There is a conviction in Missouri in a novel criminal case where a former Lindenwold University student Michael L. Johnson, 23, was found guilty of infecting another man with HIV and endangering four others while attending the college in suburban St. Louis. These cases are often difficult to establish given the question of what was known and what was disclosed in an otherwise consensual sexual encounter.
Missouri is one of roughly a dozen states that criminalized exposing others to infection — controversial laws that are often based on circumstantial evidence and could be used to target homosexuals.
Johnson was convicted Thursday on the five counts but was acquitted on a sixth count of exposing another man to the virus that causes AIDS.
Johnson was a college wrestler who was expelled from the university and has been in jail since his arrest in 2013. The challenge for the defense was what may have seemed implausible for the jury. The former high school wrestling champion had tested positive in Indianapolis two years before being diagnosed in Missouri. However, Johnson insisted that he did not remember going to a clinic in Indiana for testing or getting a positive result. That clearly did not convince the jury which took just two hours and 20 minutes to find him guilty.
It is a tragic turn of events for Johnson but no doubt a sense of justice for those exposed unwittingly to HIV. He now faces a maximum punishment of life in prison, the newspaper reported.
Johnson’s case has drawn the attention of gay rights activists and some legal reform groups. They say laws in Missouri and dozens of other states criminalize a medical condition and deter those at risk of infection from seeking medical treatment.
How does knowingly exposing someone to a horrific disease without telling them constitute “criminalizing a medical condition?” Let us say that they had the Ebola virus and knowingly spread it? Surely that would constitute a criminal act. Also how does that preclude people from getting treatment that doesn’t even make sense. So people won’t treat their HIV just so they can infect others without getting caught? You can’t sneeze or spit on someone and transfer HIV you have to have sex with them. Additionally these laws protect gay people themselves from willful transfer of HIV.
Max – “Knowing that people will engage in sexual activity, protecting oneself from exposure and infection was a primary focus and it was the idea to combat transmission rates. It still is. Then came cocktail drugs and now there are PReP drugs on the market to help reduce transmission.”
In a way, that development was devastating to the fight against AIDS. People thought that they couldn’t get it, or it wouldn’t happen to them, and went right back to unprotected sex, and skyrocketing STDs. Such a method should be employed as a backup between two monogamous partners, when one is HIV positive and there is a concern that a condom will not be enough. Even then, a condom should always be used. It is certainly not a license to go out on nightly hookups with dozens of people a year.
“Helping to reduce transmission” is not safe sex. It is a false promise of safe sex that can kill people.
AIDS is a horrible way to go. Unless someone’s that fabled “unicorn” who is HIV positive but never develops AIDS, it will kill him, and it is not an easy death.
Slamming the lid on this dread disease and making it go extinct is for the good of us all.
Rand pretty soon gays will be able to donate blood in the USA.
Thanks, Max!
In the mid-80’s HIV and AIDS was one of the big headlines. It was shocking how many people were coming down with AIDS and dying it’s horrible death. By the late 90’s, the statistics became less publicized and now we hear so very little about the thousands who continue to be infected and die from this disease.
The reason is that the homosexual community has put their political spin and kibosh on the subject. Now they profess love and marriage (pretend marriage). They want their agenda demands met and will ruin opposing people’s reputations and livelihoods to get their agendas met. They continue to spin and cover-up the truth.
If anyone thinks that Michael Johnson is the only one spreading his STD’s and HIV to students, then those people are gullible and foolish. Stop being deceived by the homosexual communities who live their lies and are convincing the ignorant public to believe them.
“Personal Responsibility” is a phrase that comes to mind being used when the gay community was first facing the HIV/AIDS crisis. Knowing that people will engage in sexual activity, protecting oneself from exposure and infection was a primary focus and it was the idea to combat transmission rates. It still is. Then came cocktail drugs and now there are PReP drugs on the market to help reduce transmission.
I cannot understand why some people who know they have HIV or Hep C continue to have unprotected sex. Especially those who, like this man, actually lie to their partners about their HIV status. This reminds me of how they can arrest those with antibiotic resistant TB who refuse to self quarantine.
This is a hard lesson for people that asking you partner if they have been tested is sadly not enough, and the risk of casual hookups exposing them to selfish people.
