HIV-positive Man Charged With Bioterrorism Gains Support from ACLU

LGBT, NewsBites — By Speak Equal on January 22, 2010 at 3:00 pm

A Clinton Township man accused of bioterrorism after biting his neighbor is garnering support from two national groups hoping the charges against him will be dropped.

As previously reported, 44-year-old Daniel Allen and his 28-year-old neighbor, Winfred Fernandis Jr., got into a scuffle when a football landed in Allen’s yard. Allen, a gay man with HIV, is accused of biting Fernandis in the nose, lip and ear.

Allen faces 28 years in prison for a bioterrorism charge, as well as other felony counts of assault with intent to maim and assault with intent to commit great bodily harm.

A spokesperson from the American Civil Liberties Union tells The Macomb Daily that Allen is being unfairly targeted and being used as an example for a statute that doesn’t apply to his actions.

“HIV is not transmitted through saliva,” Jay Kaplan, who works out of ACLU’s Metro Detroit office, tells the Daily. “The wrong use of this statute sends a very negative, very stigmatizing message for people with HIV.

Meanwhile, a petition has surfaced on Change.org condemning Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith’s bioterrorism charges and rallying support for Allen. [FULL STORY]

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  • Ellen Roelofs

    I’m so glad to see the ACLU picking up this case! A couple years ago a man was charged and sentenced under the same law for spitting at a prison guard (with HIV). Of course, there was no transmission or risk of transmission, but, believe it or not, all his appeals have been denied and he’s sitting in jail. It’d be best for Allen if the charges were dropped, but the repeated abuse of terrorism laws to target people living with HIV has to be stopped, and Eric Smith needs to be taken down a notch or two.

    Additionally, this doesn’t just effect people with HIV, but anyone who’s ever had a transmittable disease. Under this law, if you’re home sick with the flu, the cops can (hypothetically) bust in and arrest you for bio-terrorism. Seriously. The biggest difference between that and these two HIV cases is that the flu doesn’t carry the same social stigma.

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