Court Orders Release of Some Schiavo Probe Records
By: Administrative Account | Source: CNSNews.com
April 16, 2005 6:02AM EST

By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
April 15, 2005

(CNSNews.com) - The public does have a right to see results from some of the investigations into allegations of abuse of Terri Schiavo, the disabled Florida woman who died after her feeding tube was removed last month. Pinellas County Circuit Judge George Greer, the same jurist who ruled that Schiavo was in a Persistent Vegetative State and would not want to live in that condition, issued the new order Thursday.

In response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by the news media, Greer decided that investigations by the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) launched prior to Schiavo's feeding tube being removed March 18, 2005, should be accessible.

"Public access to the abuse reports will shed light on the investigation," Greer wrote in his order. "The public interest includes the need for citizens to know of and adequately evaluate the actions of DCF and the court system in providing vulnerable adults with the protections provided (by Florida statutes)."

DCF attorneys had fought the release of the records. The nine confidential reports detail nearly 90 anonymous complaints claiming Schiavo was being abused or neglected lodged with the agency between 2001 and 2004. Investigators could not substantiate any of those charges.

Hamden Baskin III, one of the attorneys representing Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, told the Orlando Sentinel that Michael's team was pleased with the ruling.

"We feel that release of those records will be helpful for all concerned," Baskin said, "to evaluate the frivolity of the continuing investigation."

Pamela Hennessy, media coordinator with the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, told Cybercast News Service that the release of the reports will be "of very little value to the public."

"These are older complaints and not the current investigation of abuse and neglect," Hennessy said. "Therefore, they will likely shed no light into what the department is actually investigating. They only show what DCF chose not to investigate."

Hennessy also called Baskin's characterization of the DCF investigation as frivolous "rather offensive."

"If there is even the slightest evidence that a vulnerable person has been, in any way, mistreated by their guardian or caregivers, the Department of Children and Families has a statutorily mandated duty to determine what has occurred and take steps to put a stop to any violations against that person," Hennessy said.

"Terri was never less than a person and was never less than entitled to statutory protections under Florida's laws, [and] to suggest otherwise is arrogant and bigoted," Hennessy added.

Greer's ruling does not order the release of any conclusions the agency may have reached during its partial investigation of 30 new anonymous allegations that were filed in mid-March against Michael Schiavo, charging him with abusing his wife and neglecting her in his official role as her legal guardian.

At the time, another of Michael's attorneys, so-called "right-to-die" author and activist George Felos, claimed the complaints were a re-hash of old allegations and accused DCF of being politically motivated in its investigation.

Hennessy emphasized that the public needs the results of all of the investigations to make an informed decision about the quality of care Terri received before her death.

"Until and unless the Department of Children and Families concludes on the present investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect of Terri Schiavo, nothing released in this moment is the final word," Hennessy said. "People should try to be mindful of that."

Greer refused a request by DCF to give the agency 60 days to complete an investigation into the new allegations. Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed on the afternoon of March 18. She died on the morning of March 31, before DCF completed its probe into the new charges.

In accordance with state law, an autopsy of Terri's body was conducted by the Pinellas County Medical Examiner before it was cremated at Michael's request. The results of that autopsy will be made public when it is completed. That report is expected within the next 30 to 45 days.

Famed forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who formerly directed the New York City and New York State crime labs, said that the autopsy will neither prove nor disprove the diagnosis that Terri was in a Persistent Vegetative State. He believes it could, however, yield definitive evidence with respect to the allegations of abuse.

"They'll be looking for a number of things, one of which is to identify more clearly what brain damage Terri Schiavo has suffered. [They'll want to] to see whether it was due to a cardiac arrest suffered 15 years ago as was determined in the malpractice litigation, or whether there was any evidence of a brain trauma," Baden told Fox News Channel.

"They'll be able to tell that from the brain examination, even 15 years later," Baden added.

Michael Schiavo, personally and through his attorneys, has denied all allegations that he caused his wife's brain injury and that he abused or neglected her after the injury.

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