Kaci Hickox sues Chris Christie for over $250,000 in damages

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Kaci Hickox says her civil rights were violated when she was forced to stay in a tent for two days because people feared she might have Ebola
'I never had Ebola. ... I tested negative for Ebola the first night I stayed in New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s private prison,' Hickox says
The nurse had returned from treating patients in Sierra Leone when she was detained in Newark as she showed a raised temperature after landing

By Associated Press and Dailymail.com Reporter

Published: 17:08 EST, 22 October 2015 | Updated: 17:23 EST, 22 October 2015

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The defiant nurse quarantined in New Jersey in last year's Ebola scare is suing Governor Chris Christie for federal civil rights violations, her lawyers said on Thursday.

Kaci Hickox, 34, contends that Christie and the New Jersey Health Department violated her rights by depriving her of due process and unlawfully detaining her.

She wants at least $250,000 in damages plus court costs.

'I never had Ebola. I never had symptoms of Ebola. I tested negative for Ebola the first night I stayed in New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s private prison,' Hickox said in a statement NBC News reported.

Nursing a grudge: Kaci Hickox, 34, pictured last October, filed a lawsuit on Thursday against New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and the Health Department on Thursday. She says she was by forcibly quarantined in a tent after she exhibited a slight fever when she returned to the U.S. from treating patients in Sierra Leone

Viewpoint: Civil rights attorney Norman Siegel consults with nurse Kaci Hickox through plastic window while she was quarantined in Newark in October 2014. Hickox says her detention was based on fear and not science. She later called this tent 'New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s private prison'

'My liberty, my interests and consequently my civil rights were ignored because some ambitious governors saw an opportunity to use an age-old political tactic: fear,' she added.

Hickox was returning to the United States on October 24, 2014, after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone through Doctors Without Borders when a screening at Newark Liberty International Airport showed she had slight fever.

With anxiety rising that the deadly African illness could enter the U.S., Hickox was transported to University Hospital in Newark and held in an isolation tent in the parking lot.

Hickox tested negative for Ebola twice, but was kept quarantined for more than two days. She was then driven to Maine, her home at the time.

Once in Maine, she almost immediately decided against following the state's voluntary quarantine by going on a bike ride with partner Ted Wilbur.

Later in the day, the pair also had a pepperoni and mushroom pizza delivered to their home in Fort Kent before settling down to watch a movie.

Her actions enraged Governor Paul LePage with lawyers from the state going to court to demand the nurse give a blood test.

Under the big top: Kaci Hickox is seen in the quarantine tent set up in a parking lot at Newark University Hospital in October of 2014, where she was kept in isolation for more than two days. She was the first person forced into New Jersey's mandatory quarantine for health workers who came into contact with Ebola patients

State of mind: Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey went on television last year to defend his controversial policy of quarantining returning health workers who had contact with Ebola patients in Africa. The policy was established in coordination with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

But a judge later gave Hickox the okay to go wherever she pleased as long as she continued daily monitoring of her health.

A spokesman for Christie didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in Newark Federal Court. A spokesman for the state attorney general said the office had no comment.

Hickox was the first person forced into New Jersey's mandatory quarantine for health workers who came into contact with Ebola patients, after Christie and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a stronger quarantine policy than federal standards.

Their plan came under fire from the White House and medical groups.

Hickox, who now lives in Oregon and works as a clinical nurse, said she was stopped at Newark Airport and was questioned over several hours after touching down. She said numerous people interrogated her, including 'a man who spoke to Hickox aggressively as if she were a criminal and was wearing a weapon belt.'

While she didn't have a fever when her temperature was first taken, she said she was told by a medical staffer using a temporal scanner that she did have a fever. Hickox said that was due to her being flushed from frustration, but that led to her being taken to the hospital — escorted by several police cars with lights and sirens blaring.

Her suit says temporal thermometers indicated she had an elevated temperature but that the readings were normal when the temperature was taken orally.

In the U.S., two people died of Ebola after arriving from Africa with the illness.

In Africa,10,000 people succumbed to the disease, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.