NEWARK, NJ - Kaci Hickox, the former Maine nurse who was detained and forced into an uncomfortable quarantine in New Jersey, has finalized a settlement with that state.
In June, officials with the New Jersey Attorney General's office announced that they'd reached a tentative "settlement in principle" but declined to give details.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Hickox in her case, the settlement involves a "Bill of Rights" for those facing quarantine, to guarantee due process. In exchange, Hickox dropped her suit against Republican Governor Chris Christie and several other defendants. Initially, Hickox had been seeking at least $250,000 in damages.
The case stems from 2014, when Hickox had just returned to the U.S. after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. She was stopped at the Newark airport and forced into quarantine. Hickox said she was held in an unheated tent in a garage with no ablutions facilities, before being allowed to come home to Maine- where she faced further threats of action by Gov. Paul LePage.
"We've achieved what was needed: procedures that will ensure that no one will have to go through what I experienced in New Jersey, and that no one will be quarantined unless it is medically necessary to do so," Hickox said in a statement. "The settlement upholds the principles and values of liberty and due process."
And she says the New Jersey protocols can serve as a model for other states to adopt.
The agreement was signed by Gov. Chris Christie on July 20.
