Women Fear Rape Suspect May Have Given Them HIV : Health: Officials say some Valley victims will never know if they are at risk because of confidentiality laws.

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

But there is one subject neither of them is likely to address in the courtroom, or anywhere else for that matter: 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 from across the East Valley, often at knifepoint in the middle of the night, according to police.

Some of those women have been notified by county health officials that they may have been infected with the HIV virus by some person; but the notices won’t say who. That’s because state confidentiality laws shield Johnson and other accused, or convicted, rapists from having their health status widely publicized.

There are some instances where rape victims can be told whether their attacker is infected with the virus, but only if criminal charges are filed in their case and if they get a court order mandating an AIDS test. But if a woman alleges a man has raped her--and authorities are unable or choose not to prosecute--she cannot be told his medical status.

And that 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 others Johnson has been charged with raping all successfully petitioned the court two years ago to force him to undergo an AIDS test, and now know the results. Police believe other women were raped by Johnson besides those in the cases in which he is charged, but don’t think they can prove it. And since no one can tell these women the results of the AIDS test--not even another suspected rape victim who knows--these women may never find out if the stocky parolee has tested positive or negative for the virus.

And anyone who is entitled to know, whether it be another suspected rape victim who may know or a county health official, runs the risk of a $10,000 fine and a year in county jail if they disclose the results. Some authorities say that 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 added 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 that 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 Health Department mean that he is the one who may have exposed them to the virus, 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 AIDS test if a criminal case is brought.

Police and fire officials also can request such a test if they believe that they have come into contact with tainted blood or other body fluids. But they, too, cannot divulge the results.

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

Without it, he said, people could claim that they were sexually assaulted simply as a means of determining whether a sexual partner or other person was 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, and say people would never come forward to be tested if there was any possibility that the results would be given to others.

As a result, they say, fewer people would get tested and treated, and more people would unknowingly spread the virus.

So far, the issue hasn’t come up all that often in police stations and the courts, according to Rabichow.

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 ever asked for the results of their attackers’ tests.

So far, none of the women in the Johnson case have reported testing positive for the HIV virus. Finn said that in the vast majority of cases, if someone does not test positive within three months of an exchange of bodily fluids, they can rest assured that they were not infected.

Like prosecutors and police, Finn predicted that the clash of AIDS disclosure and confidentiality in criminal cases will become more pronounced in the future.

Barthelmess, a veteran sex-crimes detective in North Hollywood, said the issue already is coming up with increasing frequency.

Many victims have pleaded with him and health officials to tell them if they have been infected with the virus, and by whom.

“It puts you in a moral dilemma, of fundamental right versus wrong,” he said, adding that he would never divulge such information illegally, even if he did know. “I’d risk a $10,000 fine I’d have to pay out of my pocket, and if not my job, my assignment.”

Someday soon, he said, prosecutors and police will have to grapple with even more confusing issues, such as when a man who knows he is HIV-positive is caught raping someone.

In the past, HIV-infected prostitutes have been charged with attempted murder or other felony charges for knowingly having unsafe sex, but few rapists have been charged in a similar fashion. And since police and prosecutors are usually precluded from knowing such information about a defendant’s HIV status, they may not be able to make an informed decision on what charges to file against them, authorities say.

Both Rabichow, an expert on sex crimes and confidentiality issues, and Barthelmess said the law is very murky in such areas, and untested by the courts.

“Nobody knows how the law applies,” Barthelmess said. “It’s just too new.”

He predicted that some health or law-enforcement authority eventually will be accused of giving out HIV-related information to a victim or even a prosecutor, and that the issue will be brought before the courts to see if the person should be fined or charged with a crime.

“But nobody wants to be that test case,” Barthelmess said.

Johnson, 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 criminal counts for a series of attacks that police say he committed between August, 1991, until he was arrested in January, 1992.

His trial is scheduled to begin today in Van Nuys Superior Court.

In the Johnson case, prosecutors say they will try to convict him on the basis of witness testimony, DNA testing and other evidence.

Property stolen from some of the victims, including jewelry and video and music equipment, were 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. Johnson was released from parole in July, 1991, after serving nearly a year for an extortion conviction. Authorities allege that the rapes started soon afterward.

According to court records, his past convictions also include assault with a deadly weapon or firearm on a peace officer and unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle.