Lawsuit: White couple evicted Adairsville tenant over black visitors
Individuals who have a history of incarceration in jail or prison; Men who have sex with men; Close contacts of people with hepatitis A;
Homeless or transient individuals, and
Persons with close contact to someone with these risk factors.
“We urge individuals with one or more of these risk factors, especially illicit drug use, to get vaccinated,” said Taylor. “If you’ve had hepatitis A, you have lifelong immunity to the disease and do not need to be vaccinated. Also, since hepatitis A vaccination is required for school-age children born on or after Jan. 1, 2006, these individuals do not need vaccination.”
“Adults should get the vaccine if they fit into one of these risk factors. If they don’t, their risk is so low that getting vaccinated is a matter of personal preference. If you are not sure whether you should get the hepatitis A vaccine, talk with your doctor about your specific concerns.”
The best way to prevent hepatitis A is to practice good hygiene, proper handwashing, careful and sanitary preparation of food, and by getting vaccinated against the hepatitis A virus.
The increase in Northwest Georgia hepatitis A cases, public health officials believe, is related to a hepatitis A outbreak in neighboring Tennessee that has sickened over 1,600 people since December 2017.
“We noticed the spread of illness go across the state line from Tennessee into Georgia,” said Northwest Health District Epidemiologist Melissa Hunter, “and we’ve watched it move south, roughly following U.S. Highway 27, I-75, and their surrounding counties, propelled by illicit drug use, both IV and non-IV.”
Public health, of course, has done more than just monitor the southward movement of the disease, said Taylor.
“We’ve responded to the outbreak by working with local healthcare providers and other community partners to educate and encourage vaccination for those in high-risk groups, we’ve held free-vaccination clinics at our county health departments, and we’ve worked with our jails and prisons to provide free vaccinations. Our environmental health inspectors have worked closely with managers and operators of food-service establishments to minimize the possibility of hepatitis A transmission from an infected worker to customers.”
What is hepatitis A?
Hepatitis A is a vaccine-preventable, communicable disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis A virus. It is usually transmitted person-to-person through the fecal-oral route or consumption of contaminated food or water.
Most people who get hepatitis A feel sick for several weeks, but they usually recover completely and do not have lasting liver damage. In rare cases, hepatitis A can cause liver failure and death; this is more common in people older than 50 and in people with other liver diseases.
Most adults with hepatitis A have symptoms, which may include fatigue, low appetite, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, darkbrown urine, light-colored stools, and jaundice, that usually resolve within two months of infection; most children less than 6 years of age do not have symptoms or have an unrecognized infection.
Associated Press
ATLANTA — A white Georgia couple evicted a white tenant in Adairsville because she invited a black family to the home she was renting, according to a federal lawsuit that says the landlords violated civil rights and fair housing laws.
The housing discrimination lawsuit filed Wednesday says Patricia and Allen McCoy used racial slurs when telling Victoria Sutton to leave the home. Reached by phone, Patricia McCoy said she hadn’t seen the lawsuit but said they didn’t kick Sutton out over black visitors.
“I kicked her out because she was so nasty,” McCoy said. “It was because of nastiness, tearing up everything and having a cat in the house when I told her she couldn’t have no animals.”
The lawsuit, filed on Sutton’s behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, says Sutton recorded Patricia McCoy repeatedly using a racial slur when she told Sutton she had to leave.
Sutton and her family moved into the house in Adairsville in August 2017.
As a black co-worker with a young child was leaving after a playdate with Sutton’s daughters on Sept. 30, 2018, the co-worker hugged Sutton goodbye.
Later that day, Allen McCoy came to the house and called Sutton a “(racial slur) lover,” the lawsuit says.
He told her he would call Child Protective Services for having a black person on the property and told Sutton she had two weeks to move out, the lawsuit says. When Sutton protested, McCoy told her to call his wife and threatened to call the police if Sutton’s black friend came onto his property again.
Sutton called Patricia McCoy and recorded the call, during which McCoy repeatedly used a racial slur, the lawsuit says. Patricia McCoy told her, “I don’t put up with (racial slurs) in my house and I don’t want them in my property.”
When asked Wednesday whether she’d said she didn’t want black people on her property, Patricia McCoy said, “I told her I didn’t want nobody out of the trailer park on my property because they’re drug pushers.”
Asked if she used the racial slur, she said no.
When Sutton said she had the right to invite anyone to the home, Patricia McCoy said she would evict her, the lawsuit says. When Sutton said she’d done nothing wrong and would tell a judge that, Patricia McCoy threatened to “stomp the (expletive) out” of her, the lawsuit says.
The McCoys served Sutton with an eviction notice the next day, the lawsuit says. A judge told Patricia McCoy she couldn’t evict Sutton without giving her a letter of intent, which would initiate a 60-day period for Sutton to leave.
The McCoys left a letter on Sutton’s doorstep about two weeks later.
The federal Civil Rights Act and state and federal fair housing laws prohibit landlords from discriminating because of race, whether of the tenant or the tenant’s guest, the ACLU said.
The lawsuit asks for a jury trial and seeks damages for diverted resources and emotional distress, as well as punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.