Ohio law requires people who know they are HIV positive to disclose that information to their partners. If not, they can be charged with the second-degree felony offense and face up to eight years in prison on each count.
If he is convicted on all charges in both counties, Davis faces a maximum prison term of 192 years.
Dayton police on May 18 arrested an HIV-positive convicted prostitute, Tiffany S. Anderson, 32, for a felony prostitution charge. The majority of prostitution-related charges are misdemeanors. Being HIV positive, however, elevates the charge to a felony.
Confirmed cases
As of March, there were 49 confirmed HIV-positive prostitutes in the city of Dayton, said Lt. Brian Johns, head of the narcotics and vice unit. Since 2005, every person convicted of prostitution-related charges is ordered by the court to be tested for HIV. It is unclear how many of the convicted prostitutes who tested positive continue in the sex trade, Johns said.
“It is a very significant concern because of the potential of transmitting HIV,” said Dr. Thomas Herchline, medical director for Public Health — Dayton & Montgomery County. “In the United States, sexual contact is the primary route of transmission.”
Herchline said it’s hard to know how often such cases occur because people don’t readily admit to this type of behavior.
Six convictions
Since January 2009, Montgomery County has convicted six people for prostitution after testing positive for HIV, said Greg Flannagan, spokesman for the county prosecutor’s office.
One was Anderson, who was sentenced in January 2010 to a year in prison for felony prostitution.
There were no felony assault charges related to HIV in Montgomery County since January 2009, Flannagan said.
The last time someone was charged with felony assault in Warren County under this statute was in 2007 when an inmate at the Warren Correctional Institution had sexual conduct with another inmate, said Assistant Prosecutor Andy Sievers, who prosecuted the case.
The inmate, Kelvin Willis, eventually plead guilty to the reduced charge of gross sexual imposition, a fourth-degree felony, and was sentenced to an additional six months in prison to be served consecutively to his current sentence.
“To my knowledge, I can’t recall another case we prosecuted to this magnitude and with the number of victims,” said Julie Wilson, Hamilton County’s chief assistant prosecutor and public information officer.
Information protected
Neither Wilson nor Sievers were able to say how long Davis has known he was HIV positive or if he was taking any anti-viral medication, citing federal laws on releasing medical information.
They also said those same laws also covered the conditions of Davis’ victims.
“Part of the medical counseling of people with HIV is making sure they understand that they need to use precautions in order to make sure that they’re not transmitting it through future sexual contacts,” Herchline said.
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