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Ebola scare defendant has suffered mental illness, lawyer says
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 Monday 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, said Marshall’s lawyer, Marc Dann.
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.”
Marshall was traveling 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 5:26 p.m.
In his report, Vienna police officer Thomas Barone said he was dispatched to the airport concerning a passenger on an incoming flight having a seizure.
As Vienna and Air Force Reserve firefighters prepared to board the plane, they were advised that the young man having multiple seizures was infected with Ebola, according to the police report.
The Youngstown Air Reserve Station hazmat team was called to the scene, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was notified, according to Barone’s report.
About 6 p.m., authorities located Marshall’s brother, Jonathan, at the airport and escorted him to the emergency response staging area.
Jonathan Marshall advised authorities that Joshua Marshall had never left the United States, had not been around anyone with Ebola, and had recently been hospitalized for mental illness.
At 6:49 p.m., CDC advised there was no Ebola risk, and the plane was cleared of passengers.
Further investigation revealed that Joshua Marshall had sent himself a text message saying he was infected with Ebola, the police report said.
Joshua Marshall was then removed from the plane and taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center before a cleaning crew boarded and cleaned the rear of the plane.