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God has called David
Williams, pastor of Calvary Road Church
of
Clearwater, Florida to spearhead an independent,
comprehensive investigation of the Terri Schiavo
case. This is an answer to prayer. Only a truly
independent investigation will uncover the layers of
corruption, collusion, criminality, and infiltration
permeating this case. (ANNOUNCEMENT:
Calvary Road Baptist Church no longer exists. The church is reorganizing and is now known as
Bay Area Baptist Church.
[1])
June Maxam of The
Empire Journal has been engaged in her own
independent investigation of the Terri Schiavo case
for at least six months. I recall the day she posted
her first article to the Free Republic forum and
began soliciting for donations in an attempt to
finance her own investigation. (I sent her a
donation in November, 2004.) June did not mention
anything about contacting the Schindlers to obtain
"permission" to do what she has been doing
for years—investigative journalism.
It appears that the
Gibbs Law Firm supplied June Maxam with false
information about the Justice For Terri Committee
which she later published to the internet. The
article, "Schindler
Attorney Tells Group To "Cease and
Desist," [3] published
April 22, 2005 on June Maxam's The North Country
Gazette website, arrested my attention because it
presented the idea that the Schindler's attorney,
David C. Gibbs III, has the authority to tell a
group that they may not raise funds to conduct an
independent investigation of the Terri Schiavo case. According to June Maxam,
attorney Gibbs advised the Justice For Terri
Committee to "cease and
desist" all fundraising activities at the
request of the Schindler family:
The attorney for the parents of
Terri Schiavo has advised a group calling themselves
the Justice For Terri Committee organized in Tampa
Bay, Florida, to “cease and desist all fundraising
activities on behalf of Terri at the request of the
family”.
(Quote source: "Schindler
Attorney Tells Group To “Cease and Desist")
[note: this article was removed April 26, 2005]
Puzzled and deeply
concerned about the implications of the "Cease
and Desist" article, Gary and I prayed for guidance.
The answer came swiftly. It was time to contact Pastor
Williams who was president of the former Justice For
Terri Committee and ask him about the accuracy of
June Maxam's article.
I succeeded in
reaching Pastor David Williams on Sunday, April 24,
2005. He said that June Maxam should have been aware
of the truth regarding the Justice For Terri
Committee:
June Maxam should
have known exactly what was going on since I had
her on the telephone with me early on for a radio
program with her partner Ginger Berlin as we were
just getting the investigation going. They would
not be part of it but offered to supply the
investigators with information.
It seems strange
to me that now they have acted as if they do not
know me and that they are siding with the Gibbs
Law Firm even though they know what is going on.
[quoted verbatim from his email]
As the phone
conversation progressed, I learned that Pastor
Williams
was well apprised of the fact that the Gibbs Law
Firm had taken a stand against what was then known
as the Justice For Terri
Committee even though Williams had taken pains to
involve the law firm in this operation from the
start!
Williams revealed that he had
contacted the Schindler family and the Gibbs Law
Firm—with the investigators standing by to begin
work— before
Terri's death:
Before Terri died
I had the investigators ready to go and they
thought that a smoking gun would have saved her
life. David Gibbs would not listen even though I
begged them to speak to the investigators. I also
spoke to the Schindlers about it and they thought
"Great, get them started right away."
Then I told them that it would cost $15,000 as a
retainer and they said, "Forget it! If they
won't donate their services we don't want
them."
I tried to tell
them that I would raise the money. They agreed
that if I would raise the money then it would not
be a burden on them. [quoted verbatim from his
email]
The Schindler
family indicated to Pastor Williams that they were
in favor of the
investigation but were not willing to pay for it. That is the reason
he decided to begin a private effort to raise funds
specifically earmarked for an independent
investigation of the Terri Schiavo case.
David Williams
continued to try to get an investigation started
after Terri's death:
After Terri died
I was still trying as I had since the above
incident, to get someone to listen about a
criminal investigation. I went to the memorial and
talked to both the Schindlers and David Gibbs. My
whole reasoning was that since they had said,
"Forget it" before that we would be
required to raise the money ourselves. That is the
whole reason that we tried to form the Justice For
Terri Committee. We did not want to take money
away from the Schindler Foundation.
[quoted
verbatim from his email]
Williams made a
stringent effort to get Bobby Schindler involved in
the investigation:
At the memorial
Bobby gave me a number which I could call to reach
him. I called several times after that to put
Bobby on the telephone with the investigators but
he would not call me back until two days before
Mari [Fernandez] put it on the internet. Bobby
called me and I asked him if he wanted to speak to
our investigators. He said no, but just to keep
him informed of what was going on. I thought it
was strange that he did not want to speak to them
since it was such a great plan. Technically he did
not either approve or disapprove of our actions.
He just said to keep him informed. My take was
that he wanted it done but did not want to spend
any of the Foundation money on it.
That is why I was
so shocked when David Gibbs' lawyer, Zachary Gray—my
lawyer for our church— called. He said that we
were taking away from the Schindler fund. That was
the opposite of why we were trying to raise the
money. It was so that the Schindlers could keep
their own money. It all got twisted out of
proportion.
After the call, I
asked Zachary to put that in writing and I have
sent the e-mail from him to you a couple of days
ago. The whole premise is mistaken because I had
spoken both to the Gibbs and to Bobby but neither
seemed to want to get involved as long as they had
to spend money. I thought, "Well, we will
raise the money." Then they seemed to say
"Don't give the money to an investigator,
give it to us so we can pocket the funds." Do
they really want justice? [quoted verbatim from
his email]
Pastor Williams is
rightfully seeking a retraction from the Gibbs Law
Firm who represent his church as well as the
Schindler family:
Since
that time, I have written the Gibbs law firm
several times asking for a retraction of their
statement to June Maxam or a denial of that
statement. They would not respond so I called the
Florida Bar Association a few days ago and told
them that a libelous statement had been made by my
own lawyer who gave a statement to Empire Journal
without our approval. He said that he would call
the Gibbs organization and ask them to call me to
get this right. Though I have e-mailed them
several more times, I have not gotten a call or a
response by e-mail. My thinking is that the Gibbs
wrongfully think that a criminal investigation is
useless and that the Schindlers should keep the
money for themselves. [quoted verbatim from his
email]
It is
troubling that the prominent people who were
involved in the Terri Schiavo case are now
inaccessible. Pastor Williams commented:
It
is totally amazing to me that all the players who
were in the limelight, Larry Klayman, Randall
Terry, Brother Mahoney and others have somehow
disappeared from the scene. I have tried to
contact most of them but they won't even call
back. It seems they are all in it for what they
can get out of it. Even RightMarch.com has refused
to get involved as well as Tom Hoefling of the
Alan Keyes organization. They have all vanished
from the scene as it were. [quoted verbatim from
his email]
On April 26, 2005,
the day after Pastor Williams demanded a retraction from
David C. Gibbs III for his remarks against his
person and his church, June Maxam, without
explanation, removed her "Cease and
Desist" article from the internet.
Perhaps the Gibbs Law Firm contacted her and told
her about the
inaccuracies in her article. Pastor Williams
remarked:
I
have written to her [June Maxam] in the last few
days to tell her that Gibbs represented us and
that because of their statement to her they may be
in trouble with the Bar. Perhaps that is why she
pulled the article. Either they said it and now
they want it off the internet or they did not say
it and she is hiding the article from scrutiny.
Either way, someone is in trouble.
If this is the case,
and June Maxam is aware of the errors contained in
her article, then it is proper
for her to issue a retraction rather than simply
remove it from the internet. One of the reasons
a retraction is necessary is because Maxam's article
suggests impropriety on the part of the people who
are seeking to bring about the first intensive and
no-respector-of-persons investigation into the Terri
Schiavo case. For example, June Maxam's use of
the word "purported" suggests that funds solicited by Pastor David
Williams and Mari Fernandez might not really be used
to hire an investigative firm:
The group reportedly led by Mari Fernandez and
Pastor David Williams had been soliciting for funds
purportedly for the purpose of hiring an
investigative firm and had stated that the Schindler
family had authorized the solicitation.
(Quote source: "Schindler
Attorney Tells Group To “Cease and Desist")
Liberty
To The Captives is convinced that any funds donated to
Florida Justice [2]
for the purpose of setting in motion a
comprehensive,
independent, criminal investigation would be used as
designated. David Williams has even hired a CPA firm to handle the
finances regarding this endeavor. [update: This
investigation was not funded and did not take
place.]
Pastor
Williams Did Not Receive a "Cease and Desist" Letter
June
Maxam claims that "The Empire Journal has acquired a copy of the letter which was sent to the
[Justice For Terri] group by Gibbs which states":
“We have asked Mr. Williams and Ms. Fernandez to please cease and desist all fundraising activities on behalf of Terri at the request of the family” Gibbs said, “and we would hope that they honor this request of the Schindler family at this time."
(Quote source: "Schindler
Attorney Tells Group To “Cease and Desist")
Pastor Williams did
not receive a "cease and desist" letter from Attorney
Gibbs. He requested an email from his own attorney, Zachary
S. Gray, to document Gray's remarks in a phone
conversation. The email is as follows:
April 14, 2005
Dear Pastor
Williams:
Today in our
telephone conversation I told you that the
Schindlers have requested that all contributions
relating to Terri's case be made through www.Terrisfight.org.
Establishing another
organization, such as Justice for Terri Committee,
will merely dilute the family's efforts. Thank
you for your interest and concern.
Sincerely,
GIBBS LAW FIRM,
P.A.
The statements in
Zachary Gray's email do not consist of any formal "cease
and desist" communication that June Maxam
received.
Questions
Who provided The Empire Journal with the information
that the Schindler family has already expended
considerable funds conducting a thorough investigation? This statement definitely
sends the message that if there was anything new to
discover about the Terri Schiavo case, then it would have already
come to light. Where is a copy of the letter June
Maxam quoted in her "Cease and Desist"
article? Why do the Schindlers favor a private
investigation but want to prevent others from
soliciting the funds to pay for it?
Why does Zachary
Gray, who works for the Gibbs Law Firm,
believe that an independent and exhaustive
investigation, conducted by a professional task
force, would dilute the Schindler family's
efforts to achieve justice for Terri? Gray went so
far as say that "Establishing
another organization, such as Justice for Terri
Committee, will merely dilute the family's
efforts." This statement, which appeared
early in his email to Pastor David Williams, is about the investigation
itself. The Gibbs Law Firm is against it!
Why did the
"cease and desist" letter that David
Williams never received but that June Maxam quoted
in her article,
send the message that according to the Schindlers,
the only
"acceptable" way to get justice for Terri
is to change the laws rather than expose the people who
broke existing laws that would have adequately
protected Terri if they were obeyed?
The Schindlers are happy for any individuals
and organizations who have been encouraged by
Terri's tragedy to try to change the laws in America
to make sure that nothing like this happens to
anyone else, however, they cannot endorse any
organizations or give permission to any other
organizations to raise money using Terri's name or
the Schindler family name."
(Quote source: "Schindler
Attorney Tells Group To “Cease and Desist")
Why
are the key players in the Terri Schiavo case
against getting justice for Terri? It is
time to move forward in an all-out, no holds barred,
independent, criminal investigation of the Terri Schiavo case.
Only those who fear this investigation will try to prevent it.
notes:
[1] While
Liberty To The Captives respects the stand
that Pastor Williams took for Terri Schindler Schiavo, we need
to mention that we do not hold the Baptist beliefs
of unconditional eternal security and the
Pre-Trib Rapture
doctrines. See our
Statement of Faith
(Those
of you who are interested in the historical origin
of the Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine might be surprised
to learn that John Nelson Darby (the Father of
Dispensationalism) inserted Pre-Trib doctrine into
the text of his very own Bible translation
HERE and
HERE and
HERE.
[2] "Schindler
Attorney Tells Group To “Cease and Desist" This
article was removed from the internet
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/042205schindler.html
[3]
Update April 16, 2006: The Florida Justice page has
been removed from the internet.
http://calvary-road.tripod.com/id14.html
Also
see:
Exposing
the Conspiracy to Kill Terri Schiavo is Not Hate
modified
8/01/06
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