Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Attorney: Claims of Schiavo abuse bogus

The lawyer for Terri Schiavo's husband says there's nothing new in a DCF move to investigate abuse allegations.

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE and WES ALLISON
Published March 5, 2005

CLEARWATER - State officials received 89 abuse complaints about Terri Schiavo in previous years and none were found to be credible, her husband's lawyer said Friday.

Attorney George Felos did not detail the complaints made to the Department of Children and Families, saying he had been considering releasing them to reporters but questions remain about whether they are confidential.

Felos' comments came the day after reporters obtained a copy of DCF's motion to intervene in the Schiavo case to investigate the latest abuse and neglect complaints it has received.

The DCF petition said the agency had received 30 new allegations of abuse, neglect or exploitation of Schiavo, 41, who lives in a Pinellas Park nursing home.

"It's a disingenuous petition," Felos said at a news conference condemning DCF's move to intervene in the case. "I think it's double-speak. I don't think there's anything new in the DCF filing."

Felos represents Michael Schiavo, who is his wife's guardian. Felos called the DCF petition politically motivated.

An attorney for Schiavo's parents, meanwhile, again hailed DCF's move to investigate the latest abuse allegations. Attorney David Gibbs III said he had no idea who was behind the latest complaint received on a DCF abuse hotline.

"I think it's ridiculous to think it's politically motivated," said Gibbs, who said media attention moved the agency to act. "This case is probably one of the most-watched around the world."

Comments by the two lawyers came as Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer held a hearing on several scheduling matters. Greer will hold several hearings next week, starting Monday, on several pending motions, including whether new medical advances hold hope to show Schiavo is not in a vegetative state.

Greer also has scheduled a hearing Wednesday to consider DCF's motion to enter the case. The agency has asked for a 60-day stay to bar the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube while it investigates.

Without another stay, Schiavo's tube is set to be removed at 1 p.m. March 18.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Palm Bay, said a bill he plans to file on Terri Schiavo's behalf next week is picking up bipartisan support in Congress.

The bill, nicknamed Terri's Law, would allow federal courts to intervene, and Weldon contends it is written narrowly enough to pass Congress.

Under the terms of the bill, a person like Schiavo could be awarded legal representation in federal court only if the case meets four conditions: The patient must be incapacitated; the patient must have left no written medical directive; there must be a state court order to withhold food and water; and there must be dispute, as there is in Schiavo's case. A federal court could then determine if the patient's rights had been properly considered.

In an interview Friday, Weldon said he has promises from several Republicans and Democrats in the House to sign it, and two U.S. senators he declined to name are considering sponsoring it in that chamber.

"I think the circumstances on this case are sufficiently bothersome to justify this," said Weldon, who is a physician.

"I am kind of curious to see if anyone would really want to oppose this. After all, you're ... extending the same benefits to her that death row inmates get."

Congress is in recess until Tuesday. Weldon said he agreed to introduce the bill after being approached by Ken Connor, a lawyer and longtime conservative activist with strong Florida ties, who wrote the bill with a legal expert at Catholic University in Washington.

Connor represented Gov. Jeb Bush as Florida defended a hastily passed state law that allowed Bush to order Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted in 2003 after it had been removed for six days. The Florida Supreme Court, however, later declared the law unconstitutional.

[Last modified March 5, 2005, 00:41:15]