo case.
In fact, it’s way past time.
Otherwise, someone may get away with murder.
There is more than sufficient probable cause to open a criminal investigation into how the 41-year-old brain damaged woman sustained her injuries, injuries which have resulted a verdict of death for her because her husband wants to pull her feeding tube---her lifeline.
There has been a blatant and wholly unacceptable obstruction of justice in this matter—of public officials turning their heads maybe because of politics, maybe because of payoffs.
There exists a gaping flaw in the criminal justice system of Florida in this case.
Maybe flaw isn’t the right word.
Pandemic corruption appears to be more like it.
Why has there not been any meaningful investigation into what really happened to Terri Schiavo on Feb. 25, 1990, and how her injuries were incurred, injuries which certainly forever changed her life and set the stage for a 15-year-battle between her alleged husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo, and her parents, Mary and Robert Schindler?
The overwhelmingly question in this entire matter is why?
Why will Michael Schiavo simply not divorce her and allow her parents to care for her?
Terri Schiavo has been sentenced to die by starvation and dehydration by Sixth Circuit Court Judge George Greer of Pinellas and Pasco Counties, acceding to the demand by Michael Schiavo for the withdrawal of her gastric feeding tube which provides sustenance to her twice a day. Suddenly incapacitated one evening in 1990, she left no living will but her husband claims, with no substantiation, that she had told him she wouldn’t want to be kept alive by artificial means.
JUDICIAL HOMICIDE
By their refusal to review the case, the U.S. Supreme Court has in effect sanctioned the court-ordered death---judicial homicide as Bob Schindler has rightfully labeled it.
There has been a total breakdown in the judicial system involving this case starting with George Greer who has in essence become a co-conspirator to this coverup of truth, an actor with Michael Schiavo and his attorney, George Felos in an obstruction of justice.
Why isn’t George Greer and the court interested in HOW Terri Schiavo sustained the injuries in 1990 which caused her to lose oxygen to the brain for five to eight minutes?
George Felos 
The stated cause of Terri’s injuries is said to be an alleged cardiac arrest resulting from a potassium imbalance due to an eating disorder. However, medical and forensic experts have dispelled that with medical evidence and publicly stated that a crime of strangulation, attempted murder, occurred.
And there are allegations that other murder attempts may have occurred since then.
The mainstream media is as responsible for distorting the truth in this matter and helping to perpetrate the obstruction of justice along with the court and some members of the legal community.
According to published reports and other sources, a federally funded investigation into the Terri Schiavo case was initiated in the fall of 2003 by Florida’s Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities [ACDP]. And, according to reports, the ACPD requested Terri Schiavo’s medical records from Michael Schiavo’s attorneys and was successful in obtaining them.
According to the center’s website, the group has the authority to investigate incidents of abuse and neglect when requested if there is probable cause to believe the incidents occurred. Patricia Anderson, the Schindler’s former attorney, says ACPD has strong investigative powers including the ability to examine medical and court sealed guardian financial records. She says that its findings of abuse or neglect would be conclusive and would preempt any court or other agency.
Terri Schiavo must be kept alive until ACPD completes its investigation and a grand jury is convened. The grand jury must be convened now.
The most immediate action required in order to preserve the evidence of the alleged crime in this case is to remove Michael Schiavo as guardian.
On Friday, Jan. 28, in the Probate Court in Clearwater, Fla., Judge George Greer will hear the Schindler’s motion to protect their daughter’s due process rights, arguing that the 2000 order decreeing her death is null and void because her due process rights were not protected during the 2000 trial.
REMOVE HUSBAND AS GUARDIAN
There is a motion pending before Greer to remove Michael Schiavo as Terri’s guardian and replace him with her brother and sister, Bobby Jr. and Suzanne due to his numerous conflicts of interest which disqualify him from continuing as guardian.
There is a petition of the Second District Court of Appeals in Florida regarding the right to free exercise of her religious rights which Schindler’s attorneys believe have been violated.
There is certainly probable cause existing in the Schiavo case to move forward immediately and without further delay by Florida officials in impaneling a grand jury to investigate the entire matter.
One of the most compelling reasons to impanel a grand jury into the matter is the opinion issued by Dr. Michael Baden, renowned forensic pathologist, author of three books on forensic pathology. Dr. Baden is the former chief medical examiner for the city of New York and co-director of the Medicolegal Investigation Unit of the New York State Police.
