COMMENTARY - The Schiavo Case

COMMENTARY - The Schiavo Case: Anatomy Of A Cover-Up

By June Maxam
May 28, 2006

The stench of Florida's criminal justice system is permeating the entire country.

Unfortunately the cover-ups and injustices aren't confined solely to Florida.

Part of the problem in Florida is in the state attorney's offices and county medical examiners---and it may extend all the way to Tallahassee and the Office of Gov. Jeb Bush.

The old story of one lies, the other swears to it. The nucleus of the stench appears to be in Pinellas County.

A large factor in the cover-up equation which is being exposed in Florida involves Guy Tunnell, forced to resign in April by Gov. Bush as the commissioner of Florida's Department of Law Enforcement. Unbelievably, Tunnell has now been appointed by Steve Meadows, state attorney for the 14th Judicial Circuit, to be a coordinator of cold case squads in the 14th judicial circuit's six counties.

One of those counties is Bay County, site of the alleged cover-up in the death of Martin Lee Anderson at the Bay County juvenile boot camp that Tunnell established. Tunnell served as sheriff of Bay County for 15 years.

Anderson's family has charged that a cover-up existed in the boy's death and had the boy's body exhumed for a second autopsy after seeing a videotape showing at least nine guards kicking and beating the boy while he was being restrained while a nurse looked on, a videotape that Tunnell tried to hide.

Anderson was in his first day at the camp Jan. 5, sent there for a probation violation, when he complained of breathing difficulties during exercises as part of the entry process into the facility. He collapsed and died.

Reports from the Bay County Sheriff's office said that Anderson was being restrained because he had resisted attempts to get him to complete the exercise and for being "uncooperative." The boot camp has since been closed.

The first autopsy, conducted by Bay County Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Siebert, made a determination Jan. 6 that Anderson had died of complications from sickle cell trait which had not been previously diagnosed.

Siebert has his roots in Pinellas County where he served in the District 6 Medical Examiner's office, the office now held by Dr. Jon Thogmartin who was handpicked by state attorney Bernie McCabe. Seems that wherever there's a mention of a cover-up in Pinellas County, McCabe's name is somehow associated.

Anderson's family refused to accept Siebert's autopsy findings and instead hired renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden. Following the second 12-hour autopsy, prosecutors from the Hillsborough County state attorney's office confirmed statements made by Dr. Baden that the boy had not died of "sickle trait" or natural causes.

Dr. Baden had also been involved in the case of Terri Schindler Schiavo. After Terri's parents became aware of a report of a bone scan that had been performed on Terri in 1991, 13 months after her collapse, Dr. Baden said in 1999 cardiac arrests triggered by low potassium, the cause of her injuries being pedaled by her husband and attorneys, are rare. Baden said an investigation was needed. But his recommendations fell on deaf ears. He said he was not suggesting that a potassium imbalance caused a fall that led to a head injury or that some pre-existing head injury led to her passing out.

Baden said Terri's injuries had been caused by some kind of trauma, "…trauma can be from some kind of beating that she obtained from somebody somewhere. It's something that should have been investigated in 1991 when those findings were fresh".

He said that a head injury can lead to the persistent vegetative state that the court and her husband claimed that she was in but added that the bone scan showed evidence of other injuries, bone fractures.

The second autopsy in the Anderson case, conducted by Dr. Vernard Adams, Hillsborough County medical examiner, conflicted with Siebert's findings, saying that the boy didn't die a natural death from complications of the blood disorder but rather by suffocation at the hands of sheriff's officials.

"Martin Anderson's death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards at the boot camp", Adams said in his report. He said the suffocation was caused by hands of the sheriff's officers blocking the boy's mouth as well as the "forced inhalation of ammonia fumes" that caused his vocal cords to spasm, blocking his upper airway. He said that the boy was not beaten to death.

The medical examiner did not rule out suffocation in the death of Terri Schiavo.

State Attorney Meadows had removed himself from the Anderson investigation, citing close ties to law enforcement and Mark Ober, state attorney from the 13th Judicial Circuit of Hillsborough County, was assigned by Gov. Bush to investigate the case.

