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State fines Schiavo charity for filing lapse

Officials say the charity did not register with the state to solicit donations for Terri Schiavo's defense.

TAMPA - A charity founded three years ago to help pay legal costs for the parents of Terri Schiavo in a prominent right-to-die case has been fined $1,000 for failing to register with the state to solicit donations.

An administrative complaint filed Monday by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services gave the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation the option of paying the fine and registering, or paying the fine and shutting down. It could also request an administrative hearing.

The foundation's purpose is to help Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, block her husband's attempts to remove the feeding tube that has kept her alive since she suffered severe brain damage when her heart briefly stopped 15 years ago.

The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services sent a letter to the foundation last fall asking it to comply, spokesman Terence McElroy said. An attorney for the charity indicated in a letter that the proper paperwork would be submitted by Dec. 4, but it was never filed, he said.

"We just want to bring the organization into compliance," McElroy said. "Like everybody else, they have to file the paperwork so the public can get an accounting of how this money is spent."

Barbara Weller, an attorney for the Schindlers, said Tuesday the proper paperwork will be filed soon. The Schindlers have been locked in a long legal battle with their son-in-law, Michael Schiavo. He wants to remove his wife's feeding tube so she can die.

On Friday, the 2nd District Court of Appeal again refused to consider an appeal by the Schindlers based on statements by Pope John Paul II that people in vegetative states have a right to nutrition and hydration. Weller said they will now ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

[Last modified February 9, 2005, 00:43:19]