Tuesday, June 14, 2005 | 10:57 a.m.
A jail inmate with contagious tuberculosis was taken to court Monday morning despite a judge's order of quarantine, potentially exposing lawyers, court workers and other criminal defendants to the disease, officials said.
"This should not have occurred," said Metro Chief Paul Martin, who runs the Clark County Detention Center. Martin heard about the incident Monday afternoon and was looking into how it had happened.
"If we've got somebody on medical isolation with a disease, they should not be transported and allowed to expose others to it."
The Clark County Health District is not concerned about the possibility that others were infected, however, and has no plans to test those who were in the courtroom with the inmate.
The risk of contagion was very low because the inmate had been taking medication and wore a hospital mask to court, said Maryellen Harrell, the health district's public health nurse manager. "With tuberculosis, we're worried about prolonged contact, not the relatively short period of time that he went into court," she said.
Juan Marin, 55, was ordered involuntarily isolated last month by District Judge Jennifer Togliatti after he refused to take tuberculosis medication.
The order was the first-ever application of a state law, passed in 2003 as a tool to fight bioterrorism, that allows people with diseases to be quarantined against their will.
Marin's medical condition was discovered after he landed in jail in April for violating the probation to which he had been sentenced for drug charges.
On Monday morning Marin appeared in the courtroom of District Judge Joseph Bonaventure for the probation violation, Marin told Togliatti Monday afternoon at a separate hearing on the matter of his isolation. The afternoon hearing was conducted via videoconference with the jail.
Togliatti asked Marin if he had appeared before Bonaventure by videoconference.
"I was in the courtroom," Marin answered.
"You didn't breathe on anybody, did you?" Togliatti asked.
"No, ma'am," Marin said.
The proceedings to isolate Marin were brought by the Clark County Health District. "I'm concerned that the Clark County Detention Center doesn't see isolation the same way that all of us do," the health district's attorney, Stephen Minagil, told Togliatti.
"He should not be transported to the courthouse," Togliatti agreed, saying she would spell out the definition of "isolation" in her order to continue the quarantine.
Minagil said in an interview that removing Marin from the jail appeared to be a violation of the judge's order. "Isolation means you don't take him out of that negative-airflow room that he's in," he said.
Martin, the detention chief, noted that Marin had been taking his medications since making an agreement with Togliatti on May 27, and that Marin wore a mask in court.
But the diseased man still should not have been there, Martin said. "Our normal practice is to use video," he said. "We err on the side of caution."
According to Bonaventure's docket, 33 other defendants were scheduled to be in court at the same time as Marin, along with their defense lawyers, prosecutors and court staff. Bonaventure could not be reached for comment.
Tuberculosis, which kills 2 million people a year worldwide, is an infection of the lungs that spreads through coughing and sneezing.
Bonaventure's law clerk, Ben Saxe, was in the courtroom at the time and remembered that one inmate was wearing a mask. But he said he wasn't concerned for his safety.
"We have all kinds of medical misfits coming through there," he said. "I trust that CCDC (the jail) knows what they're doing."
Bonaventure sentenced Marin to 180 days in jail. If he behaves, he will be eligible for release on July 13, Togliatti said.
He will appear before Togliatti again on June 29, when it is expected that laboratory tests establishing whether he is contagious will have come back.
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