Tunnell and the FDLE were removed from the case after Tunnell allegedly sent an e-mail to Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen, his successor, stating FDLE's intention to withhold the video which showed Bay County sheriff's officers beating the defenseless 14-year-old Anderson at the boot camp. There is also reportedly an e-mail by Tunnell to the Bay County Sheriff stating that FDLE would oppose the release of the video to media organizations. When two state legislators asked to see the videotape of Anderson's beating, Tunnell retorted, "Ain't gonna happen".

Tunnell resigned after he made inappropriate remarks about civil rights leaders who were supporting protests on behalf of Anderson's family demanding answers and arrests in the beating death of the teen.

In the presence of Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings, Tunnell reportedly compared the Rev. Jesse Jackson to infamous outlaw Jesse James and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, to terrorist Osama bin Laden.

Critics of Tunnell's new appointment say it's like rubbing salt into a wound and that it's totally insensitive and inappropriate for Meadows to thumb his nose at the Governor and the public, and certainly the Anderson family, to now hire Tunnell, placing him in a key position in the state attorney's office covering Bay County. Tunnell tried to cover-up the Anderson beating death. Critics say he should be banned from law enforcement, not placed in a prosecutorial branch of the system and certainly no where near Bay County.

It's ironic and seemingly inappropriate that Tunnell will head up the cold case division of the office after another family has come forward and accused Bay County medical examiner Siebert of covering up an alleged 1977 beating by Pinellas County police officers at a time when former Pinellas County sheriff Everett Rice was employed by the sheriff's department. According to a complaint filed with the state by John Niesen, brother of the late Michael Niesen, his brother's death was caused by a beating by police officers, not from injuries allegedly suffered in an auto accident as Siebert ruled.

According to Niesen, Siebert blocked a state investigation into his brother's death by supporting the autopsy finding that Michael Niesen died from car accident injuries. There is no dispute that his brother was ejected from a vehicle the night of his death but his Niesen says the cuts and bruises on his brother's head were the result of a beating administered by police officers and not from the car crash.

The Niesen death investigation would have been conducted by the Pinellas County state attorney's office where McCabe was employed. From 1972 through September, 1992, he held the positions of chief assistant state attorney, executive assistant state attorney and division director in St. Petersburg and in Pasco County.

Two other families also claim that Siebert issued improper findings in autopsies involving their family members.

Benjamin Crump, the Tallahassee attorney representing the Anderson family, says that the families believe that Siebert "always covers up for law enforcement. The first time is an instance; the second time is an occurrence. But the third time is a pattern".

Crist, adamant in sidestepping the Schiavo case, apparently for political reasons, is now vying to be the state's next governor and has asked the Florida Medical Examiners Commission, of which he is a member, to investigate autopsies conducted by Siebert that may have contained "fundamental flaws".

Crist made his request in April to the commission by letter, asking the state agency to determine if Siebert violated state law while performing at least three autopsies "and any other flawed autopsies of which we might not be aware".

A federal probe into the Anderson death has been initiated by the U.S. Attorney's office in Tallahassee and the U.S Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. Based on existing facts, it appears that probe should be expanded into Pinellas County, McCabe and the Schiavo case as well as the state Department of Health formerly led by President Bush's assistant secretary of health.

There is evolving a disturbing pattern of cover-ups involving the medical examiners of Florida, the state attorney's office and the FDLE. Perhaps part of the problem is that they are all interlinked and all ultimately answerable to one individual----Gov. Jeb Bush. Although state attorneys are elected officials, medical examiners and the FDLE commissioner are political appointments and in the case of at least Pinellas County medical examiner Jon Thogmartin, their livelihood is dependent on the recommendation of the state attorney for their district.

In the case of Thogmartin, medical examiner for the autopsy of Terri Schindler Schiavo, Pinellas County state attorney Bernie McCabe served as the chairman of the search committee for a new medical examiner in 2000 after Sixth Circuit Court Judge George Greer had issued his death order in the Schiavo case. McCabe had forced the former medical examiner, Joan Wood, out of office in connection with the highly controversial Lisa McPherson case. Not only did McCabe insure that there would be no criminal investigation into the Schiavo case involving Michael Schiavo but he also had a key role in choosing the medical examiner who conducted the Schiavo autopsy, Dr. Thogmartin.

The tangled web of deception and corruption becomes even further entwined when one examines the makeup of the Florida Medical Examiners Commission and its members.

The legal basis for the Medical Examiners Commission is found in Section 406.02 of Florida Statutes. Its members are appointed by the governor-two physicians who are active medical examiners, one member who is a licensed funeral director, one state attorney, one public defender, one sheriff, one county commissioner, the attorney general and the deputy assistant Secretary for Health.

