Transsexual
New Faces of HIV/AIDS
Oprah.com
One of the women Diane called was Susan. "We compared notes, and some of the time that she'd been seeing him, I had been seeing him," Susan says. "Then she said, 'I have an STD, and I am certain that Philippe gave this to me.'"
After talking to Diane, Susan went to her doctor and got news even worse than she had feared. "I received a phone call after my testing from my doctor and she said, 'You have HIV,'" Susan says.
The next time Diane and Susan spoke, Susan broke the news. "I got a test two days later," Diane says. "My ob-gyn called me and said, 'You're HIV positive.'"
Given the severity of the news, Susan and Diane decided they had to get ahold of the women Philippe had dated and stop him from infecting others. They filed a police report and launched their own full-scale investigation, starting with Philippe's cell phone records. "We contacted somewhere between 23 and 26 women," Diane says.
One of the women Diane found was Megan, who lived across the street from Philippe and dated him for more than two years. She says she had already suspected him of cheating and broken up with him by the time she got the phone call.
Megan learned she was also infected with HIV and joined the crusade to stop Philippe. "I mainly used the window to watch cars coming in and out and to watch what was going on at Philippe's house or which women were coming in and out," she says. Megan says she stopped women who were leaving Philippe's house to warn them that their lives could be at risk.
Together, the three women took down license plates and followed Philippe for at least six months.
After Susan and Diane filed the police report, the health department served Philippe with a cease and desist order demanding that he stop having unprotected sex. Shortly afterward, Diane remembered a day in 2005 that would serve as the key piece of evidence against her ex-boyfriend.
Diane had driven Philippe to the doctor because he hadn't been feeling well, she says. After he left the doctor's office, he told her all the tests he took—including one for HIV/AIDS—were negative. Once the report was filed against Philippe, his medical records confirmed that he knew he was HIV positive at that 2005 appointment, at the same time as he was having unprotected sex with unsuspecting women. That key piece of evidence led to his arrest.
Police charged Philippe with six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The weapon was his bodily fluid. Ten women, all HIV positive, were willing to testify against Philippe in open court. For the first time in Texas history, prosecutors hired a DNA expert to conduct genetic testing to determine the source of the common strain of HIV. It became clear that one sample was the source of most if not all of the women's diseases. On May 29, 2009, Philippe was sentenced to 45 years in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 22 years, when he is 76 years old.
http://www.oprah.com/health/New-Faces-of-HIV-and-AIDS/print/1
Oprah.com
One of the women Diane called was Susan. "We compared notes, and some of the time that she'd been seeing him, I had been seeing him," Susan says. "Then she said, 'I have an STD, and I am certain that Philippe gave this to me.'"
After talking to Diane, Susan went to her doctor and got news even worse than she had feared. "I received a phone call after my testing from my doctor and she said, 'You have HIV,'" Susan says.
The next time Diane and Susan spoke, Susan broke the news. "I got a test two days later," Diane says. "My ob-gyn called me and said, 'You're HIV positive.'"
Given the severity of the news, Susan and Diane decided they had to get ahold of the women Philippe had dated and stop him from infecting others. They filed a police report and launched their own full-scale investigation, starting with Philippe's cell phone records. "We contacted somewhere between 23 and 26 women," Diane says.
One of the women Diane found was Megan, who lived across the street from Philippe and dated him for more than two years. She says she had already suspected him of cheating and broken up with him by the time she got the phone call.
Megan learned she was also infected with HIV and joined the crusade to stop Philippe. "I mainly used the window to watch cars coming in and out and to watch what was going on at Philippe's house or which women were coming in and out," she says. Megan says she stopped women who were leaving Philippe's house to warn them that their lives could be at risk.
Together, the three women took down license plates and followed Philippe for at least six months.
After Susan and Diane filed the police report, the health department served Philippe with a cease and desist order demanding that he stop having unprotected sex. Shortly afterward, Diane remembered a day in 2005 that would serve as the key piece of evidence against her ex-boyfriend.
Diane had driven Philippe to the doctor because he hadn't been feeling well, she says. After he left the doctor's office, he told her all the tests he took—including one for HIV/AIDS—were negative. Once the report was filed against Philippe, his medical records confirmed that he knew he was HIV positive at that 2005 appointment, at the same time as he was having unprotected sex with unsuspecting women. That key piece of evidence led to his arrest.
Police charged Philippe with six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The weapon was his bodily fluid. Ten women, all HIV positive, were willing to testify against Philippe in open court. For the first time in Texas history, prosecutors hired a DNA expert to conduct genetic testing to determine the source of the common strain of HIV. It became clear that one sample was the source of most if not all of the women's diseases. On May 29, 2009, Philippe was sentenced to 45 years in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 22 years, when he is 76 years old.
http://www.oprah.com/health/New-Faces-of-HIV-and-AIDS/print/1
