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SANTA FE – A woman accused of coughing in a health care worker’s face is claiming the court’s mask requirement is a medical intervention that violates her rights.
Joy Ebel, 53, of Truchas, is charged with battery on a health care worker and her case is currently in Santa Fe Magistrate Court. The charge is a fourth-degree felony, and if probable cause is found, will be bound over to 1st Judicial District Court.
However, the case has had some hang-ups.
Ebel has filed several of her own motions in her case, seemingly rejecting the representation of her assigned public defender, Marcus Lucero. Ebel’s motions accused Lucero of falsely representing her and says that he could act as her co-counsel, but nothing more.
In her motions, Ebel objects to the court’s requirement of wearing a mask in the courtroom and says requiring her to do so was a “medical intervention.” Wearing a mask would constitute an “epidemiological experiment” and the court would be engaged in the “unlicensed practice of medicine,” she argued.
The charges stem from an incident at La Familia Medical Center on Alto Street in Santa Fe on Dec. 3 when Ebel took her child to the clinic for an examination, according to charging documents. Clinic officials initially allowed her to wait in the clinic’s waiting room but asked her to put on a mask. After Ebel refused several requests to do so, she was told she would have to wait in her car.
Clinic staff said Ebel then became irate and got “nose to nose” with a worker, yelling and coughing in the worker’s face, according to the criminal complaint.
Ebel also argues in court documents that any jurors in her case shouldn’t be permitted to conceal their identity by wearing masks.
In addition to objecting to masks, Ebel’s motions also included objections to courtroom technology. She said the due process of law doesn’t require technology and she has a right to be seen in a “bona-fide” courtroom.
“The defendant demands the right and human dignity of looking the judge in the eye, face-to-face, and to see the man who will condemn or exonerate him,” her motion stated.
Lucero on Tuesday said he was still representing Ebel.
“As of today, we are working to protect Ms. Ebel’s rights as her case proceeds,” he said.
