Rapists to Reveal HIV Status Under New Law

Under a new law, convicted rapists will be forced to reveal their HIV status to their victims.

The law, signed by Gov. Pete Wilson on Friday as the second bill of his 1994 Crime Package, also requires prosecutors to refer sexual-assault victims to health professionals to receive the test results. HIV is the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) said she sponsored the bill after watching the plight of Monette Johnson’s victims. Johnson, convicted in March of a string of sexual assaults in the San Fernando Valley in 1991 and 1992, was tested for the HIV virus as part of a court order.

But although the prison where he was held was entitled to the test results, his victims discovered that they were not because of confidentiality laws regarding HIV test results.

The new law brings California in line with the federal Crime Control Act of 1990. The federal law threatened states with losing 10% of their anti-drug-abuse funding if they failed to adopt this type of legislation.

Wilson said the new law “affords the victims the right to know.”

“It will enable victims of sex crimes to obtain timely medical attention,” Wilson said in a news release.

Boland said she was unsure if the law would be retroactive.

After Johnson’s victims were attacked, several of his victims said they were notified that they might have been exposed to the HIV virus. But they were not told who was responsible.

Several of the victims said in March they had tested negative for the AIDS-causing virus for more than a year, by which time HIV is usually detectable.

Representatives from AIDS Project Los Angeles and from the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in Hollywood reiterated their long-standing policies opposing mandatory HIV testing. They said the law will be used more often to discriminate against HIV-positive people than as a tool by victims and victims’ rights advocates.

“It is a really difficult issue and fraught with emotion,” said Mark Senak, planning director for AIDS Project Los Angeles. “The bottom line is that the only medical test that matters is your own.”

Critics also say that forcing a convicted sex offender to take an HIV test is not foolproof because the disease often is undetectable for six months. An attacker could test negative for the virus and still be a carrier.

“The concept is not even medically sane,” said Kay Ostberg, the deputy director of the community group. “And how do you know you got it from the perpetrator? It could have been three months before the attack.”

Previously, sexual-assault victims could get test results only if their attackers were convicted in a criminal court, if they petitioned the judge for an HIV test and then petitioned again for the results, Boland said.

She added that she supports giving victims any relief possible, even if it threatens an attacker’s rights.

“I really don’t care about his rights,” Boland said. “This is a convicted criminal. Once they chose to break the law, they lost all their rights.

“Who are we protecting if we don’t disclose?”