Judge in Terri Schiavo Case Had Serious Conflict of Interest-(Whittemore connected to Felos/Michael)

LIFE NEWS.COM ^ | MAY 19, 2005 | STEVEN ERTELT

[CHARLITE]

A federal judge who declined to review the lawsuit Terri Schaivo's parents filed to prevent her painful 13 day starvation death may have had a conflict of interest.

Federal District Court Judge James Whittemore of Tampa was charged by Congress to take up the case and issue a temporary restraining order preventing Terri's death. He refused. However, it appears Judge Whittemore, who became the subject of condemnation from Congressional leaders after his decision, possible should have recused himself from the case.

Whittemore served in the 13th Circuit Court of Hillsborough County, Florida from 1990 to 1999. According to a report in the Empire Journal newspaper, one of the attorneys who formerly represented Terri's estranged husband Michael had recommended him for that position.

Michael's former attorney, Constance McCaughey, had been a member of the 13th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission which suggested Whittemore for the circuit court position.

According to the Florida Bar Association, McCaughey served on the judicial nominating commission from 1988 to 1992. She was named commission chairman in 1991.

Not only did McCaughey formerly represent Michael, she is the ex-wife of Michael's current attorney, euthanasia advocate George Felos.

The Empire Journal reports that McCaughey joined Felos' law firm in 1997 and helped Michael win a decision allowing him to use the money intended for Terri's medical care and rehabilitative treatment for hiring an attorney in his bid to end her life.

She also helped Michael win guardianship of Terri and assisted him in filing the petition to remove her feeding tube. McCaughey represented Michael until she divorced Felos in 2001.

President Clinton later nominated Whittemore for the federal judgeship.

Whittemore twice went against Congressional legislation that required halting Terri Schiavo's painful starvation death. The measure also allowed Terri's parents to have a complete federal hearing on the merits of their lawsuit, which Judge Whittemore also ruled against.

[FormerACLUmember]

The stench of Terri's murder by various tin-horn corrupt judicial tyrants lingers. This fecal mass should have recused himself.

[Mercat]

nope, not cause to recuse. Sry, no cigar.

[Williams]

It's not clear to me this is a relationship that would have required recusal by Judge Whittemore. It was Michael's former attorney and Felos' ex-wife and the relationship to Whittemore is a recommendation for a previous judgeship. But some judges would have offered to recuse themselves nonetheless.

Sadly many people equate the judge's decision with justice. I have no such illusion.

[jess35]

I see we're playing six degrees of separation this evening.

[muawiyah]

The Sicilians involved in this case would have arranged for Whittmore's own death. He really had no choice. After all, this is an "honor killing".

[expatpat]

Yes, this one is quite a stretch. (Before flames begin, I confess to being a strong supporter of Terri's right to live).

[thoughtomator]

It's only two degrees of separation - compounded once - and in the case where conflicts of interest have been glaring throughout, it makes me wonder how substantial the separation was.

[CHARLITE]

No one will ever convince me that Terri's death wasn't a set-up between Michael, Felos and Greer right from the beginning.

For those who are believers in "sin and punishment," we could consider that all three of the above have some heavy dues to pay when they come face-to-face with their own mortality, and with the Creator. (Someone must be stoking up the fires down below already, in anticipation of the arrival of this trio.)

Do these three have consciences at all, I wonder?

Char

[Conservatrix]

Nothing in relation to the travesty of the murder of Terri Schiavo surprises me.

[jess35]

Do you consider it a sin to spread rumors?

[Bellflower]

ping

[CHARLITE]

"Do you consider it a sin to spread rumors?"

The article presents fact; not rumors.

Char

[jess35]

No one will ever convince me that Terri's death wasn't a set-up between Michael, Felos and Greer right from the beginning.

That's a fact presented in the article?

Isn't that bearing false witness?

[Mind-numbed Robot]

That's a fact presented in the article?

He didn't make that claim. Greer wasn't mentioned in this article either. He was expressing an opinion formed after viewing a lot of information about this case. I agree with him.

[Saundra Duffy]

They killed a helpless vulnerable disabled woman. Period. It was the perfect crime . . . seemingly.

[jess35]

No, but he slandered three different people and then had the unmitigated gall to spout off about sin.