This is so very sad. Since he actively lied about having HIV, it does sound like murder.
Karen S wrote: “I cannot understand why some people who know they have HIV or Hep C continue to have unprotected sex.”
The reason is LUST. The homosexual activists routinely mislabel their emotions and behavior. Lust is called love, homosexual attraction is called gay, and now same sex coupling is called marriage. What is more disconcerting is how many heterosexuals fall for this deception.
david – HIV infected people have sites where they can go and hook up together in the knowledge they are not infecting anyone else. There are HIV couples who have married knowing full well their partner was infected.
the one who receives the “nut”, usually is more at risk for the crud…newsflash folks…keep your package out of other guy’s heinies..
the “gays” are the largest spreader’s of aids and syph…this is a fact, without equivocation…the “rear-end” was not designed as an erogenous zone…it’s an EVACUATION zone…comprende?
The New York Times has more about this disgusting POS, and his various lies and deceptions, all in the pursuit of his need for that special kind of org*sm:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/gay-wrestler-recklessly-infected-sex-partners-prosecutor-article-1.2219904
Oh, there is just sooo much LOVE going around in the Gay Universe! The only thing surprising about this story is that it is surprising to some people. Gay male sex is filthy, gross, disgusting, and unhealthy. Sooo, why are so many people celebrating it??? Here is them a poem:
Shaking Your Spear???
An Ironic Short Poem by Squeeky Fromm
Of Sodomy, it is now said:
It’s the Greatest Thing since they sliced bread!
And, “So what if sometimes it hurts.???”
It even beats pockets on shirts!
And those who say “Nay!” have no class!
But hey, wasn’t Bottom an ass???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Note: For all the people who don’t know their Shakespeare, from wiki:
Nick Bottom is a character in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream who provides comic relief throughout the play. He is famously known for getting his head transformed into that of a donkey by the elusive Puck.
And of course, a “bottom” in slang is the recipient of the “top’s” special attentions.
How the heck did that happen? 😉
She thinks racist thoughts. She makes racist statements. She seeks to commit racist conduct. AND she puts her trash out there in the marketplace of ideas. Perfect! It’s the place where the heat separates the refined from the dross. You PC police that seek to censor her have ignorantly lost all attachment to the fundamental liberty that allows a democracy to flourish. A passionate clash of ideas draws out the truth. It’s the only way. This notion cannot be in dispute. My only regret in all this is that’s she’s apparently now lost her nerve. Her actual attitude apparently only loosely held and now quickly abandoned when she sees a risk to her pocketbook. What a wuss. I liked her better when she appeared to have a spine.
before my wife and I married, we never dated…”we courted”…that’s what all young people should be doing…and old for that matter…
FogdogSF, there are no 100% safe sex methods other than abstinence.
Vacation in St. Louis.
Come for the Cardinals, stay for the riots.
He has a disease that can be lethal. HIV is a disease. He knowingly exposed people to his disease. If he did not disclose to his victims that he has the disease and they could take measures to avoid infection, then he IS guilty. The method of exposure is immaterial. Sex or viral transmission through the air.
Unlike a disease like typhoid or smallpox, HIV is much harder to contract. A person with a disease like measles can infect multitudes through non personal transmission without your knowledge.. Even so IF you DO know that someone has measles, you can avoid being infected through various means.
HIV is markedly harder to contract and IF you know that a person has the disease, then you can pretty easily avoid being infected.
By not disclosing or allowing his victims the opportunity to make that choice, he has deliberately and likely sentenced them to death or at least a lifetime of suffering.
This post is Squeeky crack.
So what it if he was positive and Paul’s comment about “assault with a deadly weapon” is a bunch of bull. I have little sympathy for his partners and I think I would have held out on that jury. Each person needs to take responsibility for themselves and should not have sex without protection. This is the HIV awareness and protection message. The partners can also choose not to have sex. If young people in America’s heartland of Missouri are not practicing “safe sex,” then shame on them.
At least he will be left alone in prison, where he belongs. Too bad he didn’t leave others alone.
It is assault with a deadly weapon. Had he told his partners that he had HIV and they had consensual sex then that is a different matter.