Posted on 03/26/2005 3:47:20 PM PST by Cherokee Conservative
The Miami Herald reported Saturday that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush sent a team of state agents Thursday to rescue Terri Schiavo - but it was stopped short by local police.
"We were ready to go," Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre told the Herald.
Doctors say that unless her feeding tube is reinserted, Schiavo, 41, will die a week or two after March 18. That is when a judge ordered it removed, having siding with Schiavo's huband's argument that Terri would have preferred it that way.
On Saturday, the Herald reported that local police in Pinellas Park, the small town where Schiavo lies at Hospice Woodside, were expecting "a showdown" between law enforcement agents.
But the squad from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Department of Children & Families charged with taking custody of Schiavo and reinserting her feeding tube backed down after police told agents of the FDLE that they would enforce state judicial rulings preventing any actions to save Terri Schiavo.
"We told them that unless they had the judge with them when they came, they were not going to get in," a source with the local police told the Herald.
Apparently, the only showdown occured over the telephone.
"The FDLE called to say they were en route to the scene," an unnamed official with the city police told the Herald. "When the sheriff's department and our department told them they could not enforce their order, they backed off."
In ordering the move, Gov. Jeb Bush used state procedures allowing public agencies to freeze a judge's order whenever an agency appeals it. "We didn't want to break the law. There was a process in place and we were following the process," DePietre told the Herald.
On Wednesday, Pinellas-Pasco County Circuit Judge George W. Greer had signed an order forbidding DCF from taking the patient from the hospice, directing "each and every and singular sheriff of the state of Florida" to enforce the order.
But Thursday morning, DCF lawyers appealed Greer's order to judges at the Second District Court of Appeal in Lakeland, legally creating a window of opportunity to seize Schiavo, the Herald reported. The appeal created a stay in the judge's ruling.
It took nearly three hours before the judge found out and took steps to block that legal window, the Herald reported.
In the meantime, "there were two sets of law enforcement officers facing off, waiting for the other to blink," an unnamed official told the paper.
The Florida Department of Children and Families has been besiged by calls alleging Schiavo is the victim of abuse. On Wednesday, the governor and DCF chief Lucy Hadi made it known that they were considering sheltering Schiavo under the state's adult protection law.
According to Herald sources, DCF intended to take Schiavo to Morton Plant Hospital, where her feeding tube had been reinserted in 2003 following a previous judicial order allowing its removal.
Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped briefly from a chemical imbalance believed to have been brought on by an eating disorder. She left no living will.
I appologize if this has been posted, I did search for it but couldn't find it.
Im still waiting for the Omnipotent Judge Greer to issue a "court order" stating that Terri Schiavo goes to Heaven.
LOL! Did you hear that Greer's Baptist church asked him to leave?
funny you couldn't find it.....there was a 1,000+ post thread last night precisely on this same issue
I already apologized. I did look. I can grovel and beg forgiveness if you'd like.
No...this really brings home how WEAK the republicans are. In the words of JR Ewing...."Real power is not given....IT'S TAKEN!"
The judges have been able to get away with things just like this because no one has the courage to push them back into their place.
Chief law enforcement officer in the state backs down from a probate judge and county law enforcement. Jeb wimped out.
"Apparently, the only showdown occured over the telephone."
and...
"In the meantime, "there were two sets of law enforcement officers facing off, waiting for the other to blink," an unnamed official told the paper.
Amen!
I'm not diagreeing with you at all, but what should Republicans do to fight back other than demand up or down votes on judges. I wish they could force the judges to follow the law rather than make it up as they go, but not sure what they can do in the immediate?
...hence this propaganda piece that there was a showdown.
If it is as you say, and the judges have an enforcement arm of their own that even the Governor will not take on, then we are truly in deep chicken fat trouble.
Governor Bush....if you are lurking, or have people lurking....you had better get your power back....and do it quick. These are the things that real revolutions are made of.
Is not a Sheriff still the highest authority in a county ?
Bunch of wusses.
This is propaganda. Pat Moynahan called it "boob bait for the Bubba's". Results matter, not intentions.
He trembles in fear of some state judge.
He's made his decision, and shown that deferring to a judge is of the highest priority. The Bushes won't take on the establishment because they ARE the establishment.
Darn shame.
I do wish folks would stop making apologetcis for little Jeb ... he was so impotent. He asked Greer's permission before sending anyone out into the swamp to rescue Terri. That is real leadership, don'tcha think? Greer told the boy to sit down and shut up until the real power in Florida was finished exercising their muscles executing a disabled, abused woman for the heinous crime of inconvenience ... and Jeb was a good boy and sat down and did nothing more than whine excuses of how the courts wouldn't let him play governor for this issue.
Never trust the medical community.
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