[Future Useless Eater]

>>>No one will ever convince me that Terri's death wasn't a set-up between Michael, Felos and Greer right from the beginning.

Thats an absolute FACT for me as well! Thanks!

[Mind-numbed Robot]

No, but he slandered three different people...

Not if what he said about them is true, and I suspect it is.

... and then had the unmitigated gall to spout off about sin.

Don't worry, you're safe. Charlite is not the ultimate judge. Besides, he doesn't seem to be talking about you.

For those who are believers in "sin and punishment," ...

[Future Useless Eater]

LifeNews: conflicted judge ping

(this includes Ohioan from Florida's ping list, v.5-19-05)

[STARWISE]

Dear Lord .. NOTHING will surprise me about the *collaborative* actions taken to snuff the life out of sweet and innocent Terri Schiavo .. nothing. Kudos to THE EMPIRE.

[CHARLITE]

"Charlite is not the ultimate judge."

I think what I meant was that if one believes that doing harm to one's fellow man while on the earth, brings retribution hereafter, then it would logically follow that people who were complicit in ending Terri's life, for reasons having nothing to do with the general state of her health, would be looking at some serious remorse, at the very least.........once they've left the earth themselves.

Does that sound a bit softer? Heaven knows. I'm not meting out "retribution." But I am "judging" simply by taking a "right vs. wrong" position on this monumental, inexcusable and unnecessary human tragedy.

Someone would have to convince me of just whom would have been gravely harmed, had Michael simply released Terri to her parents. That's all anyone was asking of him.

I will therefore, never understand why it was "essential" to Michael and Felos that nothing would suffice but her extermination! There is simply no rational explanation for their actions, unless Felos gets a big high from the power he wields as arbiter (with Greer's help), of life and death. (To him, it's "beautiful" - don't forget), and Michael just wanted her permanently out of the way, for what was left of the malpractice money, and so that he could be free to marry again.

If there is no afterlife; if there is no eternal life, then of course, there can't be retribution. I was speaking from the point of view of (I'm guessing) millions who strongly believe that one must atone for one's "sins" in the hereafter. Who could have interpreted my statement as a "divine judgment" decreed by little me?

Char (:

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I knew what you meant and was attempting to say the same thing to the other person. Maybe I mucked it up a little.

[backhoe]

Crosslinked:

-Useless Eaters vs The Death Cult--

I regard the above, along with these:

-Men(ace) in Black? SCOTUS goes Rogue...--

-Thunder on the Border-- (Minuteman Project)--

as the three definitive issuses of out times.

Whose life is it, anyway?
The juduciary runs amok.
Whose country is it?

That is not to say there are not almost-equally pressing issues, but those three will define whether we live or die as a country.

[syriacus]

Slightly off topic, but interesting...

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[Barb4Bush]

How is it slander to say that those 3 creatures conspired to murder Terri? They did. Believe it or not murder is really a worse sin then hypocrisy or slander. Not that I saw any hypocrisy or slander in the statement that they will face judgment for their evil deeds someday.

[T'wit]

Whittemore earned one's contempt for the hardness of his heart and darkness of his soul. He had the power to help. He did not. Instead, he "ran out the clock" some ten hours while an innocent woman was dying in pain. Her rights meant nothing to him. Her pain meant nothing to him. He knew all along that he would refuse to help her and that he was preventing anyone else from helping her.

To call this man fecal matter, as somebody did, is insulting to feces.

[TheOtherOne]

The Empire Journal reports that McCaughey joined Felos' law firm in 1997

But McCaughey served on the judicial nominating commission from 1988 to 1992

POST HOC ERGO PROPTER HOC

[T'wit]

>> Constance McCaughey

What is there about men like Felos, who are bent on killing women, that attracts women like Constance McCaughey, Deborah Bushnell and Joan Schiavo?

McCaughey, we learn, worked vigorously for Terri's execution.

Bushnell is said to be the author of the policy to deprive Terri of comforts and stimulation during the last five years of her life, in order to prevent her from getting better and wrecking the case for execution, and also to weaken her physically and hasten her demise. Interestingly, it was Bushnell who took Michael Schiavo to Greer's court four hours after Terri died, to sue for her estate!

