GR man pleads guilty to HIV exposure charge even though evidence shows he didn't know he was positive at the time

A Grand Rapids man has plead guilty to one count of AIDS-Sexual Penetration with Uninformed Partner and received up to 4 years in prison. The problem? The man plead guilty to a charge from a relationship in 2008 -- months before he tested positive for HIV in 2009. 


I learned about the timing of his test results from a release of hundreds of pages of documents from the Michigan Department of Community Health. Contained in that release was an email from staff in the department outlining when the man tested positive for HIV. The release of that email was a violation of Michigan's misdemeanor law providing strict confidentiality for all HIV testing results. No charges have been brought since I brought this violation to the state's attention the day after Memorial day. 


What is troubling here is that the man was charged for a crime which has two distinct elements to be proven: (a) that the accused had an HIV positive test result which s/he knew about; and (b) s/he engaged in sexual penetration "however slight" without disclosure of that status. 


The man was charged on Dec. 24 for failing to disclose his HIV positive status to his partner in 2008. On or about Dec. 28, officials at the Michigan Department of Community Health became aware that this first charge was absolutely bogus. 


In an email to Amna Osman and Andrea Woodruff 12/27/11, Karen MacMaster, Manager- HIV/STD/VH/TB Epidemiology Section Bureau of Disease Control, Prevention and Epidemiology Michigan Department of Community Health, wrote of the HIV criminal case in Grand Rapids the following information:

Sent: 12/28/2011 11:01:16 AM Subject: Re: HIV case in GR pressThanks - got it. Please do not forward in an email outside our statesystem as we pulled this info from our records:
1. Has a history of co-infections, a note in the records say that heclaimed to have had multiple sex partners (~700) and last negativetest being in 2007.2. He tested positive in 2009 anonymously at Kent co HD, then followedup at St. Mary's for confirmatory and initial labs (CD4/VL) and hasnot appeared in our system since.3.      We have confirmed in MDSS that this person also has chronic Hep Cand was diagnosed with Syphilis - unknown if he underwent treatmentfor syphilis.+Again let myself or Liz know if anything further is needed.

So, what did MDCH do when it realized that the man had been falsely charged with a bogus case? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. They didn't pick up the phone and call Kent County Health Department or the prosecutor. They didn't call the defense attorney. In fact, Osman sent a letter to the Kent County Health Department praising the department's handling of the case. 


So, here are the questions Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth, Kent County Health Department and Michigan Department of Community Health need to answer:


1. Why did you allow a man to plead guilty to a crime for which there simply was no evidence that he committed? 
2. Why didn't the local health department inform the prosecutor of this fact in Dec. of 2011, since it was informed by MDCH in 2009? 
3. Why didn't MDCH inform the prosecutor that the charge was bogus?
4. When will officials from the MDCH and the office of the Attorney General announce the criminal charges for the person(s) involved in the illegal release of the above email? 


This case, and its handling by officials has been riddled with errors of judgement and fear mongering. You can see my reporting on the media coverage of the case here, and here you can see the reporting on how this case made no sense in terms of Michigan's laws.


NOTE: While I am employed by the American Independent News Network, this blog does not represent the views of AINN, the staff or the editorial team. It is an independent publication without any input from AINN. It is solely the work of Todd A. Heywood, copyright 2012.