DA Mulroy Issues Statement on Aggravated Prostitution Prosecutions

“We have received questions about our agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Aggravated Prostitution prosecutions.

To be clear, we have NOT agreed to stop prosecuting prostitution.   The normal prostitution statute remains at our disposal.  As does the separate statute making it a Class C Felony to knowingly expose another person to HIV including by sexual contact. 

We have agreed to stop setting aside HIV-positive prostitution for harsher treatment, even if that person is fully medicated, has a suppressed viral load, and is thus at no risk of infecting anyone.  To do otherwise would entail fighting DOJ in federal court for the right to discriminate when this office had not initiated such a case in recent years, and we have other means to go after prostitution.

It’s important to point out that the State Legislature this year recognized the perils of painting all HIV-positive people with a single brush: it passed a law allowing persons convicted under this very statute to get themselves taken off the Sex Offender Registry, presumably because of a pending DOJ federal lawsuit against the State.

We’ll continue to prosecute prostitution as we have in recent years, without LGBTQ discrimination.  More importantly, we will continue our laser focus on violent crime and other things that really matter, and avoid being tied up in cultural war distractions.” —DA Steve Mulroy