Posted on 08/28/2003 5:20:42 AM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
Freepers, we may be able to help Terri:
I made some phone calls today and have the ULTIMATE PHONE CALL for registering a Complaint against Judge Greer. I can't reveal my sources but this is the phone number for a few pay grades above J. Greer.
Call the: Judicial Qualifications Commission at
#1-850-488-1581. I am complaining to them tomorrow that J. Greer isn't God, that he's been in the husband's corner since Day One, he doesn't care a wit about Terri's parents or her husband's attempt at medical neglect, and I'd like to know if Greer can be recalled or impeached.
HE SHOULD HAVE OR COULD HAVE HONORED GOV. BUSH'S REQUEST TO ASSIGN A GUARDIAN AD LITEM to represent Terri's interest instead of once again, taking the side of the husband. Judge Greer is from the Sixth Circuit Court, Pinellas County.
Oh, and ping everybody you can think of.
72 posted on 08/27/2003 5:06 PM EDT by floriduh voter
From summer:
"..do a separate thread asking people to call this phone number FV provided. This could get a guardian appointed if the judge is tossed off the case for BIAS."
Background:
In a letter, Bush asked Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George W. Greer yesterday to keep her alive until a court-appointed guardian can "independently investigate the circumstances of this case and provide the court with an unbiased view that considers the best interests of Mrs. Schiavo."
8 From JEB to FR: Full text of Gov Bush's letter to Judge Greer re: Terri Schiavo. Email from Gov Bush to summer, for FR | 8/27
----- Original Message -----
From: [Governor Bush's office]
To: [summer's email]
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 8:06 AM
Subject: Letter regarding Terri Schiavo
> August 26, 2003
> The Honorable George W. Greer
> Judge, Sixth Judicial Circuit
> 315 Court Street, Room 484
> Clearwater, Florida 33756
Dear Judge Greer:
> I appreciate the challenging legal and ethical issues before you in the case > of Terri Schiavo. As I have expressed over the course of the past several > weeks, our system of government has committed these decisions to the > judicial branch, and we must respect that process. Consistent with this > principle, I normally would not address a letter to a judge in a pending > legal proceeding. However, my office has received over 27,000 emails > reflecting understandable concern for the well being of Terri Schiavo. > Given that there is no procedural avenue available for these views to be > expressed to you in the normal course of the proceedings, I feel compelled > to write in the hopes that you will give serious consideration to > re-appointment of a guardian ad litem for Mrs. Schiavo before permitting the > removal of her feeding tube or other actions calculated to end her life.
> This case represents the disturbing result of a severe family disagreement > in extremely trying circumstances. Emotions are high, accusations abound, > and at the heart of this public and private maelstrom is a young woman > incapable of speaking for herself.
> I am disturbed by new rumors about the guardian's actions related to the > current care of Mrs. Schiavo. It has come to my attention that Mrs. Schiavo > has contracted a life threatening illness, and that she may be denied > appropriate treatment. If true, this indicates a decision by her caregivers > to initiate an "exit protocol" that may include withholding treatment from > Mrs. Schiavo until her death, which would render this Court's ultimate > decision moot. While the issue of Mrs. Schiavo's care is still before the > Court, I urge you to ensure that no act of omission or commission be allowed > to adversely affect Mrs. Schiavo's health before the September 11th hearing > you have set. No one involved should be permitted to circumvent due process > or the Court's authority in order to achieve personal objectives in this > case.
> Even discounting these rumors, there are a number of factual disputes > regarding Mrs. Schiavo's medical condition, past and current care and > therapy, and her prognosis. Given the contradictory positions of her > guardian and other family members, I respectfully ask that you re-appoint a > qualified guardian ad litem to independently investigate the circumstances > of this case, and provide the Court an unbiased view that considers only the > best interests of Mrs. Schiavo.
> It is a fine balance between Mrs. Schiavo's right to privacy and her right > to life, both of which are co-equal in our Constitution. To err on one side > is to prolong her existence, perhaps against her wishes, and continue the > debate. To err on the other is an irrevocable act that affords no > remediation. I respectfully ask that you give Mrs. Schiavo's family the > opportunity to present any new evidence as to her wishes. Evidence as to > her wishes should be reweighed as often as necessary to take into account > the effect of any new evidence, that is, to determine whether "clear and > convincing evidence" still exists that Mrs. Schiavo would now choose > withdrawal of life-prolonging procedures. While this process may delay the > surrogate's exercise of Mrs. Schiavo's privacy rights, it is necessary to > avoid denying her right to life. I urge you to err on the side of > conservative judgment to ensure that all facts can be uncovered and > considered before her life is terminated.
