Posted on 03/26/2005 9:51:58 PM PST by exliberal
Here's what I found on Cheryl Ford's blog.
I had read and easily overlooked little paragraph in the LA times about plans to take Terri that didn't come through last night. I was determined to find out more, as that's all LA Times said about that. Here's the story from Cheryl Ford, RN who is a friend of the family and advocate for keeping Terri alive.
Saturday, March 26, 2005 Police 'showdown' averted Comments From Ford: I spoke to Mary Schindler last night. She is being forced to watch her daughter die. This mother will have in her memories, a daughter who was not taken from this earth by natural causes, instead was taken from this earth as a result of murder. How can our government not step in and stop judicial homicide?
Michael Schiavo won't allow Terri's cousins or extended family who have flown into the area in to visit Terri. He continues control over the visitor list. The family is understandably very upset. Michael has the Schindlers' leave their daughters bedside every time he arrives because he refuses to be in the room with them. Then, he takes his time in the room with Terri, so they have less time with her. They were not able to visit with Terri for 12 hours on Thursday. Will someone explain to me why is it that Jack Kvorkian is in prison, and Michael Schiavo walks away a free man?
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11233240.htm
Posted on Sat, Mar. 26, 2005
Police 'showdown' averted
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER cmarbin@herald.com
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.
CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS
Participants in the high-stakes test of wills, who spoke with The Herald on the condition of anonymity, said they believed the standoff could ultimately have led to a constitutional crisis and a confrontation between dueling lawmen.
''There were two sets of law enforcement officers facing off, waiting for the other to blink,'' said one official with knowledge of Thursday morning's activities.
In jest, one official said local police discussed ``whether we had enough officers to hold off the National Guard.''
''It was kind of a showdown on the part of the locals and the state police,'' the official said. ``It it was not too long after that Jeb Bush was on TV saying that, evidently, he doesn't have as much authority as people think.''
State officials on Friday vigorously denied the notion that any ''showdown'' occurred.
''DCF directed no such action,'' said agency spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez.
Said Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre: ``There was no showdown. We were ready to go. We didn't want to break the law. There was a process in place and we were following the process. The judge had an order and we were following the order.''
Tim Caddell, a spokesman for the city of Pinellas Park, declined to discuss Thursday's events.
SHELTER FOR SCHIAVO
The developments that set Thursday morning's events in motion began the previous afternoon, when the governor and DCF chief Lucy Hadi held an impromptu news conference to announce they were considering sheltering Schiavo under the state's adult protection law. DCF has been besieged, officials say, by thousands of calls alleging Schiavo is the victim of abuse or neglect.
Alerted by the Bush administration that Schiavo might be on her way to their facility, officials at Morton Plant Hospital went to court themselves Wednesday, asking Circuit Judge George Greer, who ordered the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube last week, what to do.
''It's an extraordinary situation,'' said Beth Hardy, a hospital spokeswoman. ``I don't think any of us has seen anything like it. Ever.''
Greer signed an order Wednesday afternoon forbidding DCF from ''taking possession of Theresa Marie Schiavo or removing her'' from the hospice. He directed ''each and every and singular sheriff of the state of Florida'' to enforce his order.
But Thursday, at 8:15 a.m., DCF lawyers appealed Greer's order to judges at the Second District Court of Appeal in Lakeland.
That created the window of time to seize Schiavo. When DCF filed its appeal, it effectively froze the judge's Wednesday order. It took nearly three hours before the judge found out and canceled the automatic stay, shortly before 11 a.m.
Administrators of the 72-bed hospice, who have endured a withering siege of their facility by protesters since Greer ordered Schiavo's feeding tube removed on March 18, declined to discuss Thursday morning's events in any detail.
''I don't really know, or pretend to know, the specifics of what is going on behind the scenes,'' said Mike Bell, a spokesman for Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, which operates Woodside.
DCF INTENTIONS
According to 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. But hospice officials were aware that the hospital was not likely to perform surgery to reinsert the tube without an order from Greer.
''People knew that taking [Schiavo] did not equate with immediate reinsertion of the feeding tube,'' a source said. ``Hospital officials were working with their legal counsel and their advisors, trying to figure out which order superseded which, and what action they should take.''
Hardy, the hospital spokeswoman, said she does not believe the hospital was made aware Thursday morning that DCF and state police planned to bring Schiavo in. ''We were not aware of that three-hour period,'' she said. ``It's not a discussion we even had, really.''
George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney, said he does not think DCF officials knew of the window of opportunity they had created until well after they filed their appeal.
''Frankly, I don't believe when they filed their notice of appeal they realized that that gave them an automatic stay,'' Felos said. ``When we filed our motion to vacate the automatic stay . . . they realized they had a short window of opportunity and they wanted to extend that as long as they could.
``I believe that as soon as DCF knew they had an opportunity, they were mobilizing to take advantage of it, without a doubt.''
posted by Fight4Terri @ 8:35 AM
''Frankly, I don't believe when they filed their notice of appeal they realized that that gave them an automatic stay,'' Felos said. ``When we filed our motion to vacate the automatic stay . . . they realized they had a short window of opportunity and they wanted to extend that as long as they could.
``I believe that as soon as DCF knew they had an opportunity, they were mobilizing to take advantage of it, without a doubt.''
It's just a game for him, isn't it?
Thanks for the post.
I read some of it, but not the full story.
"Alerted by the Bush administration that Schiavo might be on her way to their facility, officials at Morton Plant Hospital went to court themselves Wednesday, asking Circuit Judge George Greer, who ordered the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube last week, what to do."
How tragic, that the hospital didn't want to save Terri.
He is rat feces!
Death is more lucrative. Their business is to help people die. The last thing they want to do is save a life. There's no money in it.
Boycott Hospice donations.
The dead don't enrich anyone, save for the morticians.
The Federal and State governments have incentives for people to die---in many cases, it will save Medicare and Medicaid money.
This is a constitutional crisis. Greer writes orders with no authority and everyone bows. He's got to be backed down!
ping
Which doesn't come near the amount of money that we could wring out of Medicare with "necessary preventave therapy" if we were inclined to be so callous and dishonest.
>>>Boycott Hospice donations.
A lot harder than you think since many state hospitals that have foundations already donate your hard earned tax money to them.
Really. My state is financially connected, is yours?
>>>The dead don't enrich anyone, save for the morticians.
That all depends on whether the top dogs hold board positions in the hospices.
I found a number of connections with my state hospitals that have foundations that donate to the hospices.
Stupid. Hospice provides a valuable service to dying patients.
Besides, hospice is covered by insurance.
It just occured to me that Elian Gonzales was forceably taken by the Feds in 2000 - the day before Easter.
And the hospices have billings that they can be creative with for the monies.
They read that verse in my church tonight (in the context of the crucifixion of course), but you could just feel the whole room thinking of Terri Schiavo. It was chilling.
So the damnable hospital that could've saved Terri is the one that ratted out Bush's move to rescue her from the hospice!
Now we know! They had NO NEED to go to the judge! Another murderer to put on the list.
I think you may have misread - it was the HOSPITOL that they were gong to TAKE Terri to - not the hospice that is killing her
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