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Why telling a cop you have Covid in New Jersey could get you 10 years in prison

16 points by 1cvmask 5y ago

1cvmask 5y ago
Does having Covid make you a domestic terrorist? From the article: Deja Lewis was walking down a sidewalk in Salem, New Jersey, in the early, frightening days of the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020, when she was stopped by police. Lewis, 28, was arrested on warrants related to failure to pay traffic tickets, and an incident in which she “escaped” from a police vehicle. She had been a witness to a fight and left the back of the patrol car, her attorney said. While she was in custody, police said she coughed “in close proximity” to officers, and said she had Covid-19, though no dashboard, body or in-station videos exist to prove the assertion either way. The allegation has landed Lewis, who otherwise has no criminal history, with a potentially ruinous terrorism charge – one that could land her in prison for 10 years and leave her with a $150,000 fine.
- EdwardDiego 5y ago
  Welp, doesn't make you a terrorist, but perhaps a better comparison is people who have HIV and spread it knowingly. If her defense was "I told them as they were arresting me, but they dismissed me" then I think you'd have a good defense. But why wait until you got to the cells?
elmerfud 5y ago
We're just inventing new ways to dispose of people society it seems.
- EdwardDiego 5y ago
  While the terrorism charges are a very American dramatic overreach... In my country, if you were HIV positive, knew it, and had unprotected sex without telling your sexual partner, you'd be charged with grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard, which carries a penalty of up to 7 years imprisonment. Now, if her defense was "I told the Police I had COVID-19 as they were trying to arrest me, and they ignored me", then that's a good defense to these charges.
EdwardDiego 5y ago
I'm going to nitpick: "One notorious case prosecutors cited is State v Smith, in which a New Jersey appeals court upheld the conviction and 25-year prison sentence of an HIV-positive inmate. The inmate, Gregory D Smith, threatened to kill corrections officers by biting or spitting on them. HIV cannot be spread through saliva, a fact known for more than a decade by the time the conviction was upheld." No, HIV cannot be spread by saliva _alone_, but what if your spit contained blood? Maybe you had gum disease, maybe you were just hitting your face against the wall of your cell, causing bleeding. Studies of the risk of HIV transmission during dental procedures shows it's very low. But it's not zero.
- thatcat 5y ago
  That's a bad comparison for many reasons. Hiv is not covid, the method of transmission - coughing is involuntary. Compared to your example it will be very difficult to prove intent. The result is not the same either, if no one actually even got sick then this is over reach. Where i live during that time period officers refused to wear masks unapologetically and continue to refuse the vaccine. Is knowingly refusing to protect people you're forcing to interact with you despite the fact that you're having frequent face to face interactions that increase transmission risk not a similar disregard for the health of others? It all seems very hypocritical and absurd.

16 points by 1cvmask 5y ago

Does having Covid make you a domestic terrorist? From the article: Deja Lewis was walking down a sidewalk in Salem, New Jersey, in the early, frightening days of the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020, when she was stopped by police. Lewis, 28, was arrested on warrants related to failure to pay traffic tickets, and an incident in which she “escaped” from a police vehicle. She had been a witness to a fight and left the back of the patrol car, her attorney said. While she was in custody, police said she coughed “in close proximity” to officers, and said she had Covid-19, though no dashboard, body or in-station videos exist to prove the assertion either way. The allegation has landed Lewis, who otherwise has no criminal history, with a potentially ruinous terrorism charge – one that could land her in prison for 10 years and leave her with a $150,000 fine.

EdwardDiego 5y ago
Welp, doesn't make you a terrorist, but perhaps a better comparison is people who have HIV and spread it knowingly. If her defense was "I told them as they were arresting me, but they dismissed me" then I think you'd have a good defense. But why wait until you got to the cells?

elmerfud 5y ago

We're just inventing new ways to dispose of people society it seems.

EdwardDiego 5y ago
While the terrorism charges are a very American dramatic overreach... In my country, if you were HIV positive, knew it, and had unprotected sex without telling your sexual partner, you'd be charged with grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard, which carries a penalty of up to 7 years imprisonment. Now, if her defense was "I told the Police I had COVID-19 as they were trying to arrest me, and they ignored me", then that's a good defense to these charges.

EdwardDiego 5y ago

I'm going to nitpick: "One notorious case prosecutors cited is State v Smith, in which a New Jersey appeals court upheld the conviction and 25-year prison sentence of an HIV-positive inmate. The inmate, Gregory D Smith, threatened to kill corrections officers by biting or spitting on them. HIV cannot be spread through saliva, a fact known for more than a decade by the time the conviction was upheld." No, HIV cannot be spread by saliva _alone_, but what if your spit contained blood? Maybe you had gum disease, maybe you were just hitting your face against the wall of your cell, causing bleeding. Studies of the risk of HIV transmission during dental procedures shows it's very low. But it's not zero.

thatcat 5y ago
That's a bad comparison for many reasons. Hiv is not covid, the method of transmission - coughing is involuntary. Compared to your example it will be very difficult to prove intent. The result is not the same either, if no one actually even got sick then this is over reach. Where i live during that time period officers refused to wear masks unapologetically and continue to refuse the vaccine. Is knowingly refusing to protect people you're forcing to interact with you despite the fact that you're having frequent face to face interactions that increase transmission risk not a similar disregard for the health of others? It all seems very hypocritical and absurd.