Rape Victims Left in Dark on HIV Threat : Health: Law shields the disclosure of a suspect’s status. One man is suspected of raping 15 women, but only four have learned if he carries the AIDS virus.

When accused serial rapist Monette Johnson goes on trial this week, the prosecutor will say Johnson is the man who broke into the homes of at least six women and raped them, and the defense lawyer will argue that he isn’t.

But there is one subject neither of them will address in the courtroom, or anywhere else: whether Johnson might have the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, and whether he could have passed on the deadly virus to his alleged victims.

In all, Johnson is suspected of raping as many as 15 women across the east San Fernando Valley, often at knifepoint in the middle of the night, police say.

Some women have been notified by county health officials that they may have been exposed to HIV. However, the notices do not say who is suspected of exposing them. That is because state confidentiality laws can shield accused and convicted rapists from having their health status made public.

There are some instances in which rape victims can be told whether their attacker is infected with the virus, but only if criminal charges are filed and they obtain a court order mandating an HIV test. However, if a woman alleges that a man has raped her, and authorities are unable or elect not to prosecute--as is the case for nine of Johnson’s alleged victims--she cannot be told his medical status.

This rankles police, prosecutors and especially rape victims.

“It is a travesty of justice,” said one woman, who is set to testify that Johnson, 35, raped her. “It’s not right for people not to know about it.”

The woman, and three of the others Johnson has been charged with raping, successfully petitioned the court two years ago to force him to undergo an HIV test, and they now know the results. However, it remains illegal for those women--or anyone else familiar with the information--to reveal whether Johnson has tested positive for the virus. To do so is punishable by up to a $10,000 fine and a year in county jail.

Some authorities say the law protects rapists at the expense of their victims.

“Those victims have a right to know,” said Los Angeles Police Detective Gary Barthelmess, who said that even he is prohibited from finding out. “They’re going to spend the rest of their lives wondering if and when they will come down with it.”

The women who claim Johnson raped them have been clamoring for information, say some victims, police and other authorities with knowledge of the case. They want to know if the letters they received from the county Department of Health Services mean he is the one who may have exposed them, or if someone else was the source.

“You can imagine a rape victim who gets a letter like this, and doesn’t know,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Phil Rabichow, who is prosecuting Johnson. “ ‘Was it the suspect? My husband? My boyfriend?’ There is no reason to prevent law enforcement or the victims from knowing the results in a sexual assault case.

“They have a right to know if they’ve been exposed,” Rabichow said, “and who exposed them.”

Since 1989, victims of rape, sodomy and certain types of sexual molestation in which body fluids may have been exchanged are entitled to go to court to force their accused attacker to undergo an HIV test if a criminal case is brought.

Dr. Martin Finn, medical director of AIDS programs for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, said the confidentiality law may not be perfect, but it is needed.

Without it, he said, people could claim that they were sexually assaulted as a means of determining whether a sexual partner or other person is HIV positive.

“I can empathize with the women sitting out there with great concern,” Finn said. “But if we move to change the law to say anyone can find out such results, then we’re moving into the area of hearsay. And that really concerns me.”

Some private groups that promote AIDS outreach and awareness vehemently oppose changing the laws. They say people would never come forward to be tested if there was any possibility that the results would be given to others.

Finn, who has the responsibility of discussing such test results with those entitled to get them, said only about 15 rape and molestation victims in Los Angeles County have asked for the results of their attackers’ tests.

So far, none of the women who petitioned the court in the Johnson case has reported testing positive for HIV. Finn said that in the vast majority of cases, if someone does not test positive within three months of an exchange of bodily fluids, that person can rest assured he or she was not infected.

However, authorities predict that the clash of AIDS disclosure and confidentiality in criminal cases will become more pronounced.

Barthelmess, a veteran sex crimes detective in North Hollywood, said many victims have pleaded with him and health officials to tell them whether they have been exposed to the virus, and by whom.

“It puts you in a moral dilemma, of fundamental right versus wrong,” he said.

Johnson, a resident of Lake View Terrace, is a convicted criminal with a long record and a list of aliases, including Monnette C. Alford Johnson. Police say he prowled Valley neighborhoods and raped his victims at knifepoint after entering their houses and apartments through unlocked doors and windows.

He is charged with 28 counts of rape, burglary, robbery and other crimes for a series of attacks police say he committed from August, 1991, until he was arrested in January, 1992.

At his trial, scheduled to begin today in Van Nuys Superior Court, prosecutors say they will try to convict him on the basis of witness testimony, DNA testing and other evidence. Property stolen from some victims was found at his apartment, police say.

Johnson’s lawyer, M. David Houchin, has said in court documents that such DNA testing is faulty. Johnson has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He was released from parole in July, 1991, after serving nearly a year for an extortion conviction. Authorities allege that the rapes started soon afterward.