Tag: HIV
Man charged with knowingly spreading HIV
GULFPORT, Miss. — Police say a Mississippi man has been charged with knowingly exposing others to HIV.
News outlets report 29-year-old Tyrone Ross, of Gulfport, was arrested Sunday as the result of a complaint received against him at a hospital.
Gulfport police Sgt. Clayton Fulks says Ross met a man while they were in jail and was intimate with him behind bars. Fulks says they continued their relationship after they were released.
Police say the relationship lasted between October 2015 and May 2018.
Police say Ross had previously been convicted for knowingly exposing others to HIV twice. It’s unclear if Ross has a lawyer.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/05/22/man-charged-with-knowingly-spreading-hiv/
Lawsuit Claims CVS Unintentionally Revealed HIV Status of 6,000 Customers in Ohio
CVS Health is being sued for allegedly revealing the HIV status of 6,000 patients in Ohio.
A federal lawsuit claims CVS mailed letters last year that showed the status of participants in the state’s HIV drug assistance program through the envelopes’ glassine window.
The complaint, which was filed March 21 in federal court in Ohio, also names Fiserv, the company that CVS hired to mail the letters. On the envelopes used by Fiserv, the patients’ HIV status could be seen through the clear window, just above their name and address, the documents states.
The letters included the patients’ new benefits cards and information about a mail prescription program.
The companies are being sued by three unidentified plaintiffs, according to the complaint.
The first plaintiff, only identified as John Doe One of Delaware County, Ohio, says he “feels that CVS has essentially handed a weapon to anyone who handled the envelope, giving them the opportunity to attack his identity or cause other harm to him.”
Another plaintiff identified as John Doe Two of Defiance County says he lives in a small town and fears the stigma stemming from the disclosure of his HIV status.
He is also concerned that his “friends and family run the risk of being stigmatized just by being seen with him.”
The third plaintiff says he also lives in a small town in Gallia County, where “everyone knows everyone” and has experienced “significant distress as a result of this disclosure.”
He is scared to leave his home and has “experienced complications and health issues since this disclosure, up to and including just in the past several days.”
The plaintiffs are seeking a class-action suit and a jury trial.
The attorneys claim that CVS failed to announce the breach of privacy data and did not contact all the patients whose status was revealed.
In a statement to CNN, CVS Health said the envelope window was intended to show a reference code for the assistance program and not the recipient’s health status.
“CVS Health places the highest priority on protecting the privacy of those we serve, and we take our responsibility to safeguard confidential information very seriously,” the statement said.
“As soon as we learned of this incident, we immediately took steps to eliminate the reference code to the plan name in any future mailings.”
A representative for Fiserv told CNN the company does not comment on pending litigation.
The Ohio Department of Public Health did not reply to a request for comment Saturday.
Fake doctor accused of infecting 21 people with HIV
LUCKNOW, India — An Indian health official says a fake doctor treating poor villagers for colds, coughs and diarrhea has infected at least 21 of them with HIV by using contaminated syringes and needles.
Sushil Choudhury, the official, says police are looking for Rajendra Yadav, who has fled Bangarmau, a small town in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The villagers say they rarely saw him changing the needles. Choudhury said Tuesday that probably led to the spread of HIV.
With India’s health care system facing a massive shortage of doctors and hospitals, millions of poor people seek fake doctors for cheap treatment.
India had 2.1 million people living with HIV at the end of 2016, according to UNAIDS.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/02/06/fake-doctor-accused-of-infecting-21-people-with-hiv/
Model who unwittingly became the face of HIV can sue for defamation of character
A Brooklyn model who unwittingly became the face of HIV when a state agency used her stock photo in one of its ads can sue for defamation, a Manhattan appeals court says.
Like it or not, HIV is still considered “loathsome” by a “significant segment of society” — so model Avril Nolan, who does not have the virus, has every right to pursue her $1.5 million claim against the Division of Human Rights, the panel said in a unanimous ruling issued Tuesday.
The agency had used Nolan’s face in ads along with the words, “I am positive ()’’ and “I have rights,’’ in 2013 to promote the rights of HIV-positive New Yorkers.
The Court of Claims had previously ruled in 2015 that the virus still had enough stigma to allow Nolan’s suit to proceed. The agency appealed, arguing that “HIV is no longer a shameful condition” but lost again with Tuesday’s ruling.
