Countywide : Trial Scheduled in AIDS Assault Case
A June 15 trial date was set Friday in Ventura County Superior Court for a Santa Barbara County man charged with assault with a deadly weapon for knowingly spreading the AIDS virus.
The trial date was scheduled after the defendant, David Scott Crother, 45, pleaded not guilty at an arraignment hearing before Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch.
Crother was indicted in January, 1991, on charges of engaging in consensual but unprotected sex with a Ventura County woman without informing her of his medical condition.
The woman subsequently had a baby and both the woman and the baby have tested positive for the virus, according to the prosecutor.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal last Tuesday rejected a defense challenge which argued that using the assault with a deadly weapon charge in conjunction with allegedly spreading the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus had no precedent in California.
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