Judge Delays Trial, Confines AIDS Victim for Testing

A Malibu man who has AIDS was granted a delay in his fraud trial Wednesday but was ordered into custody for four months of diagnostic studies that he complained would constitute a “death sentence.”

U. S. District Judge A. Andrew Hauk ordered the defendant, Sheldon L. Block, 36, of Malibu to be taken to a federal hospital prison in Springfield, Mo.

The judge stayed his order until Friday, however, after Block said he had been diagnosed as having pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, a form associated with AIDS.

“Your honor, it’s a death sentence. . . . This is a plea for my life,” Block said at a court hearing Wednesday.

Block said he is undergoing experimental drug treatments that are unavailable at the Springfield hospital, which houses all federal prison inmates known to have acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Order to Hospital

Hauk ordered Block to immediately check into a local hospital, under guard of a federal marshal, for tests to determine whether he has the form of pneumonia known as pneumocystis.

Hauk indefinitely delayed Block’s trial, which had been scheduled to begin Tuesday in federal court in Los Angeles, on 75 counts of mail fraud and one count of racketeering.

Block was indicted in February for allegedly using a telephone “boiler room” sales operation to get thousands of businesses across the country to pay for overpriced or undelivered office equipment through post office boxes in Sherman Oaks and Encino. Block’s company, Venice-based Park Distributing Inc., allegedly grossed $35.4 million from 1981 to 1985, through the scheme.

‘I Don’t Deserve to Die’

He was diagnosed in July as having AIDS.

“The charges I’m facing are selling toner for Xerox machines. I don’t deserve to die for that. I didn’t sell drugs to children. I didn’t murder anyone,” Block said.

Although other illnesses have prompted delays or dropping of criminal proceedings, prosecutors and defense attorneys agree that this is the first such case they know of involving a defendant with AIDS.

Block’s attorney, Mark E. Beck, argued that Block is physically and mentally incapable of standing trial. He said Block came to court Wednesday against the advice of his physician, who wanted him hospitalized because of the pneumonia.

Beck submitted to the court a defense psychiatrist’s report stating that brain disease caused by AIDS has reduced Block’s IQ to “the subnormal range” and rendered him “unable to make rational judgments” or participate in his defense.

Beck also said that the rigors of a trial would kill Block, who he said is easily exhausted, severely depressed, preoccupied with suicide and suffering from severe diarrhea.

Although agreeing to delay the trial, Hauk said federal statutes dealing with the mental competence of defendants required him to immediately commit Block for diagnostic studies.

Contradicting their earlier contentions, Beck and Block then told the judge that Block is alert and mentally capable of assisting in his own defense.

“I am fully alert. . . . I will not deny that I may not have some problems, but from listening to me, you can see I am more than mentally competent,” Block said in a soft, steady voice.

Says He’s Competent

Block said he wanted his attorney to drop the motion that he is mentally incompetent to stand trial, and that he would be happy to begin trial Tuesday as scheduled.

The judge said, however, that he will order Block to Springfield Friday unless medical reports show he will be harmed by the transfer.

Twenty-three of Block’s employees also were charged with mail fraud and related offenses in the scheme. Of those, 21 have pleaded guilty and at least a dozen have agreed to testify against Block, said Assistant U.S. Atty. David A. Katz, who is prosecuting.

Block was freed on $1-million bail in February after posting two Malibu homes and a third house in Westlake Village as security.

The prosecution, whose doctors had not yet conducted medical or psychological examinations of Block, on Tuesday filed with the court an investigator’s statement alleging that Block recently was seen working out at a health club and that he is robust and cheerful.

The charges against Block carry a maximum sentence of 395 years.