Teen With AIDS Receives Suspended Jail Sentence for Drug Possession

A Laguna Hills teen-ager with AIDS who gained national attention during a legal battle to stay in school was sentenced Tuesday to a six-month suspended jail term for drug possession.

Channon Phipps, 19, also was ordered to serve three years’ informal probation upon pleading guilty in Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel to the single count of possession of methamphetamine, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt McCormick.

The jail term was suspended, with the condition that Phipps completes his probation, officials said.

Phipps already was in Orange County Jail, serving a 120-day sentence for a previous misdemeanor drug possession conviction, because his arrest constituted a failure to complete a drug-free program.

At age 11, Phipps, a hemophiliac, learned he had contracted HIV through tainted blood products he received. Officials of the Saddleback Unified School District expelled him from school because of his infection, but his aunt and guardian, Deborha Phipps Franckewitz, sued and got him reinstated.

Franckewitz would later convince Phipps to turn $52,000 from a lawsuit settlement over to her. She left with the money, but was arrested and pleaded guilty to one count of theft. She was ordered to spend nine months in jail and to pay restitution.