In an October, 2003 interview with Fox News, Dr. Baden stated that after reviewing a 1991 bone scan report which had become available to the Schindlers only a year previous, that the bone scan showed evidence that there are “other injuries, other bone fractures that are in the healing stage” (in 1991). Baden noted that she had the bone scan done in 1991 at a rehabilitation facility that describes her as having a head injury, “That’s why she’s there, that’s why she’s getting a bone scan”, Baden says, because she has a head injury.
He said he wasn’t suggesting that a potassium imbalance had caused a fall that led to a head injury or some pre-existing head injury which could have led to her passing out”.
Baden said that the injuries sustained by Terri Schiavo could have happened from “some kind of trauma. The trauma could be from an auto accident, the trauma could be from a fall or the trauma could be from some kind of beating that she obtained from somebody somewhere. It’s something that should have been investigated in 1991”.
It has apparently never been ascertained as to whether it was reported to police in 1991. However, it is known that after the Schindlers became aware of the bone scan report in November, 2002, they tried to file a report with the police of a possible battery on Terri but that the police refused to get involved. Isn’t that their job, to get serve and protect---to investigate alleged crimes, especially domestic abuse and violence?
Prior to 2002, Terri’s medical records had been kept sealed under court order at the request of Michael Shiavo. The bone scan surfaced when the Schindler’s former attorney, Patricia Anderson, obtained some of the medical records through discovery.
The family believes that Michael Schiavo and Terri had a violent argument earlier in the evening she collapsed and the medical evidence seems to support, that Terri Schiavo may have been a strangulation victim that evening.
Although the mainstream media has continually reported, with the assistance of the court, that the injury was the result of a potassium imbalance. Dr. Baden says it is extremely rare for a 20-year-old to have a cardiac arrest from low potassium, especially an individual like Terri who has no other diseases.
‘The reason that she’s in the state she’s in is because there was a period of time, maybe five to eight minutes, when not enough oxygen was going to her brain”, Dr. Baden says. He says that while that can happened because the heart stops for five to eight minutes, that in this case she had a healthy heart from what he could see.
HISTORY OF TRAUMA
The bone scan report completed in March, 1991 by Dr. Campbell Walker was done to “evaluate from trauma “that may have been caused by a suspected ‘closed head injury’. Walker wrote that “this patient has a history of trauma. The presumption is that the other multiple areas of trauma also relates to previous trauma”. He listed apparent injuries to Terri to the ribs, thoracic vertebrae, both sacroiliac joints, both ankles and both knees. http://www.apfn.org/apfn/bone.pdf
There is other medical evidence which exists as probable cause to convene a grand jury to investigate the alleged criminal conduct of Michael Schiavo and possible official misconduct by Greer and others involved in the case.
In fact, enough cause exists that Chief Judge David Demers of the Sixth Circuit should have long ago assigned another judge to the Schiavo case and removed Greer due to the egregious conflicts, demonstrated bias and appearance of impropriety including allegations of criminal violations by the judge himself.
The hospital admittance records from 1990 show evidence of trauma to Terri Schiavo’s neck. Her friends have testified during court proceedings that she was unhappy in her marriage to Schiavo and was allegedly contemplating a divorce from Michael Schiavo who was allegedly possessive and jealous.
Dr. William Hammesfahr, a world renowned neurologist wrote a complete report concerning the Schiavo case in September, 2002, revealing that medical tests conducted after her collapse did not show evidence of a heart attack. In the emergency room, a possible diagnosis of heart attack was briefly entertained but then dismissed after blood chemistries and serial EKG’s did not show evidence of a heart attack. ( Complete Report of Dr. William Hammesfahr) Dr. Hammesfahr testified that she had sustained injuries consistent with abuse.
Further cause for a grand jury investigation existed when nurses and caregivers of Terri Schiavo came forward, especially a sworn affidavit given by Carla Sauer Lyer, a registered nurse who cared for Terri from about April, 1995 until August, 1996.
Lyer alleged that Terri’s blood sugar levels were normally “very stable due to the uniformity of her diet”. However, while she suspects Michael Schiavo of injecting Terri with regular insulin to drive her into hypoglycemic shock, she acknowledged she has no proof.
Nurses have reported hearing Michael Schiavo make such comments as “When is that bitch going to die?”
She noted at least five times when the husband had visited Terri, close the door to her room and then emerge sometime later and leave. According to Iver, she had tested Terri’s blood sugar on those occasions and the level was so low it wasn’t even registering. She would then administer dextrose to get Terri….out of danger.
