Kentucky Couple Placed Under House Arrest for Not Signing Self-Quarantine Documents
A Kentucky woman who disliked a COVID-19-related document she was told to sign is now under house arrest, along with her husband.
The saga began last week when Elizabeth Linscott of Hardin County planned to visit her parents in Michigan and wanted to be tested.
“My grandparents wanted to see me, too,” Linscott told WAVE-TV in Louisville. “So, just to make sure if I tested negative, that they would be OK, that everything would be fine.”
Life did not work out that way.
Linscott tested positive, although she was asymptomatic.
Then the government got into the picture, and she was told what to do next by the Hardin County Health Department.
“I agreed to comply to call the Health Department if I was to go. I was to call the Health Department if I was to leave my house for any reason,” Linscott said, according to KABC-TV.
She also was told she had to sign a document that said she had to get Health Department approval before going anywhere. Linscott declined, finding the document far too broad.
“[I]f I have to go to the ER, if I have to go to the hospital, I’m not going to wait to get the approval to go,” she said, adding that she had no problem notifying officials or telling hospital workers she had tested positive.
But the county was not happy she didn’t sign the form.
“I had gotten a message from them, a text message that stated, because of your refusal to sign, this is going to be escalated, and law enforcement will be involved,” she said.
The government kept its word. The county sheriff’s office paid a house call.
“I open up the door, and there’s like eight different people, five different cars, and I’m like, ‘What the heck’s going on?’ This guy’s in a suit with a mask. It’s the Health Department guy, and they have three papers for us. For me, her and my daughter,” said Isaiah Linscott, Elizabeth’s husband.
Sheriff John Ward said his office was on hand to execute an order from a Hardin Circuit Court judge, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.
In a post Sunday on the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page, Ward said, “The Hardin County Sheriff’s Office serves Court Orders from both Hardin Circuit and District Courts on a daily basis. If you have inquiries on a specific order you must contact the issuing court.”
The Linscotts have been ordered to wear ankle monitors and are allowed to roam 200 feet from the house before law enforcement is notified.
Kentucky couple forced to wear ankle monitors after refusing to sign papers to self-isolate after positive COVID-19 test https://t.co/c6s7v8HaMh pic.twitter.com/25KfxEIMTW
— WKBN 27 First News (@WKBN) July 20, 2020
“We didn’t rob a store. We didn’t steal something. We didn’t hit and run. We didn’t do anything wrong,” Elizabeth Linscott said.
She made it clear that she never said she would not self-quarantine; she simply would not sign a form with which she disagreed.
“That’s exactly what the director of the Public Health Department told the judge, that I was refusing to self-quarantine because of this, and that’s not the case at all,” Linscott said. “I never said that.”
Linscott said the family planned to get an attorney.
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