Death of Man Convicted in AIDS Case May Halt Ruling

The first man in California convicted of assault for knowingly spreading the AIDS virus through sex has died of the disease, possibly preventing a ruling by an appeals court on whether the prosecution had merit as legal precedent throughout the state.

The controversial 1992 conviction of David Scott Crother, a 47-year-old former Santa Barbara carpenter, was appealed to the state 2nd District Court of Appeal before his death on Feb. 3.

Now lawyers on both sides of the case say they expect the appeals court to throw out the case and leave unclarified the question of whether people can be charged with assault for knowingly spreading AIDS.

But Ventura County prosecutors say they are searching for Crother’s victim--a former girlfriend who along with the couple’s baby has since tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS--and weighing whether to ask the court for a ruling anyway.

“If there’s any way we legally can, we’d want to press on with this just to get the issue resolved,” said Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin J. McGee. “It’s a situation that, given the present circumstances, is likely to happen again and it’d be best to have a law in place.”

Robert Sanger, the Santa Barbara attorney who represented Crother, said Tuesday, “I don’t know that we really need to go to the appellate court and push the issue.”

He added, “But sure, I’d like to see it resolved, I’d like to see the court come back and say, ‘No, you can’t do that, you can’t expand the law at times of emotional crisis beyond the bounds of the law.’ ”

Crother’s family would rather see the matter dropped, said his mother, Betty Crother of San Luis Obispo County.

“He’s just gone now,” she said Tuesday. “It’s better to forget that and let that drop. That’s all over and done with.”

In a statement read in court last August before Crother was sentenced to five years’ probation and 3,000 hours of community service, the unidentified Ventura County woman who was the victim in the case said:

“This is not an assault. It is murder. . . . All I wanted is someone to love me, and now I’m going to die for that. I don’t think I should have to die for that.”

The woman said she pressed charges against Crother because “I was tired of women being expendable receptacles for men. I made up my mind that I was not going to allow myself to be victimized by men.”

In 1991, a Ventura County grand jury indicted Crother on 15 counts of assault with a deadly weapon--one for each sexual liaison he had with the unidentified woman without wearing a condom or telling her that he carried the AIDS virus. Crother pleaded not guilty.

On July 10, in a court trial lasting less than five minutes, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch convicted Crother of two assault counts, and Sanger quickly appealed the case to the 2nd District Court of Appeal.

The court was to have heard the case this spring.

“That was going to be a precedent-setting case,” said Deputy Atty. Gen. Arthur Auerbach. “I was going to do the appeal on whether or not AIDS can be considered a dangerous and deadly weapon. At this point, I guess it’s not going to be ruled on.”