Prostitute didn't disclose HIV/AIDS status before motel sex, police say
LG is accused of having sex with another man at a Cascade Township motel without disclosing that he has acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A man police say was working as a prostitute has been charged with failing to inform a sex partner that he has AIDS.
Charges were initially filed against him in 2016. He appeared in 63rd District Court Monday, Sept. 23 on an amended complaint stemming from the same incident, which allegedly occurred at a motel on 28th Street SE in Cascade Township.
The criminal charge – AIDS – sexual penetration with uninformed partner, is punishable by up to four years in prison.
LG, 37, made a brief appearance in court on Monday. He’ll return next week to hear the evidence against him. He is free after posting 10 percent of $5,000 bond.
“Obviously these are very serious charges given the nature of what occurred here,’’ Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said. “That’s why we feel it’s still meaningful to pursue them at this time.’’
Michigan is one of 26 states with laws that criminalize HIV exposure.
Michigan’s AIDS Disclosure Law took effect in March, 1989. It says a person who knows they have AIDS or are infected with HIV must disclose that status to their partner before having sex.
Six cases involving four defendants have been filed in Kent County in the last decade, Becker said.
The charge against LG stems from a traffic stop in August of 2015. The driver told Kent County deputies that his passenger, LG, “was a prostitute that he had engaged in sexual intercourse with,’’ court records show.
“During a search of his person, medications were discovered,’’ a sheriff’s detective wrote in a probable cause affidavit. “When they questioned him about the medications, he informed the deputies that he is HIV positive.’’
The driver, who admitted to having sex with him, was asked if he knew about LG’s HIV status prior to the two engaging in sex. “He said no,’’ the detective wrote.
The victim, who was 31 at the time, paid him $25 and provided him with food and cigarettes in exchange for sex, according to court records at the time.
LG appeared in court on the criminal charge in June of 2016. The case was dismissed three weeks later. Charges were then refiled, but LG could not be found. He was living in Detroit at the time, according to court records.
“That happens sometimes,’’ Becker said. “The case remains pending until they turn up.’’
LG was booked into the Kent County Jail on Sept. 6. He posted bond and was released Sept. 9.
Male prostitute working 28th Street motel didn't disclose HIV status to client
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. (WZZM) – A man described by police as an AIDS-infected prostitute is accused of having sex with a client at a Cascade Township motel for $25 and cigarettes, without disclosing his health status.
LX appeared in 63rd District Court Wednesday for a probable cause hearing on a charge of having sex with an uninformed partner.
He and the 31-year-old victim had sex at a motel on 28th Street near East Paris Avenue SE last August, court records show. The victim paid X $25 and provided him with food and cigarettes in exchange for sex, court records show.
The two were stopped by Kent County Sheriff’s deputies later that night and officers questioned X about a large amount of medication in the vehicle, sheriff’s detective Gary Vickery wrote in a probable cause affidavit
“When deputies questioned X about the medication, he informed them that he has AIDS,’’ Vickery wrote.
His sex partner earlier asked X if he had any infectious diseases “and X told him no,’’ Vickery wrote.
X is also charged with being a repeat felony offender for a 2013 conviction in Wayne County for attempted possession of analogues, or designer drugs.
X, 33, who lists an address in Detroit, was named in a criminal complaint authorized in October. He was booked into the Kent County Jail on June 2 and posted a $1,000 bond four days later.
During Wednesday’s probable cause hearing, defense attorney Justin McCarthy asked for a delay of the June 22 preliminary hearing, which Judge Jeffrey O’Hara granted. The hearing has been rescheduled for early July.
“The prosecution is going to seek to have some additional evidence gathered by the investigator,’’ McCarthy told the judge.
It’s not a foregone conclusion that the alleged victim will be around to testify. Investigators had trouble tracking him down; he was booked into the Kent County Jail Wednesday as a material witness.
Under Michigan’s AIDS Disclosure Law, which took effect in March, 1989, a person who knows they have AIDS or are infected with HIV must disclose that status to their partner before having sex. Michigan is one of 24 states with laws requiring persons who are aware that they have HIV to disclose their status to sex partners.
The charge was last used in Kent County about four years ago.
In a highly-publicized case, a Comstock Park man in Dec. 2011 told Grand Rapids police he attempted to infect hundreds of people with HIV by having unprotected sex and sharing needles.
DX was convicted of having sex with an uninformed partner. He was sentenced to between 17 months and four years in prison. X, now 55, was released from prison in Aug. 2015.
