Posted on 08/26/2004 5:00:53 AM PDT by MikeJ75
A lawsuit that accuses a Virginia Beach man of intentionally passing herpes to his lover may have implications for a state law on fornication between unmarried adults.
Attorneys for a woman identified only as Jane Doe filed suit this month in Circuit Court, claiming that a Virginia Beach man gave the woman genital herpes after the two began having sexual relations in April.
According to the lawsuit, the man persuaded the woman to have unprotected sex many times and "intentionally withheld the fact that he was infected" with genital Herpes Simplex Virus 2. The woman seeks $5 million in compensatory damages, plus $350,000 in punitive damages.
The man, who is not being identified to protect his privacy, referred all questions to his attorney, Barry Kantor of Virginia Beach. Kantor was unavailable for comment.
The woman's attorney, Matthew W. Smith of Newport News, said the lawsuit could have far-reaching ramifications beyond this case.
In court papers, the man's attorney claims the woman broke a state law that forbids sexual intercourse outside marriage, and therefore she cannot claim injury.
The fornication statute says that "any person, not being married, who voluntarily shall have sexual intercourse with any other person, shall be guilty of fornication, punishable as a Class 4 misdemeanor."
Smith said the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled it is illegal to recover damages from an injury that occurs while breaking a law.
But he thinks that ruling will not stand up today. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned anti-sodomy laws in Texas, making unconstitutional all state laws that restrict sexual relationships between consenting adults, Smith said.
No hearing date has been set.
She's not going to win.
This is a law that the legislature is going to have to repeal.
Hmm.... Fornication is not illegal as an unnatural act. It can actually be considered a safety regulation... ;-)
Of course, I could be wrong... But I suspect the Supreme Court will refuse to hear this.
At some point the states are going to have to take care of cleaning up their old laws. Not all of the those old outdated laws are unconstitutional... just ridiculous... even if they do make sense. (Like a law outlawing sexual acts with a porcupine...) LOL!
Still comes down to the fact that the woman should have said "no."
The law is unenforcable. With so many couples living together, and with so many singles hooking up, it's a lost cause.
How do they enforce this fornication law? Just wondering.
Nosy neighbors peeking through windows and observing said illegal act?
It is something else, however, to enforce it in the sense of denying compensation to someone for an injury received while committing a criminal act. That is not so far fetched. In fact, I know of a case about ten years ago with essentially the same facts as this one -- man with herpes transmitted it to a woman during sexual activity, some of which occurred in Virginia. The court threw out her case. I don't remember whether there was an opinion that is publicly available. I'll check, and, if there is, I'll post it.
OK. I do recall there have been some arrests (including 1 federal arrest I think) against men who contracted AIDS and were conciously infecting men and women across the nation.
I remember several years ago in Maryland a woman was abducted while going to the pharmacy under her apartment to pick up medicine for a child.
She was brutally gang raped and left naked and bloody in the Baltimore Zoo. The lower court failed to convict the rapists because of an old Maryland law that said a scarlet woman could not be raped. She had been pregnant with one of her children before she was married, branding her a scarlet woman.
The case was going to the courts to repeal the law, but the men still got to go free.
I thought Virginia was for lovers :O)
Dang it cyborg, you beat me to it.
hehe!
Good one!!!
Basically, its a case of "felony herpes."
This is hard to believe--I mean that it is current, and a judge wouldn't find a way around it. I could easily believe it was a law, say, 150 or 200 years ago.
The effect of such a law is Islamic. It means that today many, many women in Maryland are completely without legal protection against rape. May the defense attorney who discovered and used this defense roast slowly in the appropriate circle of Dante's hell.
It would kinda lose something if it said...
"Virginia is for married lovers"
Yeah hehe
I remember those too, but I don't think prosecutors in those cases were relying on laws against fornication. One reason for that probably is that few states other than Virginia still have fornication laws on their books. I think in the AIDS situation the charges brought were standard criminal charges such as battery (which is defined at law as a "touching" with intent to cause bodily harm) or maybe even attempted manslaughter or homicide where the facts warranted those more serious charges.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.