Terri Schiavo Guardianship Records to Remain Confidential, Court Rules - State Affairs

BY JIM SAUNDERS

Key Points

1. State appeals court rejects bid to unseal Terri Schiavo records
2. Schiavo died in 2005 after feeding tube removal
3. The court cited a state law keeping guardianship records confidential

Two decades after Pinellas County resident Terri Schiavo died following high-profile legal, political and ethical battles over removing her feeding tube, a state appeals court has rejected an attempt to unseal records about the case.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal on Wednesday denied the attempt by Schiavo’s brother and mother — Bobby and Mary Schindler — and an advocacy group, the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network.

Schiavo died March 31, 2005, 15 years after she sustained severe brain damage because of a cardiac arrest at age 26. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, sought permission in 1998 to remove her feeding tube, drawing fierce opposition from her brother and parents.

The case drew national attention and sparked lengthy legal fights and debates in the Florida Legislature and Congress, with Gov. Jeb Bush helping lead efforts to prevent the removal of the feeding tube. Courts allowed the removal, ultimately resulting in Terri Schiavo’s death.

Wednesday’s opinion rejected an attempt by the Schindlers and the advocacy group to open records in a guardianship case. Michael Schiavo was his wife’s guardian after her incapacitation.

The opinion said Bobby Schindler and the group sought to intervene in the long-closed case as a step toward opening the records. It said Mary Schindler did not need to intervene because she had been a party to the case. But it upheld a circuit judge’s decision denying their requests.

In part, the opinion cited a state law aimed at keeping guardianship records confidential. Chief Judge Matthew Lucas wrote that the “fact that Ms. Schiavo passed away many years ago” did not “diminish the importance of the confidentiality the legislature afforded her guardianship records.”

“Finally, and perhaps most glaringly, none of the appellants [the Schindlers and the group] have ever explained why they waited nearly two decades after Ms. Schiavo’s death before filing a motion to unseal her guardianship records,” the opinion, joined by Judges Stevan Northcutt and Craig Villanti, said. “Their failure to address that pertinent question would seem fatal to their argument that good cause justified unsealing these confidential documents.”

Similarly, the opinion said Bobby Schindler and the group did not provide adequate reasons for intervening, saying their only justification “is that they wish to see what is in the sealed guardianship records so that they can, perhaps, use whatever they might find in their public advocacy. We agree with the circuit court that that is an insufficient basis to permit intervention in a case that ended more than twenty years ago.”

In a January news release on the group’s website, Bobby Schindler said the appeal was “about transparency, constitutional rights, and the pursuit of truth.”

“These documents may contain information that could alter the historical understanding of Terri’s case,” he said in a prepared statement. “There is no valid justification for continued secrecy after two decades.”

Bobby Schindler is president of the group, which says on its website that it has “advocated for and assisted thousands of medically vulnerable patients and families” since its founding in 2005.

Full Article & Source:
Terri Schiavo Guardianship Records to Remain Confidential, Court Rules - State Affairs

See Also:
Terri Schiavo