The chain of events that left federal and state officials scrambling to find and investigate Peter Italia, the Rutland man being held in quarantine, began with Christina Rainville, deputy state’s attorney for Bennington County.
Events appear to have unfolded much as Gov. Peter Shumlin described when he announced the case earlier this week, saying, “We found out about this from the way we find things out in Vermont, which is basically local folks were concerned about this individual’s return to Vermont.”
Those who were concerned include Rainville, who confirmed Thursday that she was told that Italia was in West Africa in mid-October, and looked up his Facebook page.
Italia is in quarantine for three weeks until it can be determined conclusively he did not contract the Ebola virus while visiting Guinea and Sierra Leone. He has shown no symptoms, authorities have said.
Rainville is familiar with Italia because he testified as a witness for the state in the 2013 trial of Peter Campbell-Copp, a Manchester con man who bilked a number of Vermonters out of more then $100,000 by promising to publish books for hopeful authors, many of them elderly or disabled.
Among those authors was Italia, who has published at least two works, among them “Quantum Medicine,” described as containing “true stories about real hospital cases in which Dr. Italia has used time travel and other methods.”
After reading Italia’s Facebook posts detailing his endeavors to investigate the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Rainville said she became concerned for his safety.
She said she brought those concerns to a U.S. Marshal. Vermont’s U.S. Marshal, David Demag, said Thursday that one of his deputies was working in Bennington and urged Rainville to call the state Health Department.
Though she couldn’t comment on a pending case, it’s likely that Rainville discovered Italia was in Africa because she was seeking him to testify in an ongoing case against Campbell-Copp that is working its way through Bennington Superior Court.
Her discovery and subsequent alert likely led to a federal-level investigation of Italia and his activities in West Africa.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Peter Shumlin has confirmed that Italia had contact with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials in Guinea, which is also affirmed by Italia in his Facebook posts.
In a post dated Oct. 21, Italia writes that he was convinced his dispatches on the Ebola outbreak had “obviously upset someone” and that “as the hotel manager has told me the police are looking for me.”
In subsequent posts Italia says he was put on a no-fly list and prevented from returning to the U.S.
When he was finally able to get a flight out of Guinea, he reports being stopped at the ticket counter and told he would not be able to board the flight.
“They said it was because of the CDC,” he writes. After calling someone at the American Embassy who had been “handling” his case, he was eventually allowed to board the flight.
When he arrived at JFK International Airport in New York, he writes that he was met at the jetway by two security officials. He was again screened by health officials who then “handed (him) off” to Joanne Calvi, director of the Vermont Health Department’s Rutland district office, and Rutland County Sheriff Steve Benard, who drove him to Vermont.
Italia’s vital signs are being checked twice daily for the duration of his quarantine. So far, he has not had an elevated temperature or displayed any of the symptoms associated with Ebola.
