Prostitute With HIV Virus Gets 9 Months
A Superior Court judge on Thursday ordered a prostitute to three years’ probation and nine months in a residential jail for her guilty plea to working the streets while knowingly infected with the virus that causes AIDS.
Patricia Sweeting was the first woman and third person to be charged in Los Angeles County under a 1988 law making it a felony to practicing prostitution after testing positive for the HIV virus.
Judge Frederick Lower gave Sweeting a two-year prison term, but suspended the sentence and imposed a three-year probationary sentence on the condition that she serve 270 days in the residential treatment facility. Deputy Public Defender Irene Nunez asked that Sweeting be sent to a facility that treats both drug abusers and people with the HIV virus.
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