> I appreciate your compassion for Mrs. Schiavo's plight, and that of the > family members locked in dispute in these tragic circumstances. In light of > the ongoing contention related to so many issues in this case, I hope you > will consider appointing a guardian ad litem to ensure that the ultimate > decision is based on facts presented clearly, unclouded and uncolored by > personal interests of litigants.
> Sincerely,
> Jeb Bush
> cc: Patricia Fields Anderson, Esq.
> George J. Felos, Esq.
(WND article excerpts, cont.:) "On Friday, the Florida Supreme Court refused to intervene in the case, clearing the way for a Sept. 11 hearing in which Greer would set a date for removal of the feeding tube.
Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler of Gulf Port, Fla., have been locked in a decade-long legal battle with their son-in-law over the care and custody of their daughter, who suffered massive brain damage when she collapsed at her home 13 years ago under unexplained circumstances at the age of 26.
***The bitter dispute over Terri's lack of care became a major euthanasia battle five years ago when her husband Michael Schiavo petitioned the court for permission to have her feeding tube removed, claiming she is in a persistent vegetative state and would not want to be kept alive "artificially." The Schindlers and a number of doctors and therapists believe she could be rehabilitated, but the courts have consistently sided with Schiavo and his lawyer, right-to-die advocate George Felos.
~~~~
The article is on CNSNews.com.
Florida Judge Rejects Governor's Bid to Help Terri Schiavo
By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Congressional Bureau Chief
August 27, 2003
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Florida Circuit Judge George Greer Tuesday rejected a plea from Governor Jeb Bush to appoint a guardian ad litem to represent the best interests of Terri Schindler Schiavo, a 39-year-old disabled woman who suffered a brain injury in 1990 under questionable circumstances. Bush had intervened Monday after receiving 27,000 email messages asking for his help on Terri's behalf.
"I read [Gov. Bush's letter] because it came from the governor and I respect his position," Greer told the Tampa Tribune. "Beyond that, it is going in the file."
As CNSNews.com previously reported, Bush wrote Greer Monday asking him not to remove the disabled woman's feeding tube until a new guardian ad litem could "independently investigate" her condition. In the letter, Bush referenced the "fine balance between Mrs. Schiavo's right to privacy and her right to life," which Bush noted are co-equal under the Constitution.
"To err on one side is to prolong her existence, perhaps against her wishes and to continue the debate," Bush wrote. "To err on the other is an irrevocable act that affords no remediation."
But Greer told the Associated Press that he no longer has a choice in the matter.
"Frankly, I think I'm operating under a mandate from the 2nd District Court of Appeals," Greer said, "and frankly I don't think I can stray from that mandate."
In that same interview, however, the judge contradicted his own assessment of the limitation on his authority by stating that he was "not inclined" to appoint a guardian ad litem.
Michael Schiavo called Gov. Bush's intervention on behalf of Terri "crazy."
"The governor has deliberately twisted the facts in this case in an apparent effort to kowtow to his right-to-life political supporters," Schiavo told Tampa Tribune reporter David Sommer. "This has nothing to do with him. He should stay out of it."
Schiavo - who, for five years, has been seeking judicial approval to end his wife's life by denying her nutrition and hydration - also accused Terri's parents of manipulating their Catholic faith to keep their daughter alive.
"I believe in God and so did (?) Terri," Schiavo said, speaking of his still living wife in the past tense, "but they are out to push it on people... suddenly they are on a religious kick."
Judge refuses motion for hearing to set 'death date'
Greer also denied a motion Tuesday to hold an immediate hearing to set a date for the removal of Terri's nutrition and hydration tube. The hearing will be held, as previously announced, on Sept. 11. At that hearing, Greer will also rule on whether Schiavo may legally prohibit Terri's priest from visiting her.
Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, had also petitioned the court Monday to prohibit doctors from caring for Terri's current fever, labored breathing, vomiting, diarrhea and a "substantial infection."
"Given the imminence of the ward's death, further treatment (other than comfort care) for the ward's infection and other medical problems is unnecessary, unwarranted, inappropriate and futile," Felos said in an emergency motion, adding that Terri, "should be put back in hospice and receive comfort care and die in a peaceful setting."
Greer denied that motion, as well.
