Keeping HIV secret lands man in jail
A North Carolina man has received a nine month jail term after pleading guilty to HIV exposure in neighbouring Virginia.
Interestingly, the female complainant remained in a relationship with the man after she discovered his HIV status, having protected sex with him for another four months, before the relationship went sour. It was only then she went to the police.
This is surely a rather blatant example of how HIV exposure laws are being used by disgruntled exes to get back at their former love when things go sour.
In late July or early August, the victim said she learned from a friend of Johnson’s that he was HIV-positive. When she confronted him, he admitted it.
The woman said that when she asked X why he didn’t tell her, X replied, “I really love you and I didn’t want to lose you.”
The woman said she continued having sex with X after learning of his condition, but it was protected sex.
The relationship ended in November, when X was arrested following a domestic altercation with the victim. The woman did not contract the virus.
The full story, from The Free-Lance Star, is below.
Keeping HIV secret lands man in jail
March 27, 2008 12:15 am
BY KEITH EPPS
A North Carolina man was ordered to serve nine months in jail for not telling his girlfriend he was HIV-positive before having unprotected sex with her.
RX, 42, of Washington, N.C., pleaded guilty to two counts of infected sexual battery and assault and battery yesterday in Stafford Circuit Court.
The two charges of infected sexual battery were reduced from felonies to misdemeanors.
X should be released soon. He has been in jail since November, and inmates convicted of misdemeanors generally have to serve only about half of their sentences.
The victim, a Stafford woman, testified at a preliminary hearing that she met X in September 2006 while visiting in North Carolina.
The two began a relationship that soon became intimate.
The woman said she had unprotected sex a number of times in Stafford between April and August of last year when X would visit her for weeks at a time.
In late July or early August, the victim said she learned from a friend of X’s that he was HIV-positive. When she confronted him, he admitted it.
The woman said that when she asked X why he didn’t tell her, X replied, “I really love you and I didn’t want to lose you.”
The woman said she continued having sex with X after learning of his condition, but it was protected sex.
The relationship ended in November, when X was arrested following a domestic altercation with the victim. The woman did not contract the virus.
Prosecutor Eric Olsen said he agreed to reduce the charges to misdemeanors because otherwise he would have had to prove that X intended to infect the woman.
Attorney Vanessa Jordan represented X.
Heterosexual HIV exposure case in Virginia
A North Carolina man RX, 42, has been charged with infected sexual battery in neighbouring Viriginia – a Class 6 felony that carries a potential five-year jail term – accused of having unprotected sex with his girlfriend without telling her his HIV-positive status.
