Man tells police girlfriend failed to disclose HIV status

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Police are investigating what may be another case of assault with a deadly disease.

A 51-year-old East Side man told police his 37-year-old girlfriend had been feeling ill, so he took her to the hospital Friday. The man said he glimpsed the woman’s medical screening and realized she is HIV-positive but did not disclose this information to him during their relationship.

The woman denies being HIV-positive, but medical personnel informed police she has the AIDS virus. Police had not yet charged her as of late Tuesday.

Police charged a 23-year-old Youngstown man late last year with felonious assault after it was determined he had sexual contact with a girlfriend knowing he was HIV-positive.

Randal Brown is in Mahoning County jail on a $1 million bond. He has been charged with one count of felonious assault.

Brown was arrested in November. Police found him working and living in North Carolina, where he fled after the felonious- assault complaint was filed against him Aug. 30.

According to police, Brown had been involved romantically with the 20-year-old college student since December 2010. He reportedly had been having sex with the woman without revealing his health status.

The woman reportedly became ill in July. It was shortly after she became ill that Brown told her of his HIV status, saying that he had been born with the illness and has known of his status since he was 15.

Brown is slated to go on trial Monday before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.