| Jayx1 |
I used to have to do business with this loser when i did parties in Windsor. I always knew he was a loser but this is shocking! I hope he rots in hell. Scary thing is that over the years ive seen him with all kinds of women (most of them ooogly too)
| quote: | HIV-positive man may have infected dozens
Businessman charged with knowingly giving virus to 2 women
Doug Schmidt
Windsor Star
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
A local businessman charged Monday with knowingly transmitting the HIV virus to two women could have infected as many as 100 to 200 other sexual partners, Windsor police allege.
Investigators are pleading for anyone who may have had sexual contact with the accused to speak with police or to at least have themselves tested for the virus that causes AIDS.
Carl Leone, 28, remains in custody following a brief Ontario Court appearance Monday, when he was formally arraigned on two charges of aggravated assault and a third count of committing a "common nuisance," a relatively new criminal charge pertaining to an unlawful act that endangers the life or safety of others. He was arrested Sunday.
Staff Sgt. Neal Jessop, who is leading a team of detectives on the case, answered "yes" when asked whether there are more alleged victims. He said other women were being interviewed Monday.
"I don't know how many victims there may be ... we're in the very, very early stages of this investigation."
Both he and the prosecutor who spoke in court Monday said estimates of as many as 200 HIV-infected victims is "not unreasonable."
Police are urging anyone who has had sex with the accused over the past decade, or anyone who knows of someone who may have, to contact police.
"We absolutely want them to come forward immediately," said Jessop. "Their identity will be protected."
Given the potentially deadly consequences of contracting the virus, he said seeking medical attention "is something we'd literally beg them to do."
Police executed search warrants Sunday at Leone's home and at Leone's Music World, where the suspect is a vice-president in the family-owned business, which advertises itself as one of Canada's largest locally owned and operated music stores.
On Monday, a third search warrant was executed at the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit. Medical officer of health Dr. Allen Heimann said staff were going through medical records, with police seeking "specific knowledge of a specific case."
Two computers were seized from the suspect's workplace, while a third was taken from his home. Jessop said forensic specialists and police computer experts are poring over the evidence obtained so far.
MET ALLEGED VICTIM ON INTERNET
Both alleged victims, one of whom was met through the Internet, have been diagnosed with the HIV virus.
Jessop said Windsor police investigated the first woman's complaint in 2000, "but that went unresolved." When a second woman from Windsor came forward last Thursday, a new team of detectives was formed, and the first alleged victim, now living in Texas, was contacted again. The alleged offences for which Leone was charged Monday occurred between June, 1998, and Feb. 29, 2004, according to court documents.
Police allege the accused was aware he was HIV-positive yet failed to disclose it to his victims.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1998 that failing to tell a sexual partner you have AIDS or HIV can amount to an assault.
The charges against Leone are the first time police have charged anyone with knowingly engaging in unprotected sex with multiple partners while having HIV.
While contracting HIV "is certainly potentially lethal," said Heimann, it is no longer the automatic death sentence it was until the introduction about eight years ago of retroviral and multiple-drug therapy.
"It's tragic and very, very sad," said Jessop. "Any reasonable, logical person can understand the terrible ramifications of this kind of conduct ... it can be fatal."
AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome triggered by HIV, has become, in North America at least, "much more of a chronic treatable disease," said Heimann, adding: "But I emphasize, it's treatable as opposed to curable."
It's an "extremely complex disease to treat and manage," he said. Treatment for most of the world's AIDS-infected population, however, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, is still unavailable, and he said the disease "remains uniformly fatal."
LIFE-SAVING TREATMENT
Dr. Jeff Cohen, medical director of the Windsor Regional Hospital's HIV Care Program, said it was "like a holocaust" before new life-saving treatments became available in 1996.
In 1995, he said, "we used to have someone die here every week to 10 days," he said. Today, he added, the problem is with "the difficulties and negative side effects" experienced by some HIV patients taking the treatments.
After averaging about 20 new cases per year in Windsor and Essex County from 1985 to 2000, the load of new cases went down to only six in 2003 before rebounding this year, to 13 HIV-infected individuals already by the end of May. Heimann said that rising number is of concern and doesn't include the current police investigation.
When first infected, Cohen said a small number of patients will develop flu-like symptoms which are difficult to distinguish from the regular flu. In general, further signs usually don't emerge for another 10 years, even though HIV infection is usually detectable within three to six months of contact with the infected person.
Confidential HIV testing is available by calling the clinic at 254-6115 and asking for the anonymous testing program.
Windsor police detectives can be contacted at 255-6700, ext. 4830, or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 258-8477.
BEFORE THE COURTS:
On Sept. 3, 1998, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that failing to tell a sexual partner you have AIDS or HIV can amount to assault.
Lower courts had ruled that no assault had taken place in the case of an HIV-infected B.C. man because the partners, who did not contract the virus, consented to sex and were not harmed.
But the Supreme Court ruled that failure to disclose such information amounts to fraud and negates any consent the other partner may have given for sex.
Ran with fact box "Before the Courts" which has been appended to the story.
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