News: Husband who joked about his ex-wife contracting Ebola in West Africa is thrown in JAIL

Ex-pensive joke on your Ex-wife, Mr Smith!!!

A 60-year-old Ohio man has learned the hard way that Ebola is not a laughing matter.

Emanuel Smith was arrested Wednesday on a charge of inducing panic after he told a dealer at the Horseshoe Casino in Cleveland that his wife has contracted the deadly virus.

According to the Ohio Casino Commission, the gambler went into further dealer, claiming that his spouse traveled to Cleveland from the Ebola-stricken region of West Africa, and that he was gambling to avoid seeing her.

Ohio officials later determined that Smith, who is divorced, and his ex-wife do not have Ebola and have not been to West Africa recently.

Smith's gallows humor 'caused panic' in the casino, a portion of which had to be temporarily closed down resulting in 'a large financial loss' for the owners, according to court filings cited by The Smoking Gun.

Casino commission officials contacted the Cleveland Police Department, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the local health department.

Cleveland.com reported that the retired Cuyahoga County IT specialist was arrested at his home at around 9.30pm Wednesday and charged with felony inducing panic and criminal trespass.

He is being held at the Cuyahoga County Jail on $10,000 bond. During his arraignment Friday, a judge ordered Smith to stay away from the Horseshoe Casino.

But Smith's attorney, Kathleen DeMetz, said the man's offhand remark was taken out of context and misinterpreted.

‘People were having a general discussion about the current situation,’ she told the news site. ‘He made a comment regarding his former wife who had traveled to Africa sometime in the past and that he tries to stay away from her.’

The gambler's joke could not have come at a worst time: just hours before Smith had his fateful exchange with the card dealer, it was reported that a Texas nurse who was diagnosed with Ebola had flown into Cleveland to plan her wedding.

Amber Joy Vinson, 29, who treated Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, arrived in Cleveland last weekend to visit family and try on wedding dresses. On Tuesday, she tested positive for the virus.

The news of Vinson's travels sparked school closures in Cleveland, and a group of nurses were told to stay home Thursday.

Another Dallas nurse, Nina Pham, 26, is currently being treated for the virus at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland. On Friday, her condition was downgraded from 'good' to 'fair.'

According to the latest numbers from the CDC, the Ebola outbreak so far has claimed the lives of 4,493 people, among them Mr Duncan in Dallas.

Culled from DailyMail