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Lawsuit Claims Conn. `Trampled Civil Liberties` During Ebola Quarantine

Amanda Cuda

02/09/2016

Feb. 09--The former Yale University public health student quarantined after being hospitalized with suspected Ebola virus in October is one of a dozen plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, alleges Connecticut officials authorized the quarantines based not on science, but on fear and public pressure. However, at least one state official insisted that authorities acted in the public's best interest.

"Our first priority remains protecting the public from both foreseeable and unforeseeable harms -- whether it be storms or disease or otherwise," Chris McClure, a spokesman for the governor's office, said in an email. "We are going to continue to be prepared for any contingencies and take the necessary steps to provide the protection the public expects."

Those suing are: Ryan Boyko, a former Yale doctoral student who was hospitalized after returning home from a trip to Liberia; Laura Skrip, another public health student who accompanied him on the trip; a West African family of six quarantined in West Haven after moving to the United States; the relative that family stayed with; a religious leader who travels to Liberia, and his wife; the Liberian Community Association of Connecticut and a doctor who treated Ebola patients in West Africa. The group is being represented in the suit by the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School.

The plaintiffs are seeking damages and an injunction against further quarantines, except when there is scientific basis. Boyko and the others who were quarantined had no direct contact with anyone who had Ebola, so there was no reason to quarantine them, said Emma Roth, law student intern with the Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, during a news conference Monday.

"The state imprisoned them in their homes for weeks," Roth said. "They trampled plaintiffs' civil liberties."

The suit is against Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Acting Connecticut Public Health Commissioner Raul Pino and former commissioner Dr. Jewel Mullen. When reached for comment, a spokesman for the Department of Public Health said the department doesn't comment on pending legal matters.

The quarantines took place in the midst of an Ebola epidemic in West Africa that killed thousands of people in that region. During the health scare, Malloy granted the Department of Public Health the authority to quarantine anyone who may have been exposed to or infected with the virus. Though multiple people were quarantined, no one tested positive for the disease in the state.

Those who spoke at Monday's news conference included Boyko, who talked about how he and Skrip visited Liberia in 2014 to provide technical assistance to the country's leadership in handling the Ebola outbreak. He said they were careful during their visit to avoid exposure to the disease.

"We worked in our hotel and a government office and never came in contact with Ebola victims," he said.

Boyko developed a fever shortly after his return -- which he said was related to an infection he had for a while -- and was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital. Even though he tested negative for Ebola, Boyko was quarantined for 21 days, which he claimed upended his life.

"It was awful," Boyko said. "I was isolated from my friends and classmates."

His girlfriend had to move out during the ordeal, and he went weeks without seeing his son, he said.

Boyko said one of his biggest concerns was that what he and fellow quarantined people endured discouraged other public health workers from traveling to Ebola-stricken countries to provide assistance.

Others who spoke at the press conference included Assunta Nimley-Phillips, who housed her sister and the sister's family in her West Haven home after they were quarantined. The family had immigrated to Connecticut from Liberia.

"When they arrived in October, they did not feel welcomed in Connecticut," Nimley-Phillips said. "Instead, they were confined in the basement of my home and treated like criminals."