Schiavo attorney seeks modification of visitation rules

Schindler attorney says action is ‘retaliatory’ against brain-damaged woman’s parents

Jan 21, 2004
JONI B. HANNIGAN
Managing Editor

ST. PETERSBURG (FBW)-A lawyer acting on behalf of Michael Schiavo, the husband of a 40-year-old brain damaged woman in Florida, has petitioned the court for even more stringent restrictions on visitors than those already in place.

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Filed Jan. 7 in Pinellas County by Deborah Bushnell, the document seeks modification of existing court orders which go beyond the norm in the facility where Terri Schiavo lives.

Pat Anderson, an attorney for Terri Schiavo’s parents, told Florida Baptist Witness the move is "retaliatory" on Michael Schiavo’s part and instead of offering Terri protection, is intended to "prevent Terri from communicating to the outside world."

Anderson said it would be a "nightmare" for Michael Schiavo’s team of lawyers if Terri were able to articulate details of her hospitalization and treatment for over a decade.

Terri Schiavo collapsed in 1990 due to unusual circumstances that caused her heart to stop beating.

Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband and legal guardian, has been in a bitter dispute with Terri's parents who believe she never received the therapy that would have allowed her to improve. Terri has twice had her feeding tube removed and been left to die, at her husband’s request. In the most recent instance, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ordered the feeding tube reinserted Oct. 21 [For more information see "Terri Schiavo: A Life At Stake"].

Schiavo, who has two children by a woman with whom he has lived for eight years, has filed a lawsuit against Bush, challenging his intervention. The case is expected to end up before the Florida Supreme Court.

Residing in an assisted living home in Clearwater, Terri is currently restricted access to anyone other than blood relatives and others included on a list of 82 persons approved by Michael Schiavo. Under the existing orders, no more than six individuals may visit Terri at one time, and her parents and her siblings are specifically barred from photographing or videotaping her or allowing any physician to examine her.

The petition for a new order further stipulates a particular parameter of rules aimed at Terri’s parents and her siblings, Robert Schindler, Jr. and Suzanne Schindler Carr.

Apparently, the new rules limit only Terri’s family and those who are visiting "by and through their request" and do not apply to Michael Schiavo and persons he allows to have access to Terri, according to the document.

The proposed rules specify that while in Terri’s room, visitors are to be prohibited from using "all electronic devices" including "telephones, palm pilots, tape recorders, audio recorders, cameras and video recordings, or other devices which have recording or transmitting capabilities."

In addition, among other things, visitors must sign in and out, are to not interfere with security personnel stationed in Terri’s room, and are to refrain from offering anything "liquid" or "solid" to Terri.

Anderson said she believes the latest move on the part of Michael Schiavo’s attorney is "fairly transparent" and obviously intended to impede the Schindlers from helping their daughter.

"The rules do not help Terri. They help Michael feel powerful in humiliating and causing grief and anguish to Terri’s parents," Anderson said.

Anderson said visitors even now have to "practically submit to a strip search," and she believes the latest intent is to prevent Bob Schindler from allowing out-of-town relatives to speak to Terri through a cell-phone which he holds up to her ear.

"Michael wants to punish Mr. Schindler from attempting to stimulate Terri verbally by having anyone talk to her on the telephone," Anderson said. No supporting rationale was provided with the petition to the court to modify the visitation rules.

Meanwhile, a petition Anderson filed in Nov. 2002 to remove Michael as guardian and to appoint either of her siblings as guardian is still in litigation. The petition charged Michael Schiavo may have caused Terri to be both abused and neglected.

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