Texas: Another 'deadly weapon' HIV exposure conviction: 15 years for one-off sexual encounter

A 26 year-old man from the small Texan town of Copperas Cove has been sentenced to 15 years in prison with an additional $3000 fine after pleading guilty to charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The aggravated assault? Having one-time consensual unprotected sex with a 16 year-old male after the two met on Grindr.  The deadly weapon?  HIV, of course.

The details of the man's arrest, including a link to a photocopy of the affadavit of charges, were first published last November on the website of a local TV news station. 

The victim learned through another "Grinder" user that [the man] claimed to be HIV-positive. Police say [he] admitted that he was HIV positive during an interview with investigators. According to the affidavit, [he] did not inform his victim that he was HIV-positive.

Yesterday the local TV news station reported on the 15 year sentence handed down by the 52nd District Court noting that the man had previously pleaded guilty as charged in June.

In March 2010, similar charges were laid against another HIV-positive man in another part of Texas for sex with a 15 year-old male under similar circumstances.  The rather balanced Houston Chronicle article reporting these charges also referred to this case and pitches prosecutor David Castillo against Catherine Hanssens, executive director of the New York-based Center for HIV Law and Policy.

Prosecutors in Gatesville are trying the same tactic after similar allegations against another man surfaced last year. Coryell County District Attorney David Castillo plans to prosecute [name of man] in May. [The man], 26, is accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy he met on the Internet last year. Castillo said he believes [the man] has HIV and plans to prosecute him, regardless of whether the boy contracted it. “You can fire a gun at someone and miss, and it's still aggravated assault with a deadly weapon,” Castillo said.

The analogy is a poor one, said Catherine Hanssens, executive director of the New York-based Center for HIV Law and Policy, because it overestimates how easily HIV is spread and stigmatizes those with the virus. “HIV should not be an aggravating factor unless there's some evidence that he intended to do some harm and did some harm,” Hanssens said. “Criminal law in every state is adequate to deal with it. But to treat it as evidence of guilt and a deadly weapon wasn't appropriate in 1985, and it isn't appropriate now.”

In more than 20 years of advocacy, Hanssens said she had seen dozens of charges involving defendants with HIV, some arising from charges involving biting and spitting. Hanssens said charges alleging a “deadly weapon” arise from an infected person's knowledge that they have the virus. She blasted prosecutors and public officials for not considering the deeper ramifications of calling HIV a deadly weapon.

“To refer to HIV as a deadly weapon in 2010 speaks of just unforgivable ignorance,” Hanssens said.

Contrast Ms Hanssen's point of view with a blog posting by Houston criminal defence lawyer John Floyd, who discusses both cases and opinions in the above article, in a post entitled, Is HIV a Deadly Weapon?

HIV infected individuals who knowing have unprotected sex with sex partners without informing them of their infection are potential “serial killers.” It is impossible for the infected individual to know who or how many of their sex partners will contract HIV and die as a result of the exposure. No one should be exposed to such potentially fatal risks simply because someone is not responsible enough to fully disclose that he/she has a potentially contagious disease.

With defence lawyers like him, who needs prosecutors?
  
Of note, the age of consent in Texas is 17, and yet charges of "statutory rape" were not laid, even though the same outcome could have been obtained (Sex with a minor is a second degree felony, punishable by two to twenty years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.00) without these ridiculous and stigmatising 'deadly weapon' charges. 

Last November in Michigan – a state not known for its enlightened treatment of people with HIV given the (now dropped) terrorism charges against an HIV-positive man who allegedly bit a neighbour in self-defence – a 21-year-old man who pleaded guilty under the state's HIV disclosure law to having unprotected sex during a one-night stand with a 16 year-old girl without first disclosing that he was HIV-positive was  jailed for nine months. The age of consent in Michigan is 16, so this was not statutory rape.

US: Padieu case gets the 20/20 treatment; phylogenetic analysis totally misrepresented

The case of Philippe Padieu, the French-born Texan found guilty in May 2009 on six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to 45 years for five counts and 25 years for the remaining count – all of which run concurrently - was featured last Friday night on US ABC TV's tabloid-style news magazine, 20/20.