“The very fact that DHR highlighted the need for people with AIDS to not feel stigmatized is recognition that they do,” Appellate Justice Angela Mazzarelli wrote in the new decision.
“This is not to imply that we in any way regard HIV or any other disease to be ‘loathsome,’ ” Mazzarelli added in her opinion on behalf of the panel.
But “a significant segment of society has been too slow in understanding that those who have the disease are entitled to equal treatment under the law and the full embrace of society.”
Nolan– who learned about the ads from her Pilates instructor– can now sue for emotional distress because the panel determined that people with HIV are “unfortunate targets of outmoded attitudes and discrimination.”
Nolan’s suit says she “became instantly upset” that “relatives, potential romantic partners and clients” would see the quarter-page, color ads featuring her in an image with the words “I am positive ().”
She had posed for a photographer friend who was shooting for an online music publication. The photographer later sold the shot to Getty Images, which settled with Nolan in 2015.
A lower court found that the DHR staffer responsible for the ad ignored the license agreement, which stated that Nolan’s image couldn’t be used in an “unflattering or controversial” campaign.
A spokeswoman with state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is defending the claim on behalf of the agency, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
Nolan told The Post, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
via: https://nypost.com/2018/01/16/model-who-unwittingly-became-the-face-of-hiv-can-sue-court/
HIV-Positive School Aide in Maryland Accused of Abusing 42 Boys Pleads Guilty
An HIV-positive former Maryland school aide and track coach pleaded guilty Friday to sexually abusing students and filming child pornography, prosecutors said.
“You really can’t imagine what had to be gone through when investigating this case,” he said, alluding to the hours of video in the case that “nobody ever wants to see.”Carlos Deangelo Bell, 30, of Waldorf, signed a plea agreement admitting guilt on 27 counts, including sexual abuse of a minor, porn charges and attempted transmission of HIV, the state’s attorney for Charles County, Tony Covington, said.
Covington said one of his goals was maintaining the privacy and anonymity of the victims in the case, something made easier by avoiding a trial that would have been open to the public.
The charges cover conduct that spanned from May 2015 to June 2017, and the 42 victims range from 11 to 17 years old, Covington said.
Bell, who was originally facing 206 counts, will be sentenced March 28. Prosecutors said they will recommend up to 190 years in prison. Covington said another of his goals was to make sure that Bell spends the rest of his life in prison.
Bell also faces federal charges and is due in court again later this month.
“Based upon the evidence that the state presented it was is in his best interest to enter into this negotiated guilty plea,” defense attorney James Crawford said, adding Bell would also plead guilty in federal court.
Covington said investigators are not aware of any victim testing positive for HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus. HIV is a virus that can destroy the immune system if left untreated.
After a six-month investigation, Bell was arrested June 30 on charges of assaulting at least seven boys, mostly of middle school age, Charles County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Diane Richardson said at the time.
He was removed from his jobs as an instructional assistant at Benjamin Stoddert Middle School and as a track coach at La Plata High School late in 2016 when the investigation began. He began working for the school system in 2014.
Charles County Schools Superintendent Kimberly A. Hill applauded the plea deal and said, “Since learning of the charges against Mr. Bell we have focused on supporting the students affected.”
She said school district staff members were also getting additional training.
“We are taking every precaution that we can to make sure our employees are aware of the signs” of sexual abuse, she said.
Manhattan Dentist Is Arrested on Drug Trafficking, Child Pornography Charges, and punching holes on condoms to spread HIV.
John Wolf, a dentist in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, is well known in the neighborhood — not only for his popular, light-filled offices, but also for his AIDS activism. He studied the disease in dentistry school, according to his Google profile, and as a practicing dentist in the 1980s he brought, and won, a prominent lawsuit against a landlord who did not want him to treat patients with AIDS
On Friday, federal authorities painted a darker picture of Dr. Wolf: They arrested him at his West Village residence on charges that he had done dental work for a drug dealer in exchange for methamphetamine, and that he possessed child pornography videos.
A criminal complaint prosecutors filed also states that he is H.I.V.-positive and that, according to an informer, he said he had punctured holes in condoms “in an intentional attempt to spread the H.I.V. to his sexual partners.”
