No abuse in Schiavo case.

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

   So whats this now?
She got all the care she needed? She wasnt abused? She wasnt beaten and punched and infected? Her husband didnt do all this?
But people on the internet said he did! Must be a dirty liberal leftist coverup. Stupid liberal media. 

 http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/nation/114 07434.htm

Records show no evidence Terri Schiavo was abused, mistreated

BY MAYA BELL

The Orlando Sentinel

ORLANDO, Fla. - (KRT) - In the four years after Michael Schiavo won the right to remove his wife's feeding tube, the state's social welfare agency methodically investigated 89 complaints of abuse, but never found that he or anybody else harmed Terri Schiavo, records released late Friday show.
To the contrary, the state Department of Children & Families repeatedly concluded that Michael Schiavo ensured his wife's physical and medical needs were met, provided proper therapy for her and had no control over her money.
They also found no evidence that he beat or strangled her, as his detractors have repeatedly charged.
The 45 pages of confidential abuse reports made public by court order Friday show that despite the litany of complaints, investigators never found that Terri Schiavo had been abused.
That raises what Michael Schiavo's attorney said is a key question: Why, during her last weeks of life, did DCF twice try to intervene in the seven-year dispute pitting Terri Schiavo's husband against her parents?
"The answer is obvious," said attorney Hamden Baskin III. "From the get-go, this was nothing but a political intervention. There was and continues to be no reason for them to have been involved."
DCF spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez would not address the charges of political interference directly, saying only, "The reports speaks for itself. ... We have a duty to protect the vulnerable and investigate allegations of abuse."
Terri Schiavo died March 31, nearly two weeks after the feeding tube that had kept the badly brain-damaged woman alive for 15 years was removed.
The courts had ruled that she was in a persistent vegetative state and had not wanted to be kept alive artificially. But her parents countered that she responded to them and wanted to live, setting off an international debate over right-to-die issues.
Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, could not be reached for comment Friday night. They were attending a memorial service for their daughter in Pennsylvania.
The records, which media outlets in Tampa Bay fought to make public, show that DCF took its duty to investigate the alleged abuse of Terri Schiavo seriously.
Eighty-nine times, DCF investigated calls to their hotline alleging abuse that have become familiar fodder on the Internet: Terri Schiavo was dirty and unkempt. She did not receive proper dental care ore rehabilitative therapy. She was kept in isolation. Her husband beat her, and broke her bones. He wanted her dead for her money, or to remarry.
He pumped her full of insulin, hoping to kill her. He often asked, "When will (she) die?" Her lips were cracked and dry.
The names of the complainants were blacked out under Pinellas Circuit Judge George W. Greer's orders.
But DCF investigators looked into the charges and closed them as unfounded with such comments as "the spouse has always been courteous and very compassionate toward his wife" and "all her needs being met."
In at least one case, the caller found the evidence of Terri Schiavo's alleged abuse on the Internet.
In January 2004, a female caller reported that Terri Schiavo had an infection on her stomach, at the site of her feeding tube, that was not being treated. But, when questioned, she said she had no first-hand knowledge of her complaint.
"(She) stated that her information on current infections and lack of treatment was from Yahoo chatline," the report said.
In another instance, Terri Schiavo's parents were the subject of a complaint by a caller who alleged the Schindlers were exploiting their daughter by selling videotapes of her on the Internet for $100. That, too was, ruled unfounded.
DCF first attempted to intervene in the long-running dispute between the Schindlers and Michael Schiavo in late February, when the agency asked Judge Greer to postpone his order authorizing the withdrawal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube on March 18. At the time, the agency said it had received a few days before about 30 new allegations of her abuse or exploitation on its hotline and needed time to investigate them.
Six days after her tube was removed, DCF attempted to step in again, citing an opinion by a doctor on their adult protective services team that Terri Schiavo was minimally conscious, rather than in a persistent vegetative state.
At the time, Michael Schiavo's lawyers argued the investigation was orchestrated to circumvent Greer's order. The judge agreed and twice refused DCF's intervention, saying he had reviewed all of the supposedly new abuse allegations and found them to be baseless.
The records released Friday did not include any of the 30 latest allegations. Those are still under investigation, but Greer has ruled that they are not new, either.
"In the latest round, DCF says he exploited her financially, but - as these records show_they were well aware Michael had no control over the money," Baskin said.
---
© 2005, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).
Visit the Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.orlandosentinel.com. On America Online, use keyword: OSO.