Five and half million viewers watched as Mr Padieu faced trial by media yet again. All six parts of the one hour show (actually 39 minutes minus commercials) are available to watch online.

Part 1: Women recall HIV criminal's allure
Part 2: HIV diagnosis rocks women's lives
Part 3: Women take matters into own hands
Part 4: HIV serial dater faces victims in court
Part 5: Man convicted of HIV crime speaks
Part 6: Women want case known to protect others

It's basically sold as the story of a group of scorned women uniting to put Mr Padieu behind bars, summarised beautifully by the accompanying story on the ABC news website headlined, 'How Women United to Stop HIV-Positive Man, Women's Horror at Diagnosis Replaced With Mission: Stop Man From Infecting Others.'

There's so much I could say about the show, which is something of a milestone in criminal HIV transmission reporting in the mainstream media, but I'm going to limit my comments about the very worrying misrepresentation of phylogenetic analysis as 'proof' that Mr Padieu was the source of all the women's HIV infection. Perhaps blog readers could fill in the comments sections with insights and criticisms of their own about this programme.

[Update: Catherine Hanssens of The Center for HIV Law and Policy has some terrific comments and insights in her Sept 29th blog post.]

In Part 4 of the show, presenter/journalist Elizbeth Vargas says that it was Mr Padieu's "own DNA" that proved he was guilty. But phylogenetic analysis is all about testing the genetics of HIV, not the individual. They then showed one of the US's foremost experts in HIV forensics, Dr Michael L Metzker, of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, who testified for the prosecution that Mr Padieu's virus was extremely similar to that of the six women. Except here he says definitively that Mr Padieu was "the source" of the six women's HIV. I've written about the limitations of phylogenetic analysis many times: the issues are summarised here.



In the final part of the show, we are introduced to 'Lisa' who dated Mr Padieu in 1997, and was diagnosed HIV-positive that same year. The show gives Dr Metzker a sample of Lisa's blood and he says that "preliminary analysis" suggests that Mr Padieu was the source of all seven women's HIV infection. The show concludes that Mr Padieu "gave Lisa HIV in 1997" and goes on to suggest, without a shred of evidence, that he had been diagnosed earlier than 2005 and knowingly infected Lisa and possibly hundreds of other women.



I'm extremely disappointed in Dr Metzker for totally misrepresenting what phlyogenetic analysis can prove. It is impossible to conclude, given the many limitations of phylogenetic analysis, that Mr Padieu infected Lisa in 1997. It is, in fact, just as possible that Lisa infected Mr Padieu.

I don't expect 20/20 to explain the science (in fact, I expect them to get it wrong), but I do expect Dr Metzker, who is (was?) considered to be a respected scientist, to be less definitive about his conclusions. Maybe Dr Metzker would like to explain how he could be so sure - it would be very helpful to know if he has developed new, as yet unknown, techniques in phylogenetic analysis that can definitively pinpoint timing and direction of transmission.

US: Padieu gives TV interview, highlights Texan 'injustice'

It wouldn't happen anywhere else, but three days after Philippe Padieu was sentenced to 45 years in prison after being found guilty of six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, after having unprotected sex without first disclosing his HIV status with six women who subsequently tested HIV-positive, he gave a TV interview to CBS 11 News.

In it, he essentially repeats the same accusations of bias and lack of evidence that he made in court prior to be sentenced.

I thought the trial was just public opinion turned against me. It wasn't a fair trial at all... The reason I'm serving 45 years is because I had an ineffective counsel. I had no money...

However, seeing him say these things in the flesh makes me appreciate that he has a point. In particular, since Texas has no HIV-specific law, the bar is set much higher in proving that he actually infected the six women with HIV. Although phylogenetic analysis linked his strain of HIV with the six women's, that is not enough to prove the direction of transmission, and - notably - the timing.

He noted that all six women had multiple partners, and that he had sex with three of them before he tested positive (which means he could have infected these women before knowing his status, which definitely would not be a crime).