Neighborhood residents and one of Dr. Wolf’s brothers, Robert Wolf, said they were shocked at the allegations. Even federal prosecutors referred in a memorandum to Dr. Wolf’s life having a “bizarre duality.”
Dr. Wolf, 59, moved to New York from Michigan decades ago, according to Robert Wolf, who was reached by phone on Friday. He attended college and dental school in the city, and lives with his husband in the West Village, his Google profile says. The partner has worked as an administrator at the dental practice, according to court papers. Dr. Wolf wrote in the Google profile about his love for bicycling, his Chihuahuas and singing. A video posted on his profile page that was filmed in 1985 shows him singing in a gay men’s chorus and discussing AIDS and homophobia.
Dr. Wolf appeared in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Friday. He is charged with conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it, and with possession and distribution of child pornography. Asked by Robert M. Levy, a federal magistrate judge, if he understood the charges in the complaint, Dr. Wolf said, “I think so.”
After searching Dr. Wolf’s home and office on Friday morning, federal agents found methamphetamine and a flash drive filled with 246 files, mostly child pornography, according to a memorandum filed by prosecutors. He admitted to possessing child pornography, “denied having sex with minors and indicated he was unwilling to discuss his drug use or distribution or whether he had drugged anyone unwillingly during sex,” according to the memorandum.
Dr. Wolf’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said after his client’s initial court appearance: “He was woken up at 5 o’clock in the morning, and woke up into a day where his life is going to be completely different. These are charges that are very hard to weather, and I think he’s understandably shaken.”
Federal authorities said they began looking at Dr. Wolf as part of a standard drug case.
“Drug investigations have taken us down dark roads before, but nothing darker than the office practices of Dr. Wolf,” James J. Hunt, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York division, said in a statement.
A drug dealer arrested at Kennedy International Airport in March told the authorities that he had been swapping methamphetamine for Dr. Wolf’s dentistry, according to a complaint filed by Aaron Spivack, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The dealer, who was charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics, is cooperating with the government in the hopes of leniency.
The dealer also said that Dr. Wolf had shown him videos “of infants and toddlers being sexually abused by adults,” including images of infants and toddlers being raped by men, according to the complaint.
According to the dealer’s version in the complaint, Dr. Wolf also told him “that he was actively involved in underground sex parties at various locations in New York City, including in Brooklyn, where participants would engage in sexual intercourse with animals.”
In October and earlier this month, the dealer made recordings of Dr. Wolf for the government. In those, according to the complaint, the dentist discussed having sex with animals; said he continued to use and hand out drugs; said he continued to poke holes in condoms during sexual encounters; and discussed drugging an adult man with a “slam of K” before sexually assaulting him, referring, apparently, to ketamine, a drug used illegally as a hallucinogenic.
The drug dealer then offered to introduce Dr. Wolf to his “roommate,” saying that the roommate was interested in child pornography as well. The “roommate” was an undercover F.B.I. agent.
The three met at Dr. Wolf’s office in Chelsea. Last week, the undercover agent recorded Dr. Wolf saying he used the basement for sex parties. Dr. Wolf then plugged in a flash drive and showed the agent about 35 minutes of child pornography, the complaint said.
As recently as Thursday, according to the memorandum, the undercover agent recorded Dr. Wolf. In that recording, Dr. Wolf said he had given drugs to “willing and unwilling adults during drug-fueled sex parties,” said it would be “hot” if he and the agent abused children together, and talked about how they might arrange that, among other things.
Robert Risko, an artist who lives near Dr. Wolf’s office, said the office environment was “wacky,” and “loose, friendly, fun.”
“He has a huge clientele because people like him,” Mr. Risko said.
Robert Wolf, who lives in Tennessee, said he was “absolutely floored” by the accusations. He said he did not know of any drug or addiction problems in his brother’s past.
In court, Moira Kim Penza, an assistant United States attorney, cited the “safety of the community” and the “overwhelming evidence in this case” as she asked Judge Levy to hold Dr. Wolf without bail. The judge set a hearing for Tuesday to discuss bail.
At Dr. Wolf’s office on Friday morning, a man at the front desk said that Dr. Wolf was not in, but that two other dentists were still seeing patients. He declined to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the press.