Freepers call to action re. Terri Schindler-Schiavo. Make a complaint against Judge Greer:

Various ^ | August 28, 2003

[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:

8 Jeb Bush intervenes for Schindler-Schiavo -   WND | 8/26

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has asked a judge to delay setting a date for removal of a feeding tube sustaining the life of a brain-disabled woman, Terri Schindler-Schiavo.

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.

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.

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)
Office of The Governor
Florida Capitol Building, PL-05
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
(850) 488-7146
(850) 488-4441
jeb.bush@myflorida.com

The Honorable(?) George W. Greer
6th Judicial Circuit
315 Court Street, Room 484
Clearwater, FL 33756
(727) 464-3933
ggreer@co.pinellas.fl.us

Attorney General Charlie Crist
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

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thanks for all your work, pc. That's factual - good for debate and legal work.

Now we need to narrow the message to a few powerful, factual sentences for a press and public with limited time.

The State of Florida can only sanction the death of Terri if she's in a PVS. She isn't. End of story, right?

DNA evidence frees convicted killers. Who's even looking at the evidence to free an innocent woman from a death sentence imposed by her husband and OUR government?

Terri responds.

Judge Greer never met the woman he sentenced to death.

Animals are treated better under Florida law than one of God's creations created in His image.

Love your neighbor.

[Deo volente]

Gotta go now. Will check back later and hope for some good news!

[windchime]

Thanks! Keep talkin' to her until she turns NE and into the Atlantic.:)

[syriacus]

Woman's food-tube dispute nears end


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-locschiavo10091003sep10,0,1721253.story?coll=orl-news-headlines


By Maya Bell | Sentinel Staff Writer

Posted September 10, 2003


Family. (CHRIS O'MEARA/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Sep 9, 2003


Theresa Marie Schindler Schiavo is likely living out her last weeks, still unaware of the heated controversy over her husband's battle to let her slip from her void and die.

Barring another round of last-minute rulings, a Pinellas County probate judge is scheduled Thursday to order the removal of the feeding tube that has kept the severely brain-damaged Clearwater woman alive for 13 years.

Her plight has become a rallying cry for many religious and disabled Americans. Their mantra: For the crime of being disabled, Terri Schiavo is being "executed by starvation."

"The law shouldn't judge some lives as worthless," said Max Lapertosa, a Chicago attorney representing Not Dead Yet and a dozen other national disability organizations. "That's a very disturbing thought to a lot of families who have sons and daughters with severe disabilities."

Terri Schiavo was just 26 when she collapsed from cardiac arrest and endured five critical minutes without oxygen. She never wrote a living will stating her wishes in the event she became incapacitated, but her husband, Michael, insists she made them clear during casual conversations.

He says she would never want to live in a persistent vegetative state, unable to eat, think or talk, always reliant on others to change her diapers and move her rigid, curled limbs. In 2000, Pinellas Circuit Judge George W. Greer concurred and ordered her twice-a-day tube feedings halted.

Relying on their Catholic faith, her parents vehemently disagree with her purported wishes and diagnosis. They insist their daughter laughs and cries, feels and knows. They say she could be eating and even speaking again by now if her husband had continued therapy. They even suggest their son-in-law had a hand in her collapse.

However, after a dozen court appeals, including rejections by the Florida and U.S. Supreme Courts, Bob and Mary Schindler have all but exhausted their legal options. So far, the only victory they can claim is in their public relations war.

Family rallies support

Galvanized by videotapes of Terri Schiavo seeming to respond to her mother and other stimuli, dozens of medical, religious and disability organizations have joined the Schindlers' battle to keep their daughter alive.

So have people such as Pamela Hennessy, a Clearwater woman who launched a petition drive that captured Gov. Jeb Bush's attention. After receiving more than 27,000 e-mails alleging irregularities in the case, the governor urged Judge Greer to appoint an independent guardian to represent Terri Schiavo.

The judge declined, prompting the Schindlers' lawyers to move for his disqualification last week. On Tuesday, Michael Schiavo's lawyer responded by asking the 2nd District Court of Appeal to enforce a prior ruling allowing Terri Schiavo to die.

As she awaits the final word, Hennessy, who works for a marketing and Web-design firm, devotes much of her time to maintaining the Schindler family's Web site of www.terrisfight.org and answering, on average, 250 e-mails a day.

For years, Hennessy said, she thought Terri Schiavo's family should let her go. Then Hennessy saw videos of her lying in her Pinellas Park hospice bed and changed her mind.

In one of many video snippets available on the family Web site, Terri's mother greets her daughter and, kissing her face, asks about her cold: "Hi, baby," Mary Schindler coos. "Are you better?"

Her daughter's eyes widen and a smile seems to spread over her face. Then, as if responding to her mother's question, she groans.

"The videotapes sealed it for me," Hennessy said. "Here they were saying she was a vegetable, but clearly this is a case of bigotry against a disabled person."

Patient's classic symptoms

Through the years, however, a number of doctors have testified that Terri Schiavo exhibits classic symptoms of a persistent vegetative state. She has sleep cycles, wake cycles and startle reflexes. Her eyes can even track a balloon, but her cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for cognition, is irreversibly gone.

