AIDS Patient Gets Reprieve on Transfer to Jail Hospital

An appellate court judge Friday issued an emergency order to keep authorities from sending an AIDS victim accused of fraud to Missouri for four months of diagnostic tests that the defendant claims would constitute a “death sentence.”

Ninth District Court of Appeal Judge Alfred T. Goodwin issued the emergency order Friday night after U. S. District Judge A. Andrew Hauk refused to rescind an order placing Sheldon L. Block of Malibu in federal custody for tests to determine whether brain damage caused by AIDS has made him mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Assistant U. S. Atty. David A. Katz, the prosecutor, said Block was to have been transferred early next week to a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo., where all federal inmates with AIDS are housed.

Block instead was taken Friday night to St. Mary’s Hospital in Long Beach. He is to remain there, in custody of federal marshals, until a three-judge appeal court panel can consider the issues, probably by the end of next week, said Block’s attorney, Mark E. Beck, who sought the emergency ruling.

Not Life-Threatening

Hauk Wednesday declared Block mentally incompetent and ordered him into federal custody for the tests. But the judge stayed his ruling for two days because Block said he had a 101-degree fever and was suspected of having pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, a sometimes fatal disease associated with AIDS.

But medical tests conducted Thursday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center showed no evidence that Block has pneumocystis or any other imminently life-threatening disease, Dr. Ronald Fishbach told the court. Fishbach, who supervised the examination at Hauk’s request, said Block would not be harmed by the trip to Missouri.

Block, 36, who was diagnosed as having acquired immune deficiency syndrome in July, had asked Hauk to drop or indefinitely postpone his trial on 75 counts of mail fraud and one count of racketeering. Block claimed he is physically and mentally incapable of undergoing trial.

Trial Delayed

Hauk indefinitely delayed Block’s trial, which had been scheduled to begin Tuesday in federal court in Los Angeles. But Hauk said federal statutes dealing with the mental competence of defendants required him to immediately commit Block for tests.

Contradicting their earlier contentions, Block and his attorney then told the judge that Block is alert and mentally capable of assisting in his own defense. The judge insisted that Block be committed, however.

Beck argued that Hauk’s order was unconstitutional, but Hauk said he found Beck’s argument unpersuasive.

“It isn’t a Draconian law that is used to hurt people, particularly AIDS patients,” he said. “I suppose, like any human being, I have a natural sympathy for someone suffering from this scourge that has no known cure and little alleviation. But, at the same time, I must follow the law.”

Block’s personal physician, Dr. Michael J. Roth, testified Friday that Block apparently has a fast-advancing form of AIDS and is also suffering from Kaposi’s sarcoma, a skin cancer associated with AIDS.

Roth, co-chairman of the California AIDS Commission, said there is an 80% chance that Block won’t live more than a year. He said stress could shorten Block’s life by nearly a third.

Stress of Incarceration

“The stress of being incarcerated would certainly shorten his life,” Roth said.

Beck said in a brief filed with the court that Block is receiving state-of-the-art experimental drugs unavailable at the Springfield hospital. Block may soon be accepted into a special UCLA experimental program for AIDS victims, Beck said. He also said that Block needs a high-protein, low-fat, low-lactose diet free of preservatives, food coloring and bacteria.

Roth also contended that quick diagnosis of opportunistic infections that prey on an AIDS victim’s weakened immune system are necessary. He argued that the Los Angeles area is considered advanced in the diagnosis and treatment of AIDS-related diseases.

Prosecutor Katz said the drugs Block is receiving and the special diet are available at the Springfield prison hospital. He contended that Block is not eligible for the experimental drug treatment program at UCLA because it is open only to those with pneumocystis.

Shackled to Bed

Beck showed the judge pictures taken Thursday in which Block is shackled to his hospital bed at Cedars-Sinai, where he was under the custody of federal marshals. Beck asked Hauk to recommend to the marshals that such methods no longer be used. Saying he found the shackling “unreasonable,” Hauk agreed.

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

Twenty-three of Block’s employees also were charged with mail fraud and related offenses. Of those, 21 have pleaded guilty and at least a dozen have agreed to testify against Block, Katz said.

Two others, Douglas John Parsons, 25, of Gardena and Chester Hultberg, 39, of El Cajon, are scheduled to go on trial Tuesday.

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