I think it was an injustice. You couldn't say anything about these woman in court. You couldn't bring up their past sexual history.

However, some of his other allegations are more difficult to swallow, including saying that the six women were "very vindictive."

You could blame them because they failed to take responsibility. They lied. They were involved in a conspiracy. They formed a hate group. I believe they should step up to the plate. They are just as responsible as I am...There's rage. There's vengeance. Admitting knowledge is not admitting responsibility. Hate and anger is fear and guilt in disguise.

Mr Padieu will now appeal and is looking for a new lawyer.

US: Texan man found guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for reckless HIV transmission

A Texas jury has found 53 year-old Philippe Padieu of Frisco, Texas, guilty of six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He is the sixteenth person with HIV in Texas to be successfully prosecuted for either HIV exposure or transmission since 1997.

Update: May 30th.

• Mr Padieu was sentenced to 45 years for five counts and 25 years for the remaining count. The sentences will run concurrently. This is the longest-ever sentence I have come across since starting my blog, but not that surprising for Texas.
  
• Although he didn't testify during his trial, he addressed the court prior to sentencing, claiming that he was, essentially, 'framed' by the complainants and prosecution.
• (An interesting analysis of the implications of the case was published in a Fort Worth Weekly blog.)

Original posting, from May 28th, below:

Mr Padieu was arrested in July 2007 after two women went to police after testing HIV-positive . The police investigation led to four further complainants.

The case has had widespread media coverage throughout the United States, highlighted in today's Dallas Morning News story summarising the trial.

After five hours of deliberations, the [jury's] guilty verdicts were read in a large ceremonial courtroom where the trial was moved to accommodate local and national TV crews covering the case, including ABC's 20/20.

Prosecutors likened Mr Padieu to a "ticking time bomb, a lethal weapon."

"It's as if he took a gun and shot all of them," prosecutor Lisa King said during closing arguments earlier in the day. "But a gunshot wound heals. In this case, he gave them a virus that causes a disease that may well kill them."

[Assistant District Attorney Curtis] Howard said, Padieu is "a ticking time bomb, he's a lethal weapon," and he likened Padieu to Typhoid Mary. He told jurors that Padieu broke the law by knowingly, recklessly and intentionally having sex with multiple women, exposing them to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, without telling them.

His defence attorny, Bennie House, argued that Mr Padieu was in denial and that the six female complainants should have protected themselves knowing that unprotected sex can result in the transmission of sexually transmitted infections.

"They asked Mr. Padieu if he was safe, he said yes," said House. "He's in denial." He added, "Mr. Padieu is not a predator. ... He likes sex...House said his client's partners had a responsibility to practice safe sex. "They should have invoked a mantra – no glove, no love," House said. "If that didn't happen, they should walk out."

Another of Mr Padieu's defence lawyer, George A. Giles, argued - rather unsuccessfully given the many previous Texan convictions for HIV-positive bodily fluids being classed as deadly weapons, including Willy Campbell, who was sentenced to 35 years for spitting at a cop – that Texan law did not specifically say that his client had committed aggravated assault.

[He said that] what Padieu did does not constitute aggravated assault. He suggested that prosecutors go to Austin to lobby for changes in the law if they want to use the criminal code to address the practice of unsafe sex by someone with HIV. "When does he have to tell them or anybody he's got a disease?" Giles said.

However, since the law in Texas is not HIV-specific, the bar was set much higher for the prosecution to prove that Mr Padieu actually infected the six women. They used one of the US's foremost experts in HIV forensics, Dr Michael L Metzker, of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, to testify that Mr Padieu's virus was extremely similar to that of the six women, although he came to a conclusion that may not have been totally scientific.

The news website of NBC Dallas Fort/Worth reported:

He said he used a national database of HIV positive blood samples and compared the samples taken from Padieu and his six alleged victims. In what was called a blind study, Metzker never knew who each sample belonged to.

"I wanted anonymous samples," he said. "I did not want to know the identity of any of the individuals, we treated them all equally, generated the data, generated the alignments."

