Lawyer defends man charged with inducing panic on Allegiant flight

VIENNA — A man charged with inducing panic after an Ebola scare on a Florida to Vienna Allegiant Air flight that landed here Sunday has been suffering from mental illness, his lawyer said.

Joshua Marshall, 18, of Ravenna, was released on $5,000 bond from Trumbull County jail Sunday evening, and he remains free after Judge Jeff Adler of Girard Municipal Court continued that bond on the fourth degree felony charge this morning.

Marshall does not have Ebola and has not visited Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone, nor has he been in contact with anyone who recently has been to those west African nations, where Ebola is an epidemic, Marshall’s lawyer, Marc Dann, said.

Marshall does not recall vomiting on the plane and has no detailed recollection of what he said on the plane, Dann said.

“My client has been suffering from mental illness. His father passed away very recently” Dann said, adding that Marshall was hospitalized in Akron two weeks ago for bipolar disorder.

“This is a tragic combination of this young man’s mental health issues and people’s heightened awareness and anxiety about this Ebola issue,” Dann said. “There was no danger at any time to anybody,” Dann added.

Marshall was travelling alone after visiting his mother in Florida, Dann said, adding that she is en route here now.

“His family is horrified and they want to apologize to the community,” Dann said, adding that he has not seen the Vienna police reports and isn’t sure what Marshall said or did on the plane to allegedly create the panic.

“What we know is he certainly wasn’t in his right mind at the time,” Dann said.

“My first priority is to make sure that this young man gets the treatment he needs,” Dann concluded.

Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport authorities called a Hazmat team as a precaution after a man reportedly vomited on the flight which landed here at 6 p.m.

Airport aviation director Dan Dickten said passengers would board the plane for its next flight once the plane was cleaned.