Where is Tacoma woman defying treatment orders for tuberculosis? No one seems to know
A Tacoma woman who has refused for over a year to comply with court orders to isolate and get treated for tuberculosis, leading to a warrant for her arrest, has yet to be taken into custody, it was revealed during a hearing on Friday.
The woman, who’s identified in court documents by her initials, “V.N.,” remains wanted by law enforcement after once again being found in contempt of court mandates, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Philip K. Sorensen ruled.
Unless she’s in custody, the woman has been ordered to isolate at a confidential address for up to 45 days.
“She’s refusing to turn herself in, (her) attorney’s not making her come in and the family’s not helping as well,” Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Darren Moss said by phone Friday. “If we can’t find her, we can’t arrest her. If we knew where she was, she would be in custody.”
Sarah Tofflemire, a court-appointed public attorney representing the woman, declined to comment on whether her client’s whereabouts were known or what her client’s objections to the court’s orders have been. The objections, most recently filed before an April hearing, are under seal.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, citing a danger to the public, has repeatedly sought and received court orders since January 2022 to compel the woman to get treatment and isolate. In March, a warrant was issued for her arrest.
Law enforcement observed someone they believed to be her leaving their home, getting onto a city bus and arriving at a local casino, a court filing last month showed. Surveillance continued in the days that followed, but the person believed to be V.N. wasn’t at their residence. Moss said that the filing was supposed to be sealed because it revealed surveillance tactics and could tip the woman off to law enforcement activity.
He declined to comment on the surveillance tactics of the department, which has been tasked with executing the warrant. Other law enforcement agencies that may come into contact with her can also act on the warrant, he said. Generally, when suspects are sought by authorities, an agency will issue a bulletin with the suspect’s name and photo to solicit assistance from the public.
The woman’s confidentiality has made that impossible and more challenging for authorities to find her, Moss said.
Tacoma woman with TB still at large. Here’s a list of other recent cases of the disease
In a May 10 court filing, the health department said it had determined or had reason to believe that she was still infected with the disease, which typically affects the lungs, is caused by airborne germs spread person to person and can be deadly if not treated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The woman’s case was identified after she previously sought treatment at an emergency room after being the passenger in a vehicle crash, according to a court filing in January. She complained of chest pains and X-rays showed that she had progressing tuberculosis.
She apparently started but did not finish prescribed treatment for the disease.
The latest contempt finding Friday also stipulated the health department coordinate with the woman’s existing primary care provider regarding diagnosis, treatment and consultation of the disease. Brett Cihon, a spokesperson for TPCHD, said the department has previously been in touch with her provider “multiple times.”
While rare, adopting a tough stance in an effort to force a tuberculosis patient into treatment isn’t without precedent in Pierce County or Washington state, according to The News Tribune’s archives.
In 2005, the health department rented a Lakewood hotel room for a 35-year-old sex worker to isolate and be treated for the disease. But she wouldn’t stay, leading to an impasse in transferring her to the Pierce County Jail due to objections from authorities before she was ultimately moved to a women’s correction center in Purdy.
Five years earlier, a six-year-old Russian immigrant was ordered to get treated in a Spokane hospital after her parents suspended earlier treatment due to their suspicions that doctors were poisoning her. And in 1997, a man in Thurston County who refused medicine for tuberculosis was jailed and then taken into an adult family home.
If taken into custody, the woman would be held at the Pierce County Jail, where there are two negative-pressure rooms that filter out air to prevent disease from spreading, according to Moss.
The health department says that the county averages between 15 and 25 cases of tuberculosis each year. A new court hearing has been scheduled for June 23, court records show.