Metzker said Padieu is the source of his accusers' infection.

"One sample stood out as the potential source of most, if not all, of the other samples," he explained.

However, Padieu's attorneys got Metzker to admit that the study reaches a conclusion, but cannot be called an absolute fact.

The defense is focusing on the fact that HIV can mutate and change over time.

Mr Padieu will be sentenced tomorrow (Friday May 29th). He faces sentencing that ranges from five to 99 years in prison on each of the six counts.

US: Another Dallas man accused of using his HIV as a weapon

Just weeks after a Dallas court controversially handed down a 35 year prison sentence to an HIV-positive man for spitting at a police officer – with the jury finding his saliva to be a weapon – a second HIV-positive Dallas man has been charged with aggravated robbery, after allegedly biting a security guard as he was detained for allegedly stealing a pack of sausages from a supermarket.

Paul Thibodeaux, 26, who remained in custody Friday morning, has been charged with aggravated robbery, the Dallas County sheriff's office said. His bond was set at $100,000. The aggravated robbery charge is more serious than a robbery charge because the suspect used “his infection as a weapon,” said Dallas police Senior Cpl. Kevin Janse.

At least the story, in The Dallas Morning News, includes some information from the Dallas County Health Department on how HIV is transmitted.

Man claiming HIV is accused of biting Kroger guard during scuffle
Friday, May 30, 2008
By EMILY TSAO / The Dallas Morning News

A man claiming to have HIV is accused of trying to steal sausage from a Kroger store and biting a security guard during the robbery.

Paul Thibodeaux, 26, who remained in custody Friday morning, has been charged with aggravated robbery, the Dallas County sheriff's office said. His bond was set at $100,000.

The aggravated robbery charge is more serious than a robbery charge because the suspect used “his infection as a weapon,” said Dallas police Senior Cpl. Kevin Janse.

Mr. Thibodeaux is accused of putting a $4.79 package of Holmes Smokehouse sausage in his pants and walking past the cash register without paying, Cpl. Janse said. The incident occured Wednesday evening in the 4100 block of Cedar Springs Road.

A security guard confronted Mr. Thibodeaux who then kicked and punched the guard, Cpl. Janse said. During the scuffle, Mr. Thibodeaux bit the guard twice, puncturing the guard’s skin.

At some point, police learned that Mr. Thibodeaux may be HIV positive, but that claim has not been substantiated, Cpl. Janse said.

Earlier this month, an HIV-positive man was sentenced to 35 years in prison for spitting into the eye and open mouth of a Dallas police officer.

Willie Campbell was convicted of spitting in the face of Officer Dan Waller during an arrest in May 2006.

Advocacy groups for people with AIDS have said the sentence was excessive. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other medical experts have said that no one has contracted the virus from spit.

The Dallas County Health Department has issued a statement about HIV transmission that read: "HIV is usually spread by sexual contact with an infected person, by sharing needles with someone who is infected, or by transfusions with infected blood products." The statement went on to say that the "U.S. Public Health Service guidelines determines the risk of HIV transmission from such fluids as saliva and tears to be extremely low."

US: Texas man gets 35 years for spitting; saliva was 'deadly weapon'

A 42 year-old HIV-positive man who spat at a police officer during his arrest for being drunk and disorderly has been sentenced to 35 years in prison by a Dallas court and must serve at least half of his sentence before being eligible for parole because the jury found that his saliva was a deadly weapon!

Words actually fail me. The man was angry during his trial, and one of his outbursts, "You're all railroading me. I'm an innocent man," rings pretty true to me. Surely one of the worst examples of anti-HIV prejudice in a courtroom I have ever seen.

Story, from The Dallas Morning News, is below.

HIV-positive man gets 35 years for spitting on Dallas police officer
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
By TIARA M. ELLIS / The Dallas Morning News
An HIV-positive man with a history of spitting at police officers and biting fellow jail inmates was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday.

Willie Campbell's sentence came one day after the same Dallas County jury convicted the 42-year-old of harassment of a public servant for spitting into the eye and open mouth of Dallas Officer Dan Waller in May 2006.