55 posted on 08/27/2003 5:29 PM EDT by yhwhsman ("Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small..." -Sir Winston Churchill)
Michael Schiavo is using "privacy" as an excuse for denying Terri every contact from the outside world, even flowers. "One sign of the case's nastiness is the Schindlers' complaint that Schiavo limits their visits with their daughter. They also say he has refused to allow doctors to examine her, refused her antibiotics and needed dental work, refused to replace a broken wheelchair so she could be taken outdoors and refused the delivery of flowers from a friend to her room on her birthday."
"Her teeth are fine; she doesn't eat," Michael Schiavo said. "Why take her to a gynecologist? She was supposed to die months ago. I don't want her room filled with flowers from strangers or right-to-life activists. Even though she is vegetative she has a right to privacy."
17 posted on 08/27/2003 10:14 AM EDT by I still care
***
I thought Gov Bush very eloquently made his case here, in this part:
To err on one side is to prolong her existence, perhaps against her wishes, and continue the debate. To err on the other is an irrevocable act that affords no remediation.
18 posted on 08/27/2003 10:14 AM EDT by summer
***
..this judge is going to look really bad if this part is ignored by the judge:
Even discounting these rumors, there are a number of factual disputes > regarding Mrs. Schiavo's medical condition, past and current care and > therapy, and her prognosis. Given the contradictory positions of her > guardian and other family members
21 posted on 08/27/2003 10:17 AM EDT by summer
*** HE SHOULD HAVE OR COULD HAVE HONORED GOV. BUSH'S REQUEST TO ASSIGN A GUARDIAN AD LITEM to represent Terri's interest instead of once again, taking the side of the husband. Judge Greer is from the Sixth Circuit Court, Pinellas County. That is one thing that floors me .. This Judge should have long ago appointed an independent Guardian Ad Litem and not left her husband as her sole guardian .. especially since there are questions about her husband with abuse and the fractured bones that were reveled in xrays of Terry. Everything I have read .. this Judge seems hell bent on having her killed 73 posted on 08/28/2003 2:45 AM EDT by Mo1 (http://www.favewavs.com/wavs/cartoons/spdemocrats.wav) *** I know that Mr. Schiavo has tried to ban Terri's mother and family and priest from seeing her. 27 posted on 08/26/2003 7:34 PM EDT by hocndoc (Choice is the # 1 killer in the US) *** Judge Greer has been with the husband since day one. A guardian ad litem would have been fair for Terri and her parents. Her parents love her but they are treated as the enemy. I'm ashamed this is happening in Pinellas County. 31 posted on 08/26/2003 7:41 PM EDT by floriduh voter
Judge Greer will not appoint a guardian ad litem. I have phone numbers from the phone book for the Clearwater Courthouse and all the guardianship phone numbers. He husband held a presser today and was very flippant about Jeb's letter and called the emailers a "bunch of right to lifers." Hubby is looking a little nervous but with a pal like Judge Greer who is no Judge Moore, Terri has until the September 11 hearing to decide the date her starvation begins. Here are the phone numbers: courthouse - 727-464-3000, guardianship numbers: 727-582-7563, 727-582-7771, and 727-464-8700. We can at least call as friends of Terri and voice our concerns. 25 posted on 08/26/2003 7:34 PM EDT by floriduh voter Freepers, please call the Juducial Qualification Commission regarding Judge Greer: 1-850-488-1581. *** Contact friends, thank those have been fighting on Terri's behalf, including Glenn Beck, Lars Larson, CNS News.com, WND, and Bill O'Reilly. *** Terri Schindler Schiavo's website - background and news updates: www.terrisfight.org *** 8 Terri Schiavo's website Media Contacts Governor Jeb Bush (R) The Honorable(?) George W. Greer Attorney General Charlie Crist
But, I don't know how a court could prevent doctors from ordering therapy, speach therapy (which is often actually swallowing therapy) and most especially oral nutrition.
Office of The Governor
Florida Capitol Building, PL-05
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
(850) 488-7146
(850) 488-4441
jeb.bush@myflorida.com
6th Judicial Circuit
315 Court Street, Room 484
Clearwater, FL 33756
(727) 464-3933
ggreer@co.pinellas.fl.us
Office of Attorney General
State of Florida
The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050
(850) 487-1963
Fax: (850) 487-2564
ag@oag.state.fl.us
Whether Terri lives or dies, what we need to do is come together as a group and *stop* the right to die movement. The parallels between our current situation and Germany 1930 are way too close for comfort, imo.
Both Wesley and Nancy are concerned for Terri.
Diminishing resources....again same here, skyrocketing healthcare costs, health insurance becoming unaffordable, etc. It would not surprise me that some of the families are allowing the starvations because they can no longer afford to maintain the patient ( not Terri, other cases, I mean).
