The Christian Falangist Party of America is totally against political assassination or otherwise physically harming enemies of morality such as judge Greer. We do not want the evil-forces in this country to have any more martyrs. The CFPA does want this poor excuse of a judge, impeached, investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. A just punishment would be for him to be placed in the middle of the Sahara desert without food or water.
“The law of this case is that she will die….I don’t want anyone trying to feed that girl”, Florida probate court judge George Greer thundered from the bench in 2001.
The
Pinellas County death judge who acted in contempt of Congress by defying a
federal subpoena designed to save the life of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo issued
an order Wednesday afternoon saying that anyone giving the disabled woman
treatment that will save her life is breaking the law and will be held in
contempt of court---including Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida’s Department of
Children and Families, Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement and apparently,
even President Bush.
County probate court judge George W. Greer issued his order after Gov. Bush and the state’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) filed a petition to take the 41-year-old mentally handicapped woman into protective custody as they are statutorily empowered to do.
The woman has been without food and water since last Friday by order of Greer who mandated on request of Michael Schiavo, estranged husband, that the feeding tube of Terri Schiavo be removed and that she die by starvation and dehydration.
Greer’s order also prohibits any other type of interference from people or agencies acting on her behalf. He ordered Pinellas County Sheriff Jim Coates to ensure that the state law enforcement agency, FDLE, did not try to remove Terri from the hospice facility. Greer is not a state judge as other media have misstated. He is a county probate judge—a step up from a town or village justice and has never had legal jurisdiction in the case as he violated state law and failed to qualify for office. He cannot claim to be a de facto judge as he has never held legal title to the judicial office. A public officer must first be a de jure officer or hold title before he can claim to be a de facto officer. In Greer’s case, by failing to qualify, he should not have even appeared on the ballot and was not legally elected.
Michael Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos, reportedly contacted Greer in an alleged prohibited ex parte communication, telling Greer that he had received word that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) was planning to escort DCF investigators into Woodside Hospice where Terri resides to remove her and rehydrate her which would save her life.
Greer said that “since it appears imminent that the department is likely to do something in contravention of that rule of law, this court is going to grant the oral motion”.
DCF is empowered by Chapter 415 of Florida Statutes to enact emergency protective services intervention if the department has reasonable cause to believe that a vulnerable adult is suffering from abuse or neglect that presents a risk of death or serious physical injury to the vulnerable adult and if that adult lacks the capacity to consent to emergency protective services. If, upon arrival at the scene of the incident consent is not obtained for access to the alleged victim for purposes of conducting a protective investigation under the law and the department has reason to believe that the situation presents a risk of death or serious physical injury, a representative of the department representative of the department and a law enforcement officer may forcibly enter the premises.
If it is determined that the vulnerable adult is likely to incur a risk of death or serious physical injury if the person is not immediately removed from the premises, then the representative of the department shall transport or arrange for the transportation of the vulnerable adult to an appropriate medical or protective services facility to provide emergency protective services. Florida statutes mandate that law enforcement personnel have a duty to transport when medical transportation is not available or needed and the vulnerable adult presents a threat of injury to self or others.
If the vulnerable adult’s caregiver or guardian is present, the protective investigator must seek the guardian’s consent before the person may be removed from the premises unless the protective investigator suspects that the vulnerable adult’s caregiver or guardian has caused the abuse, neglect or exploitation. The department shall, within 24 hours after providing or arranging for emergency removal of the vulnerable adult…. Petition the court for an order authorizing emergency protective services.
Gov. Bush had said that “it is imperative that she (Terri) be stabilized so that the Adult Protective Services team can fulfill their statutory duty and thoroughly review all the facts surrounding her case. If there’s any uncertainty, we should err on the side of protecting her”, the governor said in a mid-afternoon press conference.
“The law allows the department to exercise both emergency protective services----intervention----and emergency removal. Either one or both”, DCF attorney Jennifer Lima-Smith told Greer.
The agency also asked Greer to unseal probate records including financial information in the guardianship case to determine if Terri Schiavo has been abused or exploited. The attorney said the agency needed the records for their current investigation.
DCF had filed a motion last month to intervene in the case saying they were investigating 30 allegations of abuse, neglect and exploitation of Terri Schiavo and that Michael Schiavo was the suspect. They asked for a 60-day stay of the death order but Greer not only denied the stay, but refused them their statutory right to intervene in the case.
Greer said he would rule on the issue of unsealing the records by noon Thursday but refused to allow DCF to take the dying woman into custody while he considered the motion. However, according to law, DCF does not need court permission to enact protective custody.
During the hearing, an attorney for the Morton Plant hospital appeared seeking advice on what to do if hospital doctors are ordered by the DCF and Gov. Bush to reinsert Terri’s feeding tube. Greer said he would be on standby if that situation occurred even though the courts would be closed for Good Friday.
Felos has pledged to take legal action if the feeding tube is reinserted and the woman’s life saved, claiming it would be a violation of Mrs. Schiavo’s constitutional right to refuse medical treatment". Felos by the way is on the Board of Directors of the hospice where Terri is incarcerated.
However, there has never been any proof submitted to any court that Terri Schiavo has refused medical treatment and in fact to the contrary on Friday, Terri indicated to her parents, her attorneys and in the presence of a police officers, indicated that she wanted to live.
DCF has also indicated that it had received new evidence from a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville that says that Terri may have been misdiagnosed, saying that she is in a minimally conscious state and not a persistent vegetative state as Schiavo, Felos and Greer have maintained.
Earlier in the day, Mary and Robert Schindler Sr., Terri’s parents, lost two rounds at the federal appeals courts. A 3-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta, Ga., voted 2-1 against reinserting Terri’s feeding tube, saying that the Schindlers had not proven a substantial likelihood of success on appeal.
They then appealed to the full 11th Circuit Court for reconsideration and were denied 10-2.
A spokesman for President Bush said the White House and Congress had done all they could and claimed there were no other legal options. However, according to law, because Greer acted in contempt of Congress and defied Congressional subpoenas for Terri to testify at a Congressional hearing, she is in fact a federal witness and could be taken into protective custody under the federal Witness Protection Program.
Although Gov. Bush had anticipated that the Florida Senate would pass a bill that would save the life of Terri and other disabled adults, instead the Senate defeated the measure 21-18 that would have prohibited incapacitated individuals from being denied nutrition and hydration if they did not express their wishes in writing.
Meanwhile, at the hospice Wednesday, Pinellas Park Police took 10 protestors into custody including a father and his three children, and a 69-year-old survivor of a Yugoslavian concentration camp for trying to take water to the disabled woman dying of thirst by order of Judge Greer.