HIV-Infected Man Charged With Assault

http://www.komotv.com/stories/30572.htm

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Originally Posted by Article

'I Hope He Rots In Jail'
March 29, 2004
By Keith Eldridge

THURSTON COUNTY - Another local woman thinks she's just been given a death sentence.

She's afraid she's been deliberately infected with HIV.

"I hope he rots in jail. He's going to anyway, he has HIV," said Sarah Powers.

Her anger is focused on Anthony Whitfield.

Whitfield is charged with first degree assault on four women for having sex with them knowing full well that he was infected with HIV and had been warned by the health department.

Powers sat in court Monday just a few feet away from him. She's not one of the four victims, but she says she'll be victim number five as soon detectives talk with her.

Powers is still waiting for her test results to come back to see if she was infected with HIV.

"The odds of me not having it are slim to none," she said. "I've been involved with him before, and after, he found out (he was HIV positive)."

She feels betrayed by Whitfield, and now her life and the lives of other women are threatened by AIDS.

But why did he do it?

"I think, personally, that he found out he had it and he got mad at the world and said 'I'm just going to take everyone down with me.'" KOMO 4 News asked her "Why would he do that to you?" She replied, "I don't know."

One of Whitfield's friends said, "That's the kind of person he is."

The father of one of the other victims agrees. He didn't wish to be identified for his daughter's sake, and for the sake of his grandson. His grandson is the product of Whitfield's relationship with her.

"He's had a miserable life and the misery has been spread to other people," said the woman's father. "I feel sorry for him, I feel sorry for my daughter, my grandson."

Whitfield fathered two children with two of his victims who have AIDS. It is unknown if the children are HIV positive.

Since word of Whitfield's arrest spread on Friday, roughly 70 people have called the Health Department. It's not known how many are directly involved in this case.

There could be more victims Whitfield's home state of Oklahoma.

The Thurston County judge says Whitfield is a danger to society, and set his bail at $500,000.

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I bolded the important part, but this is totally messed up. They're charging this guy with assault - like it's his fault that all of these women consented to unprotected sex with him. He's still a shithead, for knowingly doing this, but assault? Anywhere from five to seventy women just met some guy and said, "Okay, let's bang without protection!" Idiots. Anyone else see this story?

Amen. I can't say anything more... these people piss me off.

It's probably 70 people because the four he had sex with had sex with others, who had sex with more people, etc.

The guy gave these women death sentences, he deserves everything he gets. People have unprotected sex all the time, I think it's reasonable for them to assume that the person they're screwing hasn't got a deadly disease. If the guy hadn't known then I could see an argument being made, but he knew all along and that kind of callous individual is a detriment to society.

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Originally Posted by Mike

http://www.komotv.com/stories/30572.htm
but this is totally messed up. They're charging this guy with assault - like it's his fault that all of these women consented to unprotected sex with him.

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Dude! How can you possibly put this on the women?! He knew what he had and he knew what he was doing. You're supposed to trust people you have sex with. He used that trust to his advantage to spread his disease and strike out at the world.

Man, think before you type.

then charge him with reckless endangerment, they chose unprotected sex, KNOWING the possibility that he could give them any sort of disease and or get them pregnant. He's an asshole but the women aren't 100% free of guilt here.

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Originally Posted by Cheebs

Dude! How can you possibly put this on the women?! He knew what he had and he knew what he was doing. You're supposed to trust people you have sex with. He used that trust to his advantage to spread his disease and strike out at the world.

Man, think before you type.

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He obviously didn't KNOW these women if he was so prolific, you know? They were one-night stands, maybe short stands, but clearly not relationships. You're supposed to trust people you don't know? You expect people these days to be forthcoming with that kind of information? I think that if you're willing to spread your legs you should assume that EVERYONE has a deadly STD and either use protection yourself or NOT DO IT if your partner won't.

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Originally Posted by Johnny

People have unprotected sex all the time, I think it's reasonable for them to assume that the person they're screwing hasn't got a deadly disease.

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I'll let the naivete there stand on its own. ;)

EDIT: I do agree that he deserves punishment for this, but assault is way too much. If he were raping these women it would be one things, but they all consented to the sex.

I stand by what I said. There's a huge difference in accidentally getting a disease from unprotected sex and setting out with the goal of infecting somebody.

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Originally Posted by Mike

I do agree that he deserves punishment for this, but assault is way too much. If he were raping these women it would be one things, but they all consented to the sex.

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Way too much? You can get assault for punching somebody. A victim recovers from that in a day. He ruined their whole lives. That's worse than assault.

How is that naive? People shouldn't expect that their sexual partner is out to kill them. Was it stupid to not wear protection? Absolutely, but that doesn't warrant a death sentence. This guy is scum and deserves to rot in jail.

So poisoning someone's drink shouldn't be considered murder?