She says that she recalls him making statements such as “Can’t anything be done to accelerate her death, won’t she ever die?” “Michael would be visibly excited, thrilled even, hoping that she would die”, Iyer recalled. “He would blurt out, ‘I’m going to be rich’ and would talk about all the things he would buy when Terri which included a new car, a new boat and going to Europe. Iyer's affidavit
ACPD MUST COMPLETE INVESTIGATION
There has been virtual silence from the ACPD since it was announced in October, 2003 that they were initiating their federally funded investigation. Attempts by many including The Empire Journal to ascertain the status of this investigation have been met with stonewalling and refusal to respond. There appears to have been no report issued and no final findings.
Why? What’s the holdup? Why has this agency allegedly been “investigating” this case for over a year with no results? It’s time to take this whole case before a grand jury and the ACPD making their findings public.
In graphic and perhaps maybe not wholly acceptable terms for many, the stark reality is that Terri Schiavo cannot be allowed to die before an investigation in completed into the circumstances surrounding her injuries. She must be kept alive to, pardon the indelicate way of putting it, to preserve the evidence of a possible crime.
The court and criminal justice system cannot be allowed to become accomplices to murder.
In that there are several counties involved, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush could and should petition the Florida Supreme Court to impanel a statewide grand jury. Florida statutes provide for such petition by the Governor “whenever the Governor, for good and sufficient reason, deems it to be in the public interest” to do so.
In that there appears to have perhaps been federal crimes involved such as obstruction of justice and conspiracy with misuse of court funds and resources in an attempt to cover-up a crime, a federal grand jury could be organized under the supervision and direction of the chief judge of a federal district court.
Considering that there is evidence---probable cause---that Judge George Greer has allowed the court to be used for the obstruction of justice, has allegedly allowed multiple violations of the state’s guardianship laws and other alleged violations of Florida statutes, a grand jury whether at the county, state or federal level, must immediately be impaneled.
Both the Florida and federal judicial systems employ grand juries. While most people are familiar with the grand jury’s role to determine whether sufficient evidence exists to justify indicting an individual on criminal charges, a grand jury can also serve as an investigating body with subpoena powers. The state attorney, in this case Bernie McCabe of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Pinellas and Pasco Counties, has concurrent authority to file a formal accusation of the commission of a crime known as an information. In addition to capital cases (murder) grand juries can also be used for controversial cases such as those involving alleged wrongdoing by public officials.
GREER SHOULD BE SUBJECT OF GRAND JURY PROBE
Such would be applicable in the case of Terri Schiavo where there are strong allegations that George Greer has violated guardianship laws, election law and may be working in collusion with Micahel Schiavo and George Felos to cause the death of Terri Schiavo in an effort to obstruct justice as to what has really occurred in this case.
A grand jury can issue presentments and reports recording their findings whether or not an indictment is returned and in Florida, grand juries may investigate and report on official misconduct and matters generally concerning the public welfare---even if no criminal activity is suspected.
After the findings of the 1991 bone scan were made public in 2002, Bush was asked to launch an investigation into the matter and reportedly received a petition containing over 165,000 names. Thereafter the ACPD announced its involvement. Bush has the power to do more and can do it legally---without anyone yelling separation of powers.
With all due respect, people must step away from the emotionalism of this matter and start demanding answers why there has been an apparent cover-up and protection of the alleged criminal culpability of Michael Schiavo, seemingly aided and abetted by George Felos and George Greer.
The focus of the nation is on this case because it could happen to them—to their own family. Now is the time to ask why judicial homicide is being sanctioned by the counts that are supposed to be the truth seekers. One would have to seriously ask what does Michael Schiavo and/or George Felos hold on Greer, Judge W. Douglas Baird and others to blind them from the truth.
Quite simply----the main question is WHY does Michael Schiavo simply not walk away, grant a divorce and let her parents take care of her? WHY?
Years ago the answer could have been money but there now appears to be little money left. Maybe the answer is the estate, whatever value her estate would have. Maybe it’s because Florida is a community property state. Reportedly the Schindlers have told Michael that he can have whatever is left of the malpractice awards and other monies but yet he refuses to divorce her or relinquish guardianship.
Book and movie deals? Maybe but those kind of financial perks would still be available to him at this point even if he did finally sign off.
The only viable answer that appears to exist is that its because he would lose control----that it could and would be shown that his long suffering wife 
from whom he has withheld all forms of rehabilitation CAN be rehabilitated, maybe enough to speak, reveal what really happened that fateful night in 1990 and perhaps point an accusing finger at Michael Schiavo. Maybe most of all, he is petrified that when she dies, an autopsy will be performed revealing the real cause of her injuries. There is reportedly an order on file issued by Michael Schiavo that upon her death, Terri Schiavo will immediately be cremated, no autopsy.
There is no statute of limitations for murder but he can get away with murder if the court----George Greer---sanctions it.