Jailers in Gay Ward Ask AIDS Blood Test

More than a dozen Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies assigned to a jail ward that houses homosexual inmates have requested blood tests after the AIDS-related death last week of a deputy who had worked for more than two years in the same facility.

Sheriff Sherman Block, hoping to allay concerns among deputies assigned to the Hall of Justice jail, where all known gay inmates are housed, said Wednesday that free blood testing for any interested deputy or civilian staff member is being arranged through the county’s Health Services Department.

Sheriff’s doctors, meanwhile, were trying to determine how Deputy Gordon M. Phillips acquired AIDS.

Phillips, 39, a 16-year veteran of the department, had been off the job for about 10 months, suffering from an arthritic hip. He eventually contracted pneumonia and died Sept. 24 of a heart attack, which was attributed to AIDS, Block said.

Phillips is the first sheriff’s deputy to die of the disease, the sheriff noted.

Authorities have found nothing to suggest that Phillips was infected--either through sexual or blood contact--by an inmate.

Yet despite that lack of evidence, as well as medical data strongly indicating that AIDS cannot be transmitted casually, many deputies guarding homosexual inmates in the Hall of Justice jail have nonetheless expressed increasing fear of infection after Phillips’ death.

There are 314 known homosexuals among about 1,900 inmates housed in the Hall of Justice. The homosexual inmates are separated from the general population for their own protection and do not prepare food or wash dishes, sheriff’s officials said. More than 160 deputies are assigned to the jail.

“We’re all wondering what’s going on,” one jailer said. “Based on what we knew, (Phillips) was not homosexual. You’ve got young (deputies) in here who are so scared right now, they think that they can catch AIDS from the food that’s prepared for them by the inmates.”

Another deputy said, “We’ve been told that the virus can live in dried blood for up to two weeks and that we should wear surgical gloves whenever we can. The whole thing is really scary.”

The jail’s commander, Capt. Robert Spierer, downplayed reports of fear among among his men, but conceded that, “We’re all very much concerned.”

“The details on blood testing are being worked out right now; in the meantime, were trying to learn as much about AIDS as we can,” Spierer said Wednesday.

Les Robbins, president of the Assn. of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the department’s union, said that at least 15 Hall of Justice jail deputies had signed up for blood testing as of Sept. 25.

He said deputies are particularly frustrated because they cannot be told if any of the inmates they are guarding have AIDS. That information is considered private under California law.

“We’ve had deputies bitten by inmates who told them they had AIDS, and those deputies have had to sweat it out, not knowing if the inmate was telling the truth or not,” Robbins said.