Judge Won’t Drop AIDS Case

A judge refused Thursday to dismiss 15 assault charges against a Santa Barbara man who is accused of infecting a Ventura County woman with the AIDS virus.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch denied a defense attorney’s dismissal motion, which alleged that county prosecutors were discriminating against defendant David Scott Crother, 46, because he carries the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus.

The county grand jury indicted Crother in January, 1991, on 15 counts of assault, one for each sexual liaison he allegedly had with the unidentified woman without telling her of his illness. Crother was the first person in California to be charged with assault for allegedly spreading the AIDS virus.

Defense attorney Robert Sanger argued Thursday that Crother should not be prosecuted under assault laws because no one had ever been charged that way.

“Whether (the district attorney) is receiving complaints or not, this disease is being spread . . . to other people, and this case is the only case,” Sanger said. “I honestly believe that this is not fair.”

Sanger said Crother should be more appropriately charged with a misdemeanor violation of the California Health and Safety Code that makes it a crime to infect another person with a disease. That crime carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail.

He also asked Storch to order police agencies countywide to produce records of any similar complaints filed by people infected with the AIDS virus.

Storch denied the blanket discovery request but said Crother could ask for a separate discovery order for each police agency.