AIDS Victim Faces Prosecution Over Blood Donation

Attempted murder charges were filed Monday against an AIDS patient and reputed male prostitute who allegedly knowingly sold contaminated blood to a Los Angeles donation center, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner announced.

Acknowledging that there is “no law in the state of California that directly addresses this particular problem,” Reiner told reporters it is necessary “to protect the public” from Joseph Edward Markowski, 28, because of his “frightening, as well as repulsive,” actions in putting others at risk of contracting the deadly, contagious disease.

“He is a threat to everyone,” Reiner said.

AIDS is spread through the exchange of blood and other bodily fluids.

“I frankly see no moral distinction between this case and the person who put poison in Tylenol,” Reiner said, referring to a series of episodes that began in Chicago five years ago.

Proprietary Centers

Unlike blood donated by volunteers at Red Cross or hospital blood centers, blood collected at proprietary centers in California is never transfused directly to patients, experts said Monday.

Paid-donor blood is used to make gamma globulin, albumin and an anti-clotting factor that is used to control bleeding in hemophiliacs, said Dr. Steven Kleinman, associate medical director at the Los Angeles--Orange County Red Cross Blood Center.

The chances are slim that patients who receive plasma from such centers could get AIDS, even if the plasma were contaminated with the AIDS virus, he said.

The reason, he said, is that blood collected at proprietary centers by law must be tested for the virus before it is used on patients. Even if the test fails to detect the virus, the kind of processing that plasma undergoes makes the risk to patients extremely small, the doctor said.

Markowski, described by Reiner as a transient who has known for six months that he has acquired immune deficiency syndrome, gave police the names of five recent sex partners, which led to additional charges, the district attorney said.

The defendant also told police that he had donated blood 23 times using a variety of aliases but later denied it, Reiner said. Investigators are currently checking with other blood donation centers in the area, according to the district attorney.

Reiner said Markowski was seized June 23 at a Bank of America branch after he caused a disturbance and pleaded with a security guard, saying: “Kill me, kill me, I have AIDS.”

Markowski was taken to a county mental ward and placed on a 72-hour hold but was released within one day, the district attorney said. Authorities, meanwhile, found a receipt in his clothing indicating that he had donated blood the day before at Plasma Production Associates, a private firm at 178 S. Alvarado St.

The day after his release from the mental hospital, when Markowski attempted once more to sell his blood to the private blood bank, he was arrested, Reiner said.

Reiner said Markowski’s statements to police show that he had an “expressed,” rather than an “implied,” intention to kill, as required by the law.

“ ‘I know that AIDS can kill,’ ” Reiner quoted Markowski as telling police. “ ‘But I was so hard up for money that I didn’t give a damn. . . . I am aware that the tests do not always catch the AIDS virus. But when you have to survive, you’ll do anything.’ ”

Reiner said prosecutors have additional confirmation that Markowski has AIDS but would not specify whether it comes from a blood test or a doctor’s diagnosis.

“It’s part of the evidence we’re presenting at the preliminary hearing,” district attorney’s spokesman Al Albergate said later.

Earlier this month, Fresno County Dist. Atty. Edward Hunt rejected attempted murder charges in a similar case involving a prostitute who knew she had AIDS and a suspected pimp who also knew. After Hunt decided that specific intent to kill could not be proved, Stephanie Smith and Reginald McMillan were instead charged with misdemeanor prostitution and willful exposure to communicable disease.

Reiner conceded that the case against Markowski will be a “hell of a tough case to verify.”

At his news conference, Reiner criticized Plasma Production Associates, saying that officials there disregarded a police request to retain the blood donated by Markowski on June 22 so that it could be tested by authorities.

“We’d sure like to find out why they did it,” the district attorney said.

But the general manager of the donation center, Lance James, said police had not requested that the blood be retained.

“Once we receive any indication from authorities that we have a hot unit--an infected unit--we’re required to destroy it,” James said.

James noted that a sample of Markowski’s blood had earlier been sent to a laboratory in Illinois for testing, according to routine practice. Officials at Hyland Laboratories in Oak Mount, Ill., said the blood sample has not yet been tested.

The defendant, who is being held in lieu of $1-million bail, was arraigned Monday afternoon in Los Angeles Municipal Court and pleaded not guilty to four counts of attempted murder and six other counts of assault with intent to commit great bodily injury and deliberately mixing poison with pharmaceuticals.

Reiner said the assault charges stem from two encounters with the only sex partner police were able to locate.

A preliminary hearing was set for July 10. Albergate said Markowski faces a possible maximum term of 22 years.

However, Markowski is not expected to survive more than a year, Deputy Dist. Atty. Antonio Barreto said, adding, “He’s going downhill fast.”