In order to qualify for office, judicial candidates must take and file an oath of office before being elected.
According to public records and state statutes, George Greer did not legally qualify for his current term of office and has no legal authority to sit on the case or issue any decisions.
Florida law is explicit that any person who fails to take the required oath shall be immediately discharged, his name removed from the state payroll and not permitted to receive any compensation.
Greer cant claim that he is a de facto officer because he never had title to the office. His name shouldnt have even been on the ballot according to the records provided by Floridas Department of State.
Thus the question can be and should be legally raised if Greer has had jurisdiction in any of the adverse rulings affecting Terri Schiavo. Are all of his decisions null and void and should the entire matter be submitted for a new trial before a legally qualified judge?
According to rulings by the Attorney Generals office, statutory and case law, Greer has never qualified for office to gain access to the ballot, failing to file the mandatory oath of office, therefore he was not legally elected.
And even though election officials improperly allowed him access to the ballot, he still failed to comply with the statute which requires him to file his oath of office within 30 days of the commencement of his term.
According to the Department of State, the last oath on file for George Greer is dated Aug. 7, 1998. Although the Division of Elections says that Greer qualified for office on May 3, 2004, to date they have not been able to produce a copy of his oath of office that was presumably filed in order to qualify. VIEW THE ONLY OATH OBTAINABLE-CLICK HERE [must have Acrobat Reader]
The copy of the 1998 oath that they have produced for Greer is not in the proper form as required by statute which automatically disqualified him from the 1998 election. By law, his name should not have been on the ballot and therefore, he allegedly illegally served a six-year term as a judge and unlawfully collected compensation for the position.
The "bad old boy" network is alive and well in Florida.
This getting any traction? Are there any folks who have sought a judicial ethics complaint?