HIV Testing Blog

A former teacher from South Carolina has been charged with three counts first-degree criminal sexual conduct.  The judge also ordered the teacher, Joel L. Bedenbaugh, to register as a sex offender.

Bedenbaugh was sentenced to six years in prison for not telling his ex-wife, to whom he was married for five years, that he had HIV.  This exposed her to possible infection.  Instead, he told her that the medicine that he took was for a blood disease.  She remains uninfected.

It is illegal to knowingly engage in sexual intercourse with another person without first informing them of an HIV infection.

In 2006, Bedenbaugh was convicted for  inappropriate contact with a 13-year-old girl in November 2006.  More recently, in 2008, he was investigated for  an alleged sexual assault on a juvenile in 2008.  This brought about attention to his medical history, which indicated that he had HIV.

For the original article, please refer to original articles.

First time in local police history for charge under 1994 state law

A Clarksville woman was arrested Thursday.  She was charged with knowingly exposing a man to HIV.

The woman, Donyel Da’Shawn Brown, was charged with criminal exposure to HIV, and her bond was set at $1 million.

The arrest warrant states a man reported Brown knowingly had unprotected sex with him for four years without telling him she was infected.

Also, Brown and the man had a child during the time she was diagnosed with HIV, the warrant said, but has not been determined if the child has HIV. Whether the child and man were infected has not been determined, Knoll said.

The state law, which took effect in 1994, does not require “the actual transmission of HIV” for someone to be convicted. Brown can be acquitted if she can prove that her partner had prior knowledge of her HIV status.

If convicted, Brown could face jail time of three to six years.

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