California IN BRIEF : VENTURA : AIDS Prosecution Illegal, Lawyer Says

The lawyer for the first man in California to be arrested for allegedly spreading the AIDS virus through sex has challenged his client’s indictment on grounds that no law supports it. The challenge, filed in Ventura County Superior Court by attorney Robert M. Sanger, asserts that prosecutors have no legal cause to prosecute David Scott Crother, a 45-year-old unemployed carpenter, on the assault charges that the grand jury leveled against him on Jan. 11. California’s assault laws do not cover the transmission of the AIDS virus from one person to another, Sanger said outside court.