Subtle shifts in social view of the disabled, which has been going on for the last 40 years in this country. Blame the victim, etc. I can give personal examples if you are interested.
Declining sanctity of life, attacks on the Christian life ethic, and rising intelligentsia as the "new" leaders - all this has happened before. In Germany in 1920 or so, in Russia at about the same time.
I can't be logged on for too long...back online later this evening to catch up, but as I mentioned, I am thinking about and praying for this effort (and it's people) to be successful. I thought of another email address that I don't remember being posted before:
Pope John Paul II - john_paul_ii@vatican.va
NO KIDDING? I mean, seriously, things have gotten this bad already??? Can you point me to this?
Heh, well, that depends on what it's about... There's been so many outrageous things lately, I just don't know where to start. :-(
"Read about this woman to be starved to death by the state of FL. How is this consistent with the first George Bush's "Americans with Disabilities Act"?"
Not too good... :-(
Thank you.
Look at this Drudge Report today. I'm too tired to format the paragraphs but his grandma in Russia tried to sell him for spare parts.
Sold for spare parts by his grandmother GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT ANDREY should be dead, and he knows it. Ask Andrey what was meant to happen to him and he will gesture at his legs, making a cutting motion. He mimes a knife slicing open his chest and his heart being pulled out, and then he draws his finger across his throat. It was his grandmother, Nina Tkacheva, who came up with the plan. Abandoned by his mother, Andrey was living in an orphanage outside the town of Ryazan, about 130 miles south of Moscow. Then one day, three years ago, Tkacheva turned up to collect him. She had arranged for a wealthy friend to take him to Disneyland Paris, she said. Andrey was as excited, as any five-year-old would be at the prospect of such a trip. He went with his grandmother to the big square with the fountain in Ryazan, and while she chatted to the expensively-dressed businessman who was going to take him away, Andrey sat with his Uncle Sergei and Aunt Larisa in a nearby cafe. The businessman handed Tkacheva a bag - and suddenly the square was full of police officers. "What’s the problem?" Tkacheva asked the police. But they knew the truth. The bag was full of dollars - £65,000 worth of dollars - and there was no trip to Disneyland. Tkacheva had sold Andrey so that he could be taken out of Russia, killed and his organs used for transplants in a foreign clinic. Scared, Andrey tried to run, but he was rugby-tackled by a policeman. His aunt and uncle were arrested. Andrey did not understand what was happening. All he knew was that his ticket to Disneyland was disappearing into a police van and he was going back to the orphanage. He burst into tears. A policeman, trying to console him, handed Andrey a bar of chocolate. Still unaware of what his grandmother had done, the boy broke it in two and ran over to her, offering her half. The police led him away, put him in a car, drove him back to the orphanage and the room he shared with eight other children. And there the story could have ended, had it not been for Shaun and Josephine Moncur. A couple of evenings later, they were watching the television in their home outside Glasgow when a news report from Russia came on. It told the story of Andrey and reported that Nina Tkacheva, 54, was now facing ten years in jail. But what caught Mr and Mrs Moncur’s eyes was the picture of the fair-haired boy. He was the spitting image of their own son Andrew, eight. Then Andrew walked in and found himself looking at what appeared to be a picture of himself on the television. Something clicked. The couple decided they would try to adopt Andrey. It was the start of a battle against bureaucracy that lasted almost three years and only ended this June, when they flew back to Britain with Andrey at their side. Ask Mr Moncur now what it was that made them do it and he still finds it difficult to explain. "I don’t know what it was," he says. "We’d never even thought about adopting a child before Until we saw his face. "There are millions of kids who’ve got stories worse than his, but seeing the face on the television it was like seeing one of our own kids. And there was the betrayal of his granny - I think that was it. And there was the thing with the chocolate and how he broke it in half and gave some to his granny. He hadn’t a scooby about was going on." Mr and Mrs Moncur already have five boys of their own: Barry, William, Mark, Andrew and Ross. They live in a big house away from the city and run their own business. They could have put the fact Andrey looked so much like their sons down to coincidence and left it at that. Instead they started making inquiries, contacting the news organisation that put out the story, discovering that Andrey had been taken back to the orphanage. "We were quite concerned," said Mr Moncur. "We were told he was in care in Ryazan. We thought he would be adopted by a Russian couple because of the exposure it had. It was news here so we thought it would be so much bigger over there, but that was not going to happen because of the situation over there. They don’t have a culture of adoption." It looked like Andrey was going to spend his childhood in the orphanage, where the director believed in the importance of outdoor physical exercise, even when the temperature stood at -24C. The Moncurs then contacted the education