Joan Schiavo, Michael Schiavo's sister-in-law whom Felos and some of the puppets describe as "Terri's best friend," showed her friendliness by putting a knife in Terri's back with tainted testimony that helped send Terri to her death.

[Politicalmom]

You mean the estate which was "completely depleted"? Wonder why he cared, if she had NOTHING.

[Dustbunny]

The stench of Terri's murder by various tin-horn corrupt judicial tyrants lingers. This fecal mass should have recused himself.

Yep

We need judges that follow the Constitution and the laws it speaks and stop interpreting to suit themselves.

[ZULU]

The entire sordid episode of the death by starvation of this unfortunate woman is interwoven with threads involving the incestuous relationships between the conflicting characters, the Courts and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department.

If she was black and this was the 1960's Federal Marshalls would have been dispatched to Florida to take over her care and all the judges and sheriffs involved thrown in jail.

By the way, haven't they has enough time yet to doctor up the autposy results to exonerate that low-life creep who was her husband?

I haven't heard anything yet about those autopsy results.

Maybe they hoping the public will just forget. On the other hand, judging by the Senate's actions on McCain's illegal invader encouragement act, government officials probably don't give a tinker's dam about public opinion anymore.

[jess35]

How is it slander to say that those 3 creatures conspired to murder Terri? They did.

Has it occured to you that you are also going to face judgement for slandering three "creatures" with an unsubstantiated "murder" charge?

Better clean up your backyard.

[Barb4Bush]

Since I don't believe it is slander and I do believe that is it necessary to look evil in the face and call it evil, I'll face that judgment, happily.

[jess35]

That's fine. Would you get upset if someone accused you of beating your kids? If enough people accused you.....you'd be branded a child molester based on nothing more than an irrational hatred of you. That's where you are coming from. A position of hatred that is not backed up by actual evidence, just emotion.

[Barb4Bush]

Except for the fact that I have no kids with bruises and those 3 have at least one dead body laying at their feet.

[jess35]

See, there you go again. I don't see you shrieking at the Legislature for writing the laws, do I? Nope.

[Barb4Bush]

That would be because the legislature wrote laws to save her life that the judiciary overturned in the case of the State and on the Federal level ignored. You will, if you look back in my posts, see that I have criticized the executive branch on both the state and federal levels for not having the guts to write an executive order to save her life.

[pc93]

Bump. It's hard to imagine what kind of insult would be appropriate re: Whittemore (sic).

[pc93]

Do some freaking research.

[Nick Danger]

No one should criticize Whittemore, or his decision, without understanding the plea that the Schindlers' attorney filed.

The chance that Terri was given by the Congress was blundered away in one of the most stupid pieces of lawyering anyone could ever hope to see.

Whittemore committed the unpardonable sin of ruling on the case that the Plaintiff brought. For this he is vilified six ways from Sunday. But if you actually look at the case Plaintiff brought, you think, "How could anybody be that stupid? The lawyers threw the whole thing away!"

[jess35]

I have hon, and that's why I call it slander to accuse the Judges and the attorney of murder. It has the same basis in fact as calling you a murderer. Is that a label you are prepared to wear?

[T'wit]

>> You mean the estate which was "completely depleted"?

Even if the estate were "depleted" now -- translation: the lawyers embezzled everything -- it will very likely be worth a fortune in the future. I've thought all along that the book and movie rights to Terri's life story would be worth millions.

[latina4dubya]

duh...

[eeriegeno]

I have always been taught that an 'act of congress' carried some weight in the legal community? I guess I was taught wrong since some district judge can snub his nose at an 'act of congress'?

It is regretful what these barbarians did to Terri. And I can only wish that she rest in peace, away from all of the madness that is going on in this country!!!!!

[CHARLITE]

"Interestingly, it was Bushnell who took Michael Schiavo to Greer's court four hours after Terri died, to sue for her estate!

Joan Schiavo, Michael Schiavo's sister-in-law whom Felos and some of the puppets describe as "Terri's best friend," showed her friendliness by putting a knife in Terri's back with tainted testimony that helped send Terri to her death."

Your comments are very informative. I didn't know these details. Thank you so much for taking the time to share these facts with those of us who are trying to cope with this monstrous event.

Char