Unconvinced, Hennessy and other supporters repeat the same suspicions the Schindlers have raised about their son-in-law's motives. For years, the Schindlers contended that Michael Schiavo sought to halt his wife's feedings in 1998 to inherit what was left of the $700,000 he won for his wife's care from a malpractice suit.

Michael Schiavo, a nurse, countered that his in-laws were driving him to divorce the woman he married nearly 20 years ago so they could control her assets. Though he has a fiancé and a child, he has steadfastly maintained he would not divorce his wife because that would mean losing the right to carry out her wishes.

Today, with the money largely depleted, much of it by legal expenses, the Schindlers are concentrating on a new theory. They suggest Michael Schiavo has fought so hard to silence his wife because he tried to strangle her that night in February 1990 when she collapsed.

As evidence they point to the opinion of a doctor who, at their request, reviewed Terri Schiavo's medical records and found she was admitted to the emergency room with a "rigid neck." The doctor said he had treated only one other patient with a similar injury: the victim of an attempted strangulation.

"There's only two people who know what happened to Terri that night -- Terri and Schiavo -- and a lot of circumstantial evidence points a hard finger at Schiavo," her father said.

Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, who has written a book about his right-to-die advocacy, dismisses the affidavits and accusations as nonsense promulgated by right-to-life fanatics who, like the Schindlers, simply believe it immoral to withhold life-prolonging measures.

The proof, he said, lies in unbiased court rulings that 11 times have sided with his client.

"Are all those judges stupid? Have they all been snookered?" Felos said. "Of course not. They are trained to separate fact from the Schindler propaganda machine."

Court refuses appeal

Indeed, in its most recent ruling in June, the 2nd District Court of Appeal refused to reverse its earlier finding that Terri Schiavo suffered cardiac arrest from a potassium imbalance.

Reviewing the opinions of five doctors and viewing the same videotapes available on the family Web site, the appellate court once again agreed that her movements are the classic responses of someone in a persistent vegetative state.

Again, the court found that, once forced into the feud that has torn her loved ones apart, Judge Greer had "clear and convincing evidence" to rule that, after 10 years without hope for recovery, Terri Schiavo would chose to die.

"It may be unfortunate that when families cannot agree, the best forum we can offer for this private, personal decision is a public courtroom and the best decision-maker we can provide is a judge," the court said.

On that one point, almost everybody agrees. The Schiavo case is a persuasive argument for everyone, even young people, to discuss the unthinkable, said Kenneth Goodman, a University of Miami ethicist who helps hospitals resolve end-of-life conflicts.

"This case has turned ghastly and the dispute undignified, but there is a lesson here," Goodman said. "Make sure your loved ones know what your preferences are. Tell your spouse, your friends, your brother, your sister and your doctors."

[MarMema]

So *what* if she has little or no cognition, even?

Do they even realize what this sounds like? Not enough cognition means murder?

[MarMema]

Kenneth Goodman, a University of Miami ethicist who helps hospitals resolve end-of-life conflicts.

Sorry, Ken. You missed the real lesson. Try again.

[kimmie7]

That article was so slanted I had to tilt my head to read it!. Thanks for posting. It's good to keep up on what people are saying.

[pc93]

Maya Bell the journalist who contacted me but when contacted back was too busy at Publix buying groceries,
etc. and wanted to wait to talk to me on Sept. 2 but never called. Not that great of an article.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[MarMema]

life-prolonging measures.

I love how water has become a life-prolonging measure now.

[Pegita]

.

[kimmie7]

Amazing, isn't it...

[dixiegrrl]

Here is the connection between Rice and Greer.Rice is on the hospice board with Todd who was on the Pinellas Co. Board of Commissioners with Judge Greer.They both were county commissioners simultaneously for eight years. Here is the link
http://www.hospicepatients.org/Saving-Hospice-from-Hospice-Extremists.html
Scroll down through the article,(it is towards the bottom) There is a list of names.

[MarMema]

They have a veterinarian on the board?

[dixiegrrl]

I thought that was strange too!

[MarMema]

good night and sleep well, everyone.

[dixiegrrl]

I copied this from my post #967. Rice and Bilirakis(both of them) are freemasons.They are both on the board of the hospice. I wonder if any of the others are. http://www.os2ss.com/connect/masons/famous.htm

[Theodore R.]

Bilirakis is a Republican. What about the sheriff and Greer, what is their party? If Greer is Republican, why did he insult Governor Bush about the letter Bush sent him?

[dixiegrrl]

Rice is a republican and I don't know what Greer is. They are both up for reelection in 2004. Here is the link.
http://www.co.pinellas.fl.us/soe/ElecOfce/offices_up_2002.htm

[Theodore R.]

Group 18 - James W. Greer

Is he James W. Greer? I have been calling him George W. Greer? Most of the Pinellas Co. officials are Republicans with four or five exceptions. The judges are elected without party. We would have to know his party affiliation when he was a county commissioner to be sure? He sounds like he could be a Republican, but why would he ignore and disparage Governor Bush about the letter on behalf of Terri?