department in Ryazan. They had decided to apply for adoption. Mrs Moncur, meanwhile, enrolled on a course at Strathclyde University to start learning Russian. The application process was a battle from start to finish. With eight months of social work investigation to endure and endless shuffling between government departments, it was 27 December, 2002, before the paperwork, all 140 pages of it, was complete. They began to make arrangements to go to Russia. "We were quite excited - we didn’t know what to expect of the country itself. I’d never been to Russia before," said Mr Moncur. The temperature in Moscow when they arrived in early February last year was -20C. There was snow on the ground and a bitter wind blowing through the station as they stood waiting with their Russian lawyer for the train to take them down to Ryazan. The orphanage stood 15 miles outside the city, two blocks of bedrooms connected by a corridor housing the dining hall. "The wee man was in suit trousers and a waistcoat, all dressed up in the best things they could find in his size, but the trousers were rolled up and pulled up. He looked nervous and I felt sorry for him," said Mr Moncur, talking of the moment they first met Andrey. "We were taken through to the nursery section. We’d taken some clothes for him - which were far too big because we were basing them on our own kids - and a little football table to play with him and he bonded very, very quickly. "We had been worried about whether he was going to want to leave - would he want us? - but we were quite overjoyed. "He was told who we were and he started playing, and at the end of the first day, at four o’clock, he started putting all the toys away. He thought he was leaving but the social worker told him he had to have his medicals. " We felt heartbroken, but he told her, ‘Why do I have to have medicals, I’m perfectly healthy?’ He knew he was OK, he knew that no-one would be prepared to part with all that money for something that wasn’t perfect. He knew what had been planned." Next to their hotel in Ryazan was a play area and the couple asked permission to take Andrey back with them, but that needed the agreement of the orphanage director and he was away. Andrey was deflated. On their last day, though, word came through that the director had agreed. "We got him to the play area and he only had an hour but he crammed one hell of a lot into that hour. He played on everything," said Mr Moncur. "He rushed back and told the social worker, ‘Now I believe they will come back for me.’ That was quite touching - it was a good point for us to leave on that note." For six weeks the Moncurs had to wait, the cooling-off period allowing all sides to think about what they were doing, but finally word came from the lawyer to say that they had a court date. Back to Russia they went. The courtroom was a bare, intimidating room, a steel cage at one side where prisoners would normally stand. There were questions, pauses for translation and then it was over. "The judge said to us, ‘Congratulations, you are true friends of Russia and we are forever in your debt’," recalled Mr Moncur. "After that, it was just putting the paperwork together, getting the adoption certificate and the birth certificate." They couldn’t wait. They spoke to the orphanage and the staff agreed that they could drive over and take Andrey back to the hotel while they waited. "He was playing with the other kids but as soon as he saw the car he rushed over and there was a big hug for mum. He was quite boisterous - he wanted away there and then," said Mr Moncur. "He was very nervous in case we changed our minds." Andrey said goodbye to his friends and got into the car for the drive back to the hotel, where they had arranged for an extra bed to be placed in their room for him. They need not have bothered. That night, for the first time, he slept between them in their bed. The next day, they went for a walk around Ryazan, Andrey excitedly pointing out to them the square. "He told us, ‘This is where my granny was lifted. She was going to sell me for organs’," said Mr Moncur. Waiting for a visa from the British embassy, there was another delay. Andrey, seven, had to be interviewed before the visa could be granted. He was asked if he was excited about going to England. Andrey replied crossly that he was going to Scotland. Was he excited about going on an aeroplane? Andrey had had enough. He told the embassy woman that she was an idiot and he was not answering any more stupid questions. The translator paraphrased, diplomatically. With their flight due to leave that night and with the embassy due to close in two minutes, the visa was granted. They arrived at Heathrow the next day, 26 June, Andrey initially disappointed that he was in England, not Scotland, but he made a friend on the train journey north and it was quickly forgotten. When they arrived at his new home, he disappeared to explore. At first, Andrey could not see the point of learning English - after all, he could say "no" and "ice cream" and what other words could a boy need? - but he is listening and picking up words. He gets on well with their other children and is going to school, accompanied by Mrs Moncur, although only for the mornings at the moment. More than two months after he arrived, the Moncurs are pleased with the way he is settling in. He sleeps alone and suffers no nightmares. But ask him what happened on that day in October three years ago and he still remembers. scotsman.com scotsman.com
Pegita/Pennsylvania
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