BROWARD COUNTY, FL– Daniel Hay Lewis, charged by the Broward Sheriff’s Office with criminal transmission of HIV despite the fact that he does not have the virus, is no longer in jail.

Michael Rajner — legislative director for the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus and a member of Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti’s Council for Diversity and Equal Opportunity — wrote to The Florida Independent:

Sheriff Lamberti called me late [Tuesday] afternoon to advise that tomorrow his office will be requesting the Broward County State Attorney’s Office to drop the charge relating to criminal transmission of HIV.  He confirmed the Mr. Lewis’s HIV-test came back negative.

Sheriff Lamberti again committed to review and develop steps to better educate the Broward County law enforcement community on the harmful and stigmatizing impact of HIV-criminalization.

The Sheriff’s Office has yet to respond  to allegations that deputies who arrested Lewis lied or details of the sheriff’s plans to better educate local law enforcement personnel on how HIV is transmitted, especially when criminal transmission of HIV charges are involved.

The case of Daniel Hay Lewis, charged with criminal transmission is not unusual. In fact, according to Catherine Hanssens, executive director of the Center for HIV Law and Policy, the United States “prosecutes more people on the basis of their HIV status than any other country in the world.”

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2008 Florida had the largest number of inmates with HIV/AIDS in custody of state or federal prison authorities (more than 3,600). The data shows that while 3.6 percent of Florida’s inmates were HIV positive, the U.S. average was 1.5 percent.

On Tuesday, a Broward County court granted a motion filed by public defender Jason Blank agreeing to release Lewis to the services of Pre-Trial Release.

The motion said:

Defendant’s bonds were increased due to the nature of the charges which Defendant has information to show were falsely alleged. The increase of his bonds goes to show nothing more than a discriminatory practice against those allegedly infected by HIV.

Blank told the Independent last week that “it is clear that the officer’s sworn allegations of Daniel’s infection with HIV is not only a lie and highly illegal, but is being used to cover-up the excessive use of force during his arrest.”

Hay Lewis, a Hallandale Beach resident  was charged with criminal transmission of HIV after allegedly trying to bite a police officer while being arrested for shoplifting.

After allegedly trying to steal $12,000 worth of garden products from a Home Depot on May 30, he admitted to stealing the stuff, police say, but didn’t exactly want to get arrested.

According to the police report, Lewis attempted to bite the cop “while knowing he was HIV positive,” but it was never explained how they knew that he was HIV-positive.

Responding the charges against Lewis, Michael Rajner, legislative director of the Florida GBLT Democratic Caucus, wrote to TheFlorida Independent:

While I do not know Mr. Lewis, nor am I serving as an advocate on his behalf … I’m extremely concerned with the Broward County Sheriff’s deputy having charged the Mr. Lewis with criminal transmission of HIV.

Rajner — a social worker who lives with AIDS — added:

I called Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti and an assistant state attorney at the Broward County State Attorney’s Office to discuss the particular statute in question, Florida Statute 775.0877 “Criminal Transmission of HIV; Procedures; Penalties”. Sheriff Lamberti shared my concern that this charge, based on the information provided, did not appear to be appropriate. As often with these kinds of cases, prosecutors employ fear and not science when prosecuting these kind of cases.

In my conversation with Sheriff Lamberti, he agreed to develop an initiative to educate his deputies properly on how HIV in transmitted, especially when Florida Statute relating to criminal transmission of HIV. The Sheriff further added that he would also like to approach the police chiefs’ association to ensure local police departments were better educated. I’m hoping Broward County State Attorney Michael Satz will agree to a similar effort with his assistant state attorneys.

Stephen Fallon — president of Skills4, a health care consulting firm — told the Independent that there is extensive research that shows that a bite cannot transmit HIV. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention FAQ explains that “only specific fluids (blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk) from an HIV-infected person can transmit HIV,” and that HIV transmission through a bite is “very rare”

In an email, Fallon wrote:

As I understand it, the man jailed is being charged with 775.0877 because he bit a police officer.

That sort of action would certainly be subject to prosecution as assault on an officer, whether the person biting was HIV+ or HIV-. The language in the statute, though, is vague enough to seem to allow an extra charge because of some presumed threat of HIV transmission.

From what I see in the language, the statute is very outdated, as it does not reflect likely transmission risk. (That is, the statute does not delineate between risky types of bodily fluids and fluids that are not risky. Presumably, someone HIV+ could be charged for sweating on another person, or intending to do so, under this statute.) If I were an attorney, I would say that the extra charge against Lewis amounts to prosecutorial hysteria.