Sailor Found Not Guilty of AIDS Threat to Sex Partner

A Navy avionics technician was acquitted Wednesday of an AIDS-related assault charge for allegedly having unprotected sex with his former fiancee after learning that he had tested positive for the AIDS virus.

Petty Officer 2nd Class John E. Crawford stood at attention in a packed courtroom as the seven-member military jury delivered its verdict in the general court martial.

The jury, which deliberated 4 1/2 hours, also acquitted Crawford of charges of adultery and of wrongfully and in wanton disregard for human life exposing his former girlfriend to the AIDS virus.

The 27-year-old sailor was convicted of a charge of having a visitor in his room after hours. He could have received up to two years for that charge.

After the verdict, Crawford indicated that he was not surprised.

“It was what I felt was right,” said Crawford, who was accompanied by his present fiancee, Karen Skavdahl.

Jeannie Elmer, who brought the charges against Crawford, said she was very upset and fears it will encourage people not to tell their sex partners they have the AIDS virus.

“That’s why AIDS is probably going to be carried on and on and on, because people will not tell their partner,” Elmer said. “And now this will prove they can probably get away with it.”

Crawford’s family and friends applauded the verdict when it was announced. Crawford’s civilian attorney, Howard De Nike, said “Bravo.”

“I really think the jury verdict is a vote of confidence for what he said, for what he stood for,” said Lt. Ron Richman, the Navy lawyer who represented Crawford.

If convicted, Crawford could have been stripped of his rank, dishonorably discharged and sentenced to 10 years behind bars.

The charges stemmed from a sexual encounter Crawford and Elmer had on April 15, 1987.

Crawford, a native of Magnolia, Ark., has testified that he told Elmer about his test results and wore a condom when the couple had sex in his barracks room. Elmer has tested negative for the AIDS virus.

Crawford had said that Elmer, 28, was bitter that he had broken off their brief engagement and filed charges to get revenge, and Richman echoed that opinion in closing arguments by describing Elmer as an “unstable, untrustworthy, deceitful, bitter (and) revengeful woman.”

Lack of Caring

Lt. Cmdr. Jane Gilliland, prosecutor in the unprecedented case, countered in her closing statement that Crawford, depicted as caring and concerned by the defense, simply did not care enough about Elmer to tell her about the tests.

“She had no idea that the act of sex which she engaged in . . . was potentially fatal to her,” Gilliland said. “He wanted something that night and he just didn’t care about Jeannie Elmer.”

Richman said the government was using Crawford as a legal guinea pig by court-martialing him.

“The government is attempting to explore how far the Uniform Code of Military Justice can be applied against an individual . . . with the AIDS virus,” Richman told Military Judge Richard Mollison and the seven-member jury hearing the case at Treasure Island Navy Station.

“The government seeks to hold out Petty Officer Crawford as a guinea pig to see how far it can go on the AIDS issue,” he said.

Crawford manages hangar security at Moffett Field. He has said that no matter what the verdict was, he considers his military career over.