State legislation would stiffen penalties for threatening health officials

THURSDAY, Dec. 9 — After nearly two years of threatening emails and letters, Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail welcomes a recently introduced piece of state legislation designed to create new criminal penalties for those who threaten or assault health officials in Michigan.

“It will certainly make me feel a little safer,” Vail said in response to questions about proposed legislation that was introduced yesterday by State Sen. Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids.

The bill package — which was referred Senate Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety — would create a new misdemeanor offense for those caught threatening health officials, defined as the head of the state Department of Health and Human Services and local health department officers like Vail, including a maximum sentence of up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

It would also create two new felony charges for those who put their hands on health officials or those who cause them serious injury, which includes a maximum five-year prison sentence. Simple assault and battery would otherwise be punishable by a 93-day misdemeanor charge.

Vail said that she has been subjected to numerous threatening emails and letters since the beginning of the pandemic as people pushed back against her public health authority — some of which has had to do with a lack of understanding of the powers and role of public health.

“Generally, when people think about the health department, they don’t think of us as protecting the public health in an epidemic. That’s a broad power they are just facing for the first time. But this is our constitutional duty and responsibility,” Vail said. “It’s our mission to protect the public.”

And Vail hasn’t been alone in dealing with pushback on health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Adam London, administrative Health Officer in Kent County, was also subjected to a flurry of threatening messages in August. Those threats were in response to his issuance of a mask mandate for local schools. On the same day, he wrote in an email published by WOOD TV, he informed county commissioners that someone had attempted to run him off the road.

Both are just two examples of a documented rise in written, verbal and physical threats that public health officials have faced in light of ongoing coronavirus pandemic mitigation actions — masking, social distancing, and the earlier shuttering of businesses. Vail said she is one of many officials to have received threats, including one that was mailed to her personal home address.

Brinks’ legislation is designed as a response to the rising level of threats against health officials, carving out specific criminal charges with higher penalties for those who choose to target them.

“Throughout the worst pandemic in a century, Michigan’s public health officials have worked tirelessly to carry out their constitutional duty to protect the public,” Brinks said in a press release announcing the legislation. “This brave work should be celebrated, not derided. However, like many public servants, their jobs are becoming increasingly difficult due to misinformation campaigns and threats of physical harm to them and their families.”

Vail said some of her colleagues at other health departments have faced stiff resistance from residents and elected officials. One health official, whom Vail declined to identify, has certain counties in their coverage area they cannot stop in without risking their own physical safety.

Vail said she has been supported by Ingham County's Board of Commissioners and Sheriff’s Department throughout the pandemic, with the sheriff’s office working to make sure she is safe and threats are quickly tracked down. But she said that many of her colleagues in the state don’t have that same governmental or law enforcement support. The proposed laws, she said, will make it more difficult for sheriffs to ignore confrontations with health officials in public meetings.

“Right now there is no specific legislation, and defining a threat is a very difficult thing in legal work,” Vail said. “Passing laws like this put law enforcement on notice that they can no longer stand by when something happens. Hopefully, it makes them have to intervene and take action.”

Both bills will face a series of hearings and amendments in the Senate before they can head to the House. If they pass there, they’ll need Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s signature to become law.