Sex offender admits exposing other to HIV
CANTON — An HIV-infected sex offender admitted Monday to exposing another patient in the sex-offender treatment program to the virus.
AH, 40, pleaded guilty in St. Lawrence County Court to first-degree reckless endangerment, a felony. The plea agreement calls for him to serve three to six years in state prison and admit he’s a repeat felony offender.
County Judge Jerome J. Richards ordered H held in St. Lawrence County jail until his Nov. 10 sentencing.
H is accused of having anal sex with a 33-year-old man June 13 at the Bridgeview building, which houses the sex-offender treatment program, on the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center grounds in Ogdensburg. He reportedly lied to the man about being HIV positive when asked if he carried any diseases before having consensual sex, Ogdensburg city detectives said then.
H said in court he wasn’t asked about having any diseases before having unprotected sex with the unidentified man.
The state Office of Mental Health conducted an internal investigation into how two men in the sex-offender treatment program were able to have sex despite a strong security presence. Agency officials declined recently to release publicly the results of the investigation.
H, who is classified as a Level 3 sex offender, was convicted in July 1990 of sodomizing three teenagers in New York City and was ordered to serve 10 to 20 years in state prison, according to state records. He was released on parole to another state agency in May.
Judge Richards said H could be eligible again for the sex-offender treatment program when he completes his latest prison sentence.
