Bill Pavelic | Investigative Consultant

The Associated Press

September 2, 1987, Wednesday, AM cycle

BYLINE: By LINDA DEUTSCH, Associated Press Writer

SECTION: Domestic News

LENGTH: 622 words

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES

Two days before his arrest for selling his AIDS-tainted blood, Joseph Markowski told police: "I'm a prostitute and I sell blood for a living," a detective testified Wednesday.

Los Angeles police detective Bill Pavelic said Markowski, who is charged with attempted murder, gave that response when asked his occupation.

"He was extremely agitated, belligerent," said Pavelic. "He used scurrilous language. ... He repeatedly talked about the fact he had AIDS."

Markowski, 29, whose case is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, has been charged with four counts of attempted murder for selling his blood and for having sex while knowing he had AIDS.

He also is charged with two counts of assault with great bodily injury and two counts of attempted poisoning for alleged acts of prostitution.

Municipal Court Judge Alban Niles is conducting a preliminary hearing to determine whether Markowski should stand trial.

Pavelic, who was assigned to the mental evaluation unit, said that even after Markowski told him he had been tested at County-USC Medical Center, he did not believe that the man had AIDS.

"I was still dumbfounded," Pavelic said of the June 23 conversation. "I didn't take it very seriously."

Even after officers found a receipt for a blood donation in Markowksi's personal effects, Pavelic said, "I still wasn't convinced I had, quote unquote, a crime."

He said he ordered Markowski held at County-USC Medical Center for 72 hours of psychiatric observation with instructions that the detective be called before Markowski's release. But the next day, he called and found Markowski had been released.

Pavelic's testimony about Markowski's arrest when he returned to a plasma center to sell blood brought into evidence statements which had been attributed to the defendant earlier by the district attorney's office.

The judge barred admission of more statements made by Markowski during the first encounter with Pavelic because he had not been advised of his legal rights at that time.

Markowski was first taken into custody June 23, after screaming "Kill me! Kill me! I have AIDS!" in a Hollywood bank while attempting to grab a security guard's gun.

Pavelic said Markowski told him he had been diagnosed as having the AIDS virus as early as 1985 and had lost 10 to 12 pounds in the week before his arrest.

"He was a homeless sort of person," said Pavelic. "He said he was broke and had a substance abuse and alcohol abuse problem. He basically described his life as being totally shattered."

In other testimony, Lawrence Roberts, a police department paramedic, testified he had contact with Markowski on May 28. He said Markowski announced that he had AIDS.

"Mr. Markowksi never said anything about taking affirmative steps to transmit the disease, did he?" asked defense attorney Guy O'Brien.

"No, he didn't," said the witness.

The prosecution is seeking to show that Markowski had the intent to transmit AIDS to others, a required element of the attempted murder charge.

At Wednesday's court session, a deputy escorting Markowski in and out of court wore plastic surgical gloves.

It is extremely rare for AIDS-infected blood to pass undetected through the blood screening process, according to the American