ST. CHARLES, Mo. _ An appeals court Tuesday ordered a new trial for an ex-Lindenwood University wrestler convicted last year of recklessly infecting a sex partner with HIV and risking the infection of four others.
The Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District ruled that the judge in the trial of Michael L. Johnson erred by admitting as evidence recordings of telephone calls Johnson made from jail even though they were not disclosed to his attorney until the first day of the trial.
Johnson was sentenced in July 2015 to 30 years in prison by the trial judge _ St. Charles County Circuit Judge Jon Cunningham _ after a jury found him guilty of five felony charges.
Prosecutors said Johnson didn't tell the men who had sex with him that he had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS _ a requirement under Missouri law.
The ruling overturning the conviction was issued by a three-judge panel of the appeals court in St. Louis.
The panel didn't address Johnson's contention that his sentence was grossly disproportionate to the crime. His attorney contended that the sentence violated a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Johnson's case had attracted national news coverage because some gay rights advocates and legal reform groups say HIV criminalization is outdated, in part because of advances in treatment for the disease.
Prosecutors had said Johnson deserved severe punishment. They noted that Johnson's sex partners testified that when they asked if he had HIV, he had said he was disease-free.
Johnson said he had disclosed his status to his partners before engaging in sex with them. The phone call excerpts cast doubt on whether he made those disclosures, the appeals court ruling said.
In the recordings, Johnson said he was "pretty sure" he had disclosed his HIV status, said people wouldn't want to be his friend if they learned of his status and said he was unsure how to tell people about his status.
The appeals court ruling said the prosecution should have told the defense about the recordings earlier. They were delivered to a defense attorney's office on the Friday before the start of the trial on a Monday, but the office was closed for a state holiday. So, effectively, they were not disclosed until Monday, the ruling said.
The appeals court panel said "there was at least a reasonable likelihood" that surprise at the introduction of the calls kept Johnson's lawyer from mounting "a meaningful defense."
The ruling said prosecutors admitted intentionally waiting to reveal the recordings "to gain a strategic advantage." Prosecutors said Johnson's side should have sought a continuance to review the information, the ruling said.
Johnson, now 25, was expelled from Lindenwood after he was charged in the case, which concerned incidents in 2013. Johnson originally is from Indiana, where he was a state wrestling champion in 2010.
Before Lindenwood, he wrestled at Lincoln College in Illinois and was a junior college all-American and national champion there.
Tony Rothert, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, said the appeals ruling is just the beginning of the trouble with the case and that the law under which he is charged "is based on outdated science from a time when HIV policy was based on panic."
The county prosecutor's office did not respond to a request for a comment.
"The prosecution used that fear, along with racism and homophobia, to get a conviction."