As Mr. Campbell was being arrested for public intoxication, he began to resist and kicked at the computer screen in the police vehicle, Officer Waller testified during the two-day trial.

"He turns and spits," Officer Waller said. "He hits me in the eye and mouth. Then he told me he has AIDS. I immediately began looking for something to flush my eyes with."

During Tuesday's guilt/innocence phase of the trial, Mr. Campbell testified in his defense and offered to enter his feet as evidence to prove he did not kick the squad car's computer screen, said Aja Reed, a prosecutor who worked on the case.

On Wednesday, as another Dallas officer testified about Mr. Campbell spitting on him in an unrelated incident, Mr. Campbell jumped up and began yelling at the officer and prosecutors, according to another prosecutor in the case, Jenni Morse.

"He said to the officer, 'You're a liar. You're all railroading me. I'm an innocent man.' "

Dallas County sheriff's deputies took Mr. Campbell into custody and placed him in a holding cell, where he listened to the remainder of his sentencing trial. But not before he said to prosecutors, "You're going to rot in hell," Ms. Reed said.

Russ Hendrichs, Mr. Campbell's attorney, could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon. Because the jury found that Mr. Campbell's HIV-positive saliva was a deadly weapon, he has to serve half of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Officer Waller said he was elated with the jury's decision.

"I know it sounds cliché, but this is why you lock someone up, so our streets are safer," Officer Waller said. "Without him out there, our streets are a safer place."

US: Texas man arrested for HIV exposure

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=3870043&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Frisco Man Accused of Knowingly Spreading HIV

Last Edited: Wednesday, 25 Jul 2007, 6:14 AM CDT

Created: Tuesday, 24 Jul 2007, 9:55 PM CDT

Philippe Padieu FRISCO -- A 51-year-old martial arts instructor is accused of recklessly endangering at least four women by having unprotected sex with them, even though he knew he carried the virus that causes AIDS. Police arrested Philippe Padieu Friday night at a bar in Addison on four warrants of first-degree aggravated assault. The Frisco Police Department says Padieu has known he is HIV-positive since the fall of 2005, but didn't tell any of the people he slept with about his diagnosis. At least one of the women Padieu slept with has tested positive for HIV, according to authorities. Padieu worked as a martial arts instructor at EC Athletics in Plano, a school that teaches cheerleading, tumbling, and martial arts. "We never had any idea that anything was going on," said manager Lee Ward, "and never would have had him in our facility had we known if that was the case." Padieu remains in the Collin County jail in lieu of $200,000 bond

More Possible Victims of HIV-Infected 'Playboy' Contact Police

Women Knew Philippe Padieu of Frisco

Last Edited: Thursday, 26 Jul 2007, 6:25 AM CDT

Created: Wednesday, 25 Jul 2007, 11:27 PM CDT

. After FOX 4 showed the photo of Philippe Padieu Wednesday night, at least two more women have contacted Frisco police, saying they may also be infected with HIV after sleeping with the 51-year-old martial arts instructor. “He’s like a terrorist with a different kind of bomb, slowly infecting as many people as he could have sex with,” said a woman we’re calling “Elaine” to protect her identity. Elaine is an acquaintance of Padieu, the man who on Wednesday remained in the Collin County jail on the four felony charges of First Degree Assault. She describes him as a French playboy who seduced women he met through his job as a martial arts instructor at EC Athletics, a Plano school for cheerleading, tumbling and karate. The school teaches young children, and there are always mothers around. “He was dating women that were married, and they didn’t know about each other,” Elaine said. “I knew about four or five.” So far four women have tested positive for HIV. Frisco police Sgt. Gerald Meadors says each of woman eventually discovered she wasn’t Padieu’s exclusive partner. One believed his monogamous lies for four years. “The victims learned of each other, and through talking with each other were themselves tested,” he said. Police arrested Padieu at a bar in Addison and say they have no idea how many people he may have come into contact with since testing HIV-positive in 2005. “I know he was going out every night,” said Elaine.