AIDS hasn't gone away.
That's the message the AIDS Resource Center Ohio wants to get out. To that end, the group has begun holding informal monthly meetings featuring speakers talking about HIV-related topics.
"We want people to know that AIDS still afflicts all ages and demographics," explained Laurie Cohen, the group's development director, at last night's inaugural meeting at Fusion Bistro in Cricket West shopping center. "We have no cure or vaccine."
The speaker last night was Chris Zografides, a Bowling Green attorney who discussed a 2008 criminal case he handled in Henry County in which an AIDS patient faced the unlikely charge of harassment by an inmate for allegedly spitting at an emergency medical technician and Napoleon police officer.
The charges were unlikely because the client was not an inmate. But the man was caught up in an Ohio law intended to protect corrections officers from HIV-positive inmates who spit at them, Mr. Zografides said.
The client had tried to kill him-self in his home by swallowing several pills. When the EMT and officer arrived, he was out of his mind from the overdose of medication.If convicted of the two counts, he could have been sentenced to 10 years in prison, Mr. Zografides said. But instead a plea deal was agreed to in which the client pleaded guilty to one count and was sentenced to 60 days of house arrest.
"He wasn't an inmate. He was charged with this severe crime only because he had the disease. Anyone else who spits on a police officer can be sentenced to no more than 12 months in prison," the attorney said, adding that an AIDS patient can't infect someone with his or her saliva anyway.
Mr. Zografides said the law is unconstitutional and is being challenged by a colleague in his firm, Groth and Associates.
Sue Carter, an AIDS worker and counselor, was among the 20 people in attendance. She said discrimination against people with AIDS is widespread.
"I met a man the other day whose family still makes him eat off paper plates," she said.
Contact Carl Ryan at:
carlryan@theblade.com
or 419-724-6050.
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