DES MOINES, Iowa — Arguments over whether an Iowa man can be charged with criminal transmission of HIV, even though he used a condom during sex, unfolded before the Iowa Court of Appeals Wednesday.
Nick Rhoades, 39, pleaded guilty in 2009 to criminal transmission of HIV, a felony under Iowa law. Rhoades is gay and HIV-positive and didn’t tell a man he had met about his positive status.
Rhoades and the other man had protected sex. Rhoades was arrested and charged after the man reported the incident to police.
The three appeals court judges, hearing oral arguments in the case, asked Rhoades’ attorney to contrast the case from other Iowa cases on HIV transmission laws.
Rhoades’ case is unlike any other heard by another Iowa court, said Christopher Clark, a senior staff attorney with Lambda Legal, an organization that advocates for gays and lesbians that is representing Rhoades. At issue in Clark’s arguments were both the protected sex Rhoades had with the man and an oral sex act the man performed on Rhoades where a condom wasn’t used.
In a 2006 Iowa Supreme Court case, the court upheld an HIV-positive man’s conviction after he exposed a partner to his semen during oral sex. The court’s ruling in that case, however, shouldn’t be applied to Rhoades’ case, Clark said.
Grant Rodgers
USA Today
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