Trial Scheduled to Begin for Suspect in AIDS Assault Case : Courts: Prosecutors say he knew he carried the virus when he bit and spit bloody saliva during struggles.

A North Hollywood man who prosecutors say knew he had the AIDS virus when he bit and spit bloody saliva on law enforcement officers and a nurse is scheduled to go on trial today on four charges of assault with intent to do great bodily injury.

The case, in which an alleged carrier of the deadly virus is accused of willfully attempting to spread it by biting and spitting, is apparently the first like it in Los Angeles County, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jacquelyn Lacey said.

“This is a new type of case,” she said. “It presents some interesting issues.”

A jury is scheduled to be selected today in the trial of Michael L. Newbrough, 24, who was charged in the assaults that occurred at two hospitals last year. He has pleaded not guilty.

None of the four men who were the victims of the alleged assaults have contracted the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus, but continue to be tested for symptoms, Lacey said.

Lacey said the incidents began May 15, when Newbrough was taken from an alcohol rehabilitation center to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia after suffering seizures. Newbrough allegedly began fighting with a female nurse when a male nurse, Chris Eisenring, ran to help her.

During the struggle, Newbrough bit Eisenring on the forearm, breaking the skin, Lacey said. Newbrough was then arrested for assault by Sheriff’s Deputy Del Green. During the arrest, Newbrough bit his own lip, then spit bloody saliva on Green, Lacey said.

Newbrough was taken to the Olive View Medical Center psychiatric center and the following day got into a struggle with Los Angeles County Safety Police officers Renaldo Chavez and Elisio Guzman, Lacey said.

The prosecutor said that during the struggle Newbrough bit Chavez and spit bloody saliva at Guzman, hitting him in the eye.

Lacey said a laboratory test taken after the incidents confirmed that Newbrough is infected with human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which causes AIDS. She also said a key witness in the case will be a hospital counselor who will testify that before the incidents occurred Newbrough said he had AIDS.

“He told the counselor, ‘I am depressed and I am upset because I have AIDS,’ ” Lacey said.

Newbrough’s attorney, Dwight Lee Corum, refused to confirm that his client is infected with the virus. He described Newbrough as a “troubled young man who was under medication” at the time of the incidents.

Corum said the prosecution will be unable to prove that AIDS can be transmitted through bites.

“There is not one incident of a person contracting the AIDS virus through a bite,” Corum said.

Though Lacey said a medical expert will testify that the virus could possibly have been transmitted during the incidents, Newbrough’s intent to harm the officers and nurse was clear.

“By biting his own lip, it appears he took steps to mix his blood with theirs,” she said.

Corum said he has found no similar criminal cases in California. He said cases in Alabama and Minnesota in which assault charges were brought against AIDS victims for biting ended in convictions. However, he said, the Alabama conviction was overturned on appeal because the prosecution had not proved that the virus could be transmitted by biting.