In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday, actor Charlie Sheen, who is HIV positive, admitted that he didn’t tell all of his partners of his diagnosis before having sex with them.
Mr. Sheen claimed, however, to have used a condom in all of those instances.
“[P]rotection was always in place, and it was for the right reasons, because everyone that I had told up to that moment had shaken me down,” Entertainment Tonight quoted Mr. Sheen from his interview.
Mr. Sheen’s revelation seems a departure from his story six months earlier, when he went public with his HIV diagnosis on “Today.”
As Entertainment Today reported then, Mr. Sheen said that he had had unprotected sex with two partners since learning his diagnosis, but insisted they “were under the care of my doctor and they were completely warned ahead of time.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Hollywood gossip site Radar Online reported that an anonymous law-enforcement source was eager to press criminal charges against Mr. Sheen.
“Charlie’s admission that he didn’t tell partners about his HIV has the DA chomping at the bit,” Radar quoted the source, adding that “no one has come forward — yet” to ask for charges against Mr. Sheen.
California law provides for up to eight years in prison for HIV-infected persons who are proved in court to have had an intent to infect their partners, but merely proving “that the person had knowledge of his or her HIV-positive status, without additional evidence, shall not be sufficient to prove specific intent,” according to a fact sheet available online by the California Department of Public Health.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.