Health officials announced Friday that police have been called to arrest a lady with an open case of tuberculosis who has rejected being quarantined or receiving treatment for the common infectious disease for more than a year.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department refused to release the woman’s name, but the letters V.N. were used to identify her in court documents. She had numerous opportunities to quarantine herself or receive treatment.
Health officials requested Judge Philip Sorensen for the 16th time on February 24 to convince the woman to cooperate with his order that she should continue taking her medicine or freely isolating herself but to no effect. As a final choice, he issued the arrest warrant on Thursday.
Defendant’s objections to the court’s order from February 24, 2023, are noticed, preserved, and are unable to change, according to Sorensen’s opinion. The Pierce County Jail must be permitted to transport V.N. to a suitable approved facility, but not limited to, Department of Correctional facilities, inside Pierce County.
In his statement, Sorensen did not go into further detail regarding V.N.’s refusal. Nonetheless, he did inform the officers making the arrest they were going to be moving “a person with active tuberculosis” and to use “effective measures.”
In a document filed on Wednesday and published by The Tacoma News Tribune newspaper, the lady’s court-appointed lawyer, Sarah Tofflemire, claimed that the woman is already refusing therapy in order since she could not realize what is going on.
