Rape Suspect With AIDS Virus Held in Attempted Murder Case

A 31-year-old man was booked on suspicion of attempted murder Thursday after police said they learned that he sexually attacked a woman fellow patient in the County-USC Medical Center mental ward and that he has tested positive for the AIDS virus.

Ben Jude Lezine was the second person arrested for attempted murder in Los Angeles County on the basis of being an alleged AIDS carrier.

Joseph E. Markowski, 29, a reputed street hustler, was ordered a week ago to stand trial on such a charge on the grounds that he knowingly passed on the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus by selling his blood.

Lezine was arrested for investigation of two counts of rape, as well as attempted murder, because of alleged assaults on an unidentified 26-year-old woman mental patient at the medical center Sept. 3.

Detective Bill Pavelic of the Los Angeles Police Department’s mental evaluation unit, said hospital officials learned of the rape two days later and notified police.

Pavelic said he booked Lezine Thursday morning upon learning that he was scheduled to be released at noon from the mental ward, where he had been lodged after a family disturbance.

The detective said he did not want to see Lezine released from the hospital because he “clearly represents a danger to the community at large.”

“We didn’t want him walking around out there in this situation,” he added.

Pavelic said he plans to seek a formal complaint from the district attorney’s office today or Monday.