Ex-Lindenwood University Wrestler Gave Man HIV, Now He's Heading To Prison

ST. CHARLES, MO — A former Lindenwood University wrestler in St. Charles was sentenced to a decade in prison under a plea deal for giving another man HIV and putting four other sexual partners at risk.

Michael Johnson, 25, was sentenced Thursday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. He initially received a 30-year sentence following a 2015 conviction, but an appeals court threw out the guilty verdict, finding that a trial court wrongly admitted jail recordings that weren't disclosed to Johnson's attorneys in advance. The tapes were used to challenge Johnson's claim that he disclosed he was HIV-positive to his sexual partners.

Johnson was a student-athlete at Lindenwood University until he was arrested in 2013. The case drew the attention of legal reform groups and gay rights activists who argued HIV criminalization is outdated, in part because of advances in treatment for the disease. Johnson is black and gay and that played a role in his conviction, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri also contended. (For more information on Johnson's case and other St. Charles stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar denied the prosecution was motivated by Johnson's race or sexual orientation. The victims had a right to know they were engaging in sexual activity with someone with HIV and Johnson denied them that right, he said.

Through the Alford plea that Johnson submitted, he acknowledged that the state has enough evidence to convict him. The concurrent 10-year sentence was the mandatory minimum for the two most serious charges — recklessly infecting and recklessly exposing a sexual partner to HIV.

"I think that the fact that the minimum was 10 years, that that's the best we can do, shows how severe these charges are," said Johnson's attorney, Eric Selig. "There is no other disease that, if you infect someone else with, you're charged with a crime."

Lohmar described the sentence as "appropriate" but added that the state laws criminalizing the failure to disclose HIV were passed in the 1980s and may be outdated.

"I think we had a lot more limited understanding about HIV and long-term consequences, so I think opponents of the law make a fair point," Lohmar said. "But that's something that would need to be handled by the Legislature."

Johnson, who was expelled from Lindenwood, is originally from Indiana, where he was a state wrestling champion.

Photo credit: St. Charles County Department of Corrections via AP