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Landon J Ascheman's Legal Cases (2)

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Criminal defense

State v. Rick, 835 N.W.2d 478

Aug 21, 2013

OUTCOME: Affirmed (successful)

Background: Defendant who carried the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was convicted in a jury trial in the District Court, Hennepin County, John M. Stanoch, J., of attempted first-degree assault by ... transferring a communicable disease in the course of having consensual sex. The Court of Appeals reversed, 821 N.W.2d 610. State's petition for further review was granted. Holdings: The Supreme Court, Gildea, C.J., held that: 1 communicable-disease statute was ambiguous for purposes of determining whether defendant could be convicted of attempted first-degree assault under the statute by transferring HIV to a partner in the course of consensual sexual relations, and 2 subsection criminalized transmission of the disease through the donation or sale of blood, sperm, organs, or tissue for medical purposes.

Criminal defense

State v. Rick, 821 N.W.2d 610

Sep 24, 2012

OUTCOME: Reversed (successful)

The appeals court concluded that section 2 of the law prohibiting transfer of fluids can be interpreted in more than one way; and that our argument that it didn't apply to sex was reasonable since sect ... ion 2's failure to mention vaginal fluids would mean, somewhat irrationally, that only men could be convicted under this section. The court rejected the state's public health policy argument for interpreting the statute to apply broadly to any unprotected sex in order to protect public health because neither the legislative history nor reasonable interpretations off other portions of the statute supported that conclusion.