The Medical Examiners Commission is created within the Department of Law Enforcement, therefore is under the direct control of the FDLE commissioner who, at the time of the Schiavo autopsy, was Guy Tunnell.

The Department of Law Enforcement by law also employs the staff for the medical examiners commission. http://www.flsenate.gov/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=Ch0406/ch0406.htm

Dr. Stephen Nelson, a neuropathologist and medical examiner for Polk County, assisted Thogmartin in the Schiavo autopsy, examining Schiavo's brain and spinal cord. Nelson was and is chairman of the Florida Medical Examiner's Commission, controlled by the FDLE and Tunnell at the time of the Schiavo autopsy.

Other commission members are Thogmartin and Bob Dillinger, public defender for the Sixth Judicial Circuit; Attorney General Charlie Crist or his designee and the assistant Secretary of the Department of Health. http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/cjst/mec/MECList.pdf

Crist steadfastly refused to open any investigation into the Schiavo case regardless of his statutory mandate to protect the vulnerable and disabled. A report issued by the DOH inspector general's office in 2005 indicated that previous complaints against Michael Schiavo concerning alleged abuse and neglect of his brain damaged wife may have been swept under the rug resulting in a massive cover-up of alleged improprieties and possible criminal wrongdoing in the case. The internal report indicated that the Consumer Services Unit of the state Department of Health routinely failed to report potential criminal behavior by health care providers to police or prosecutors as required by law.

The DOH also destroyed the case file Dr. Joel Prawer, the doctor who Michael Schiavo had sued for malpractice after the agency later cleared that doctor of any wrongdoing in the Schiavo case. He had reportedly turned over his entire case file on Terri to the agency, asking them to investigate the cause of her injuries. That case file would be crucial to a criminal investigation of the Schiavo case but the DOH destroyed the file, further adding to the immense cover-up in the Schiavo case.

John Agwunobi was DOH secretary at the time of the AG's report, having been appointed by Jeb Bush in October 2001. Following the revelation of the massive DOH cover-up, Agwunobi was named by President Bush to be the assistant secretary of health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dillinger and McCabe have direct ties to Sixth Judicial Circuit Court Judge George W. Greer who issued the death order in the Schiavo case and, along with Greer, allegedly violated state election and campaign laws by using the resources of their respective officers to influence the reelection of Greer in 2004. Employees of the Sixth Circuit public defender's office of Dillinger and the state attorney's office of McCabe appeared in a televised political commercial for Greer.

Not only did Greer allegedly violate Florida Statutes pertaining to prohibited political activity of public officers and campaign finance laws, but it appears that so did McCabe, Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice and Dillinger.

As such, each one could be prosecuted under state law on misdemeanor charges punishable by up to a year in jail and/or $1,000 fine.

So why haven't they been? Why hasn't the Governor's office taken punitive action against the state employees involved for using their state position to influence the outcome of an election?

Why hasn't the Governor's office taken action to remove George Greer from the bench for his failure to legally qualify for office?

It appears each one of the players has a vested interest in the Schiavo case and to insure that there is no investigation into any aspect of it or any of the principals involved in the case. It also appears that all of them, including Michael Schiavo and his nursing license, are being insulated by ties to the Tallahassee Capitol. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/011606ConvincingViolations.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/011706JudgingGeorgeGreer.html

Terri Schiavo sustained serious brain damage in mysterious and suspicious circumstances following an incident at her home on Feb. 25, 1990, at age 26, with the only known person present being her husband, Michael Schiavo.

Although he has tried to portray their marriage as virtually idealistic, even his own brother Scott has admitted in a newspaper interview that Terri and Michael had argued heavily the day that Terri collapsed. Her best friend and co-worker Jackie Rhodes, her brother Bobby and her mother concur that Terri and Michael had argued that day about money she had spent having her hair done. Joan Schiavo
admitted on the witness stand in 2000 that there were problems in the marriage but tried to atone for it saying that no marriage is perfect.

Michael Schiavo tried for nearly 12 years to end his wife's life and succeeded last year. Terri Schindler Schiavo died on March 31, 2005, at age 41 after her feeding tube was withdrawn by the court order Michael had sought in contentious courtroom proceedings with Terri's parents for over seven years.

Complaints of abuse, violations of court orders, exploitation, neglect and other allegations of criminal wrongdoing by
Michael Schiavo were presented throughout the years to Pinellas County and state law enforcement agencies
throughout the years but were thwarted by McCabe, attorney general Crist and Rice, 25-year-friend of Greer and employer of mother of Jodi Centonze, Schiavo's long-time concubine.

A detailed complaint of abuse was made to the FDLE in August, 2003 regarding the abuse and neglect of Terri Schiavo by attorney Patricia Field Anderson, an attorney for the Schindler family. The publisher of The North Country Gazette learned that Mark Dubina, FDLE special agent supervisor, Tampa Bay Regional Domestic Security Task Force supervisor and Homeland Security advisor to Gov. Bush, charged that he was told to "shut down" his investigation into the Schiavo case, to close his file and turn it in. He says that McCabe allegedly ordered that all criminal investigations in regard to the Schiavo matter, including the FDLE investigation, be shut down. Such an alleged obstruction of justice would appear to be grounds for a federal investigation of McCabe and the Pinellas County state attorney's office.

But there's that shield of immunity that surrounds Michael Schiavo. Despite his own advisor documenting that probable cause for a criminal investigation existed in the Schiavo case, Gov. Bush steadfastly refuses to empanel a state Grand Jury as he is empowered to do to investigate officials involved in the Schiavo case, obviously more concerned about political fallout than he is in truth and the unjustified murder of an innocent disabled woman. But then perhaps Bush is part of the string of dominoes----Bush, McCabe, Dillinger, Greer, Crist, Agwunobi, Nelson, Thogmartin, Siebert and Tunnell----and afraid that once the first domino falls, they'll all fall.

Thogmartin and Nelson carried forth the claim, although no investigation has ever been conducted, that there was no criminal wrongdoing in the Schiavo case. Thogmartin said he and his medical team had concluded that nothing was done to harm Schiavo physically. He said he regretted they had not been able to determine what caused her to collapse, said the cause of death could not be determined with medical certainty, the manner of death was not determined and the case remains open.

Thogmartin said that they found no "conclusive" evidence of why a woman everyone believed was healthy
suddenly collapsed with a failing heart, starving her brain of oxygen and blood. Neither did Dr. Baden.

However, most importantly, Thogmartin did not rule out that suffocation or attempted smothering had occurred in Terri's case. Responding to a question what other etiologies are possible, Thogmartin said that "subtle trauma related to commotio cordis (a swift blow to the chest) or nontraumatic asphyxia (suffocation) is also possible but no evidence of these exists", and no evidence of those would exist 15 years after the fact.

In the Anderson case, the second autopsy found that Martin Lee Anderson died of suffocation. Unfortunately, in the case of Terri Schiavo, no second autopsy is possible because Michael Schiavo was determined to prevent that, insuring that her remains were cremated.

Pinellas County is not without precedent for controversies surrounding autopsies and smack in the middle of the case which precipitated the removal of former Pinellas County Medical Examiner Joan Wood and the appointment of Thogmartin is none other than McCabe, chairman of the search committee and who appointed an interim medical examiner to serve for the period between the time Wood resigned and Thogmartin assumed the office.

Wood had been forced out of office in September 2000 after McCabe and his staff dropped charges against the Church of Scientology, blaming Wood's reversal in her autopsy relating to the 1995 death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson, a case which had some shocking similarities to the Terri Schiavo case in that it was first determined that McPherson died of dehydration.

McPherson, 36, had died after a 17-day stay at the church's spiritual headquarters in the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater following an automobile accident.

According to records issued in the McPherson case, Wood and McCabe had tangled long before she reversed her autopsy findings and he helped force her out of office because he disapproved of her appearing on Inside Edition to discuss the McPherson case.

McCabe dropped felony charges of abuse of a disabled adult and practicing medicine without a license against the church. Wood had unexpectedly and without explanation changed her autopsy findings, saying that McPherson's death was accidental and that "psychosis and history of auto accident" were significant conditions that contributed to her death. She expunged "bed rest and severe dehydration" from the initial autopsy which had been listed as underlying causes of death.

Following the June 15, 2005, release of the autopsy report in the Schiavo case which raised more questions than it provided answers in the 15-year-old case, Gov. Bush asked the Pinellas-Pasco County state attorney's office and state attorney McCabe to investigate the discrepancies in times surrounding Michael Schiavo's actions and response in summoning emergency medical assistance for Terri during the early morning hours of her sudden collapse.

As expected, McCabe claimed in early July that there was no evidence that any criminal activity was involved in Terri's collapse. McCabe's determination came as no surprise as he had repeatedly stonewalled any criminal investigation into the Schiavo case.

The case of Terri Schiavo and the handling of it is remarkably mirrored in the case of Lori Klausutis, a 28-year-old worker for Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fl) who was found dead in the congressman's district office in Fort Walton Beach on June 20, 2001, shortly after 8 a.m. Preliminary findings from the medical examiner's office by associate ME Dr. Michael Berkland of Okaloosa County showed "no foul play or any outward indication of suicide".

There was no follow-up, no investigation but instead what appeared to be yet another big cover-up. There were no witnesses to the death and the cause of death was not apparent. Klausutis' boss, Rep. Scarborough had recently unexpectedly resigned from Congress when rumors began circulating about his marital fidelity. He also abruptly resigned as publisher of the Independent Florida Sun.

Chairman of the Medical Examiners Commission at the time of the Klausutis death was Dr. Stephen Nelson, Thogmartin's assistant in the Schiavo autopsy.

The young woman had been the picture of health and vitality before her death, just like Terri Schiavo was before her collapse. Klausutis was an avid runner who ran five miles a day.

Police denied finding any sign of trauma to her body the day she was found dead and said there was no indication of foul play. Berkland's press release issued two weeks later acknowledged that there was "a scratch and a bruise" on her head. He said the original denials by the police "were designed to prevent undue speculation about the cause of death", admitting that the police had lied to the public.

Berkland declared the death an accident, saying the proximate cause of death was a subdural hematoma caused by a blow to the head which he said probably happened when her head hit a desk when he speculated she had fainted. And he took his speculation a step further saying that she probably fainted due to a prolapsed mitral heart value which he claimed would have killed her even if she hadn't fallen.

Another sudden and mysterious collapse, and in this case resulting in virtual immediate death, blamed on cardiac arrest.

A preliminary autopsy report revealed that the young woman had suffered two skull fractures and an additional wound. A 7-inch crack spanned the top of her head, from right temple to left.

The autopsy further revealed there was a fist-sized hematoma at the left temple. The back of her head was bashed and her lungs were filled with bloody foam indicating that her death had not been instant.

Considering the massive damage to the woman's head, it's highly unlikely that she sustained the injuries she had from fainting from a weak heart.

There was no investigation and the press accepted the report.

Berkland had moved to Florida from Missouri where his medical license had been revoked in 1998 as a result of him reporting false information regarding brain tissue samples in a 1996 autopsy report. Berkland had allegedly failed to perform 28 autopsy reports for homicides in 1994-95 and according to informed source, Nelson as chairman of the Medical Examiners Commission at the time of Klausutis' death, knew of Berkland's past but yet allowed him to perform the autopsy.

Nelson also reportedly knew that Berkland had submitted a falsified resume to obtain his Missouri position. Berkland had also mishandled organs taken from the dead. In one case, he allegedly removed the brain of a young woman from his office and put in the back of his car. It was retrieved by an employee of woman's family's attorney.

Nelson recommended that Berkland be suspended in 1999 from his Pensacola position but Berkland subsequently escaped discipline by Florida, a fact reportedly known by Nelson. Although he was senior medical examiner for the state at the time of Klausutis' death, Nelson claimed he lacked power to act in the case. It is reported that political forces had repelled Nelson's efforts to terminate Berkland and the complaint was sealed that Nelson had supported against Berkland---once again a case of politics overriding wrongdoing.

After Nelson's failed attempt to oust Berkland, Nelson was appointed as chairman of the Medical Examiners Commission in October 2000.

In June 2003, Berkland was suddenly fired.

Scarborough eventually left northwest Florida and moved to New York where he is now employed by a member of the mainstream media, MSNBC. The mainstream media consistently distorted and misrepresented facts in the Schiavo case.

In April 2003, he launched Scarborough Country on MSNBC, a current affairs show.

Cover-ups seem to be becoming the norm for sudden and suspicious deaths in Florida, particularly in Pinellas County--- from the state attorney's office to the medical examiner's office and then on to Tallahassee.

Once the first domino falls, they'll all fall. 5-28-06