Judge Orders First AIDS Test Under Prop. 96 Provisions

A Los Angeles County Jail inmate has been ordered to undergo a blood test for the AIDS virus, becoming the first person in California to be so ordered under provisions of the just-passed Proposition 96.

The order by Superior Court Judge George Trammell came on Wednesday night at the sentencing of Fernando Villanueva, 21, who had pleaded guilty to assault on a police officer. In addition to ordering Villanueva to undergo the AIDS virus screening test, Trammell sentenced him to a year in jail and placed him on three years’ probation.

Villanueva was arrested in Los Angeles on the morning of Sept. 1 in the 1900 block of South Figueroa Street after a scuffle with motorcycle Officer Ronald Farmer of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The incident began when Farmer saw smoke coming out of Villanueva’s car and signaled him to pull over. Villanueva sped away instead, according to authorities.

After Villanueva finally stopped his car, a struggle ensued between the two men. During the struggle, Farmer was bitten severely on the left forearm, and later required medical treatment, officials said Thursday. They said Farmer now has a scar on his arm about the size of a half dollar.

Proposition 96, which was approved Tuesday by 62.3% of the state’s voters, allows sex-crime victims and certain others to seek court orders that force their alleged assailants to be tested for exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus. The proposition, advanced by Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, also would require that jailers be warned about inmates who test positive.