Why hasn’t Pierce County’s rogue tuberculosis patient been arrested? No more excuses | Opinion
This has reached the point of ridiculousness. In fact, it’s far surpassed it.
For more than a year, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has attempted to locate and isolate a local woman with a confirmed case of tuberculosis, including through court orders.
Since March, there’s been an active civil warrant for the woman’s arrest, with intricate plans in place to isolate and treat her at the Pierce County Jail once she’s taken into custody.
But the woman, who in court documents is identified only by her initials, “V.N.,” has not been apprehended, as you’ve likely heard by now. For all we know, she’s still riding public transit and visiting a local casino, as she was observed doing while under law enforcement surveillance earlier this year, according to an April 3 court filing.
On Friday, the saga of Pierce County’s rogue TB patient — which has made national headlines — continued when Pierce County Superior Court Judge Philip K. Sorensen once again found the woman in contempt of court.
For any reasonable member of the general public, it raises the obvious question:
What on earth is going on here — and what’s taking so long?
At this point, let’s step back — for the sake of perspective and for the opportunity to consider the complexity of the situation. While it’s easy (and perhaps only natural) to be critical of the woman’s blatant disregard for public safety and the potential seriousness of her diagnosis, the court documents remain largely sealed, and it remains impossible to know for certain everything she might be dealing with in her life. As a columnist, it would be an irresponsible use of this platform to personally blast her.
Still, the inability to successfully locate and isolate the woman suggests that, in this case, systemic public health failures have occurred. And as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic — which has illustrated, at least to most of us, the life-and-death stakes of effectively responding to dangerous infectious diseases — that’s a significant cause for concern.
If anything, the last five months of this unfolding story have provided an education on how things are supposed to work, and while it’s rare for tuberculosis patients to resist treatment, it’s not unprecedented.
Once persuasion fails, the local health department has the authority to seek court orders designed to compel an infected patient into treatment and isolation. If that doesn’t work, the next step is a civil warrant being issued, under the discretion of a judge, presumably paving the way for local law enforcement to take someone into custody.
In this case, all of that has happened except the last, most crucial part. And if you’re keeping score at home, it means that the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has done its job, as have the courts.
The only thing that’s left now is for the Pierce County Sheriff’s office to hold up its end of the bargain — and the wait continues.
On Thursday, I spoke with Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Darren Moss about the situation. In particular, I argued that court records from early last month revealing that law enforcement witnessed the woman riding a bus from her home to a local casino — after the warrant for her arrest had been issued — seem to provide valid reason for public anger, not to mention sharp criticism.
More importantly, I also asked Moss, point blank, why the woman hasn’t been apprehended yet?
“She never turned herself in. And she didn’t go to court,” Moss said, adding that the public release of details of law enforcement’s surveillance of the woman shouldn’t have occurred, in part because it potentially hindered efforts to take her into custody.
Citing the same reasons, Moss declined to provide details of the agency’s attempts to apprehend the woman, suggesting that there would be more to share with the public once doing so wouldn’t jeopardize the investigation.
Frustratingly, Moss also acknowledged that law enforcement doesn’t know where the woman is, and that it appears she’s actively making efforts to locate her more difficult.
“We have a team that was on it, but if they can’t find her, at some point, you know, how much effort should we put into that versus the homicide guy that we arrested two days ago? Or we had a guy who severely beat a woman and was on the run, almost beat her to death, and we had to go look for him,” Moss continued. “Is it a priority? Somewhat. ... But it’s a civil versus a criminal warrant for something like attempted murder, assault or first-degree robbery, so it’s like, when we have time we get to it.”
Does Moss have a point? Sure he does, and I thanked him for his candor. There’s no doubt that the Pierce County Sheriff’s office has big fish to fry — including dealing with suspected murders and rapists. It’s also true that we’re only talking about a civil arrest warrant, and in 99% of cases (unofficially), waiting for an organic interaction with law enforcement to take someone into custody — like a traffic stop — is the prudent path to pursue. This is no job for the SWAT team.
Here’s the only problem: This isn’t 99% of cases, and everyone involved should know that. It’s a unique and potentially dangerous rarity that Pierce County’s public health system and the courts provide a remedy for.
After roughly two months of waiting patiently for the Sheriff’s Department to track the woman down — and do its job — the time for excuses has passed.
“If we knew where she was, she’d be in custody,” Moss told The News Tribune on Friday, shortly after the latest court proceeding.
Someday, presumably, this will all be over.
Until then, that sure sounds like cold comfort to me.
