Police 'Showdown' Averted ['Team of State Agents Were En Route to Seize Terri']

Miami Herald ^ | Sat, Mar. 26, 2005 | CAROL MARBIN MILLER

[West Coast Conservative]

Hours after a judge ordered that Terri Schiavo was not to be removed from her hospice, a team of state agents were en route to seize her and have her feeding tube reinserted -- but they stopped short when local police told them they would enforce the judge's order, The Herald has learned.

Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told police in Pinellas Park, the small town where Schiavo lies at Hospice Woodside, on Thursday that they were on the way to take her to a hospital to resume her feeding.

For a brief period, local police, who have officers at the hospice to keep protesters out, prepared for what sources called ``a showdown.''

In the end, the squad from the FDLE and the Department of Children & Families backed down, apparently concerned about confronting local police outside the hospice.

''We told them that unless they had the judge with them when they came, they were not going to get in,'' said a source with the local police.

''The FDLE called to say they were en route to the scene,'' said an official with the city police who requested anonymity. ``When the sheriff's department and our department told them they could not enforce their order, they backed off.''

The incident,known only to a few and related to The Herald by three different sources involved in Thursday's events, underscores the intense emotion and murky legal terrain that the Schiavo case has created. It also shows that agencies answering directly to Gov. Jeb Bush had planned to use a wrinkle in Florida law that would have allowed them to legally get around the judge's order. The exception in the law allows public agencies to freeze a judge's order whenever an agency appeals it.

[Lancey Howard]

A strong leader gets the job done.
The only strong leader I've seen in this fiasco is the leader of the murderers, Greer.

[Texas Deb]

Thanks for your kind words, and same to you.

[Hattie]

A physician called the Mark Davis show on WBAP Dallas today and gave the K level. He also related there was no glucose level on that admission record. Also the bone scan record was read on that show. Apparently those are public somewhere but I do not have a link.

[mjtobias]

"a team of state agents were en route to seize her and have her feeding tube reinserted -- but they stopped short when local police told them they would enforce the judge's order, The Herald has learned."

Apparently the team was not large enough to take on the local police.

This must have been a propaganda ploy to control political damage.

[Darkwolf377]

Thanks for the interesting point of view. I've never seen very much on what those in the area think of this story.

[northernlightsII]

You missed the point: the estrangement is the disqualifier. So if a husband wants a say on a sick wife he can't go shack up with another chick and make illegitimate children with her.
This is good law anywhere anytime.
No worse state intrusion than saying you cannot be married to 2 women at the same time.

[NorCalRepub]

well.....if you go against it then you pay the consequences...in hindsight we see many things wrong..when you give me your crystal ball, then I may be in agreeance..sorry you had to spoil the story and turn Ole' Jim in.....

[KDD]

That was not directed at you personally.

[Chad Fairbanks]

I know, and I agree. But I draw the line at advocating a Theocracy.

[ARCADIA]

Not true, D1. Michael Schiavo's brother, and his brother's wife, both claim to have heard her say she would not want to be kept alive under artificial means.

That is still hearsay.

[TAdams8591]

Can't the people on our side ever follow through????? How sickening. Florida State Law Enforcement should have waited for some more troops and headed in to get Terri.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

An immoral law that results in the starvation death of an innocent disabled woman is morally vacant. Any executive who fails to take action to save a victim of such an immoral law, particularly when such a bright spotlight has been shined on it, is likewise morally vacant.

So you admit that what you want him to do is not "uphold the law" (as he has been charged), but to break it.

A lot of us want a legal solution to save Terri Schiavo. I have a Democrat "governor" (Washington state), and I would hate to see her taking the law into her own hands, no matter how strongly she believed something.

[MTOrlando]

If it is illegal (and I'll take your word for that at this point, for sake of discussion) to provide nourishment by mouth, then why have all the attempts to appeal this case been rejected?

Either because all of the judges are in collusion, or because no appeal based specifically on the order prohibiting any attempt at natural feeding has not been launched. I have not kept up with all of the court documents filed, but all of the news reports indicate that the appeals have focused on getting the feeding tube reinserted, not overruling the court order prohibiting natural feeding.

[politicket]

DU will be reporting lots of phone calls from FReepers asking if they can have their old Bush is Hitler signs.

Neither George or Jeb Bush are equivalents of Hitler. I think that there is just a LOT of disappointment with them regarding their refusal to obey God's word in this situation.

God is the one who placed both of them in their positions of power. Whey they assumed those roles they also assumed the responsibility that goes along with the roles (sort of like a pastor assumes responsibility for his flock).

What George and Jeb need to realize is that God takes those added responsibilities very seriously.

My sorrow is not only for Terri, but also for George and Jeb in that they turned from God's word and let evil have victory. It is sad all the way around!

[Darkwolf377]

Well, I'm still glad I read it.

[nutmeg]

Did you see this?

[NorCalRepub]

it must not since they backed down without a court order. I"m not saying they can't go into places, but not against the courts rulings....

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

My understanding is that technically, no, it's not "hearsay", because they heard it directly and not from a third party.

It is also apparently admissible in Florida law.

[politicket]

I know, and I agree. But I draw the line at advocating a Theocracy.

On that we are in agreement.

[mjtobias]

"I'd be backing Bush today big-time if he'd have ordered his men in there and stopped this murder."

Me too.