Hollywood : AIDS Charges for Prostitute
A female prostitute who has tested positive for the AIDS virus has become the first woman in Los Angeles County to be charged with a felony for soliciting prostitution under a law aimed at AIDS carriers.
Patricia Ann Sweeting, also known as Patricia Ann Walker, was charged under a 1988 law that makes it a felony for convicted prostitutes to solicit clients after they were notified that they tested positive for the deadly virus.
Sweeting, 24, was arraigned Tuesday, and is set to appear in Los Angeles Municipal Court in Hollywood today for a probation violation hearing. She could be sentenced to a maximum of three years in prison if convicted.
Sweeting was arrested Aug. 13 on Hollywood Boulevard after she allegedly solicited an undercover vice officer. She had been convicted of prostitution on Dec. 17, 1990, and was informed then that she tested positive for the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.
Prostitution charges normally are treated as misdemeanors. The felony prostitution law was implemented so prosecutors could confront the AIDS problem by penalizing carriers of the AIDS virus.
Two male prostitutes in Los Angeles have previously been charged under the new statute.
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