South Jersey prison guard suing Murphy over COVID vaccine rules. What the lawsuit claims

BRIDGETON — What Gov. Phil Murphy knew about the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of COVID-19 vaccines when he issued a shot-and-test mandate last year underpins a lawsuit just filed by a corrections officer who was fired last summer for refusing to obey it.

Gloucester County resident Elliot Ballinger is one of two New Jersey Department of Corrections employees the NJDOC says it has fired for not submitting to the policy, implemented for some government employees in a January 2022 executive order.

Ballinger was a senior corrections officer at South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton until his firing in July 2022, about four months after his refusal. His 28-page civil rights lawsuit was filed here in March in Cumberland County Superior Court by attorney Ronald A. Berutti.

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By January 2022, the lawsuit argues Murphy “knew or should have known” that the Omicron variant of COVID now was dominating the public health landscape. Omicron is more transmissible than the first version of COVID but also much less dangerous, the lawsuit states.

“We look forward to our client having his day in court,” Berutti said. “We believe he was illegally terminated based on an illegal policy.”

A spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Corrections declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Berutti argues the governor ignored published medical research on the nature of Omicron as well as the lack of effectiveness and durability of existing vaccines against the virus variant.

Even worse, the lawsuit states, vaccines forced on employees pose serious health threats to many people including specifically men in Ballinger’s age range.

The complaint states the federal Centers for Disease Control has received thousands of adverse vaccine impact reports, including cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, anaphylaxis, thrombosis, and Guillian-Barre Syndrome. Those adverse reactions were well known when Executive Order 283 was issued, according to the complaint.

The complaint also stresses that the vaccines were and are on the market only because of a federal “emergency” use authorization. That emergency use regulation specifies that a person’s “refusal to participate will involve no penalty or loss of benefits to which the subject is otherwise entitled,” the lawsuit states.

Ballinger is seeking nine specific reliefs, starting with a judge finding Murphy violated his civil rights with the vaccination mandate and wrongfully fired him. He also is seeking back pay and benefits, compensatory damages, reimbursement of legal costs, and a restraint order against new mandates or other coercive policies.

New Jersey Department of Corrections Commissioner Victoria L. Kuhn also is a defendant, in addition to her department.

A fundraising site for Ballinger is established at https://www.givesendgo.com/Ballinger.

Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey more than 30 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.

Have a tip? Reach out at jsmith@thedailyjournal.com. Help support local journalism with a subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: NJ Gov. Murphy's COVID rules subject of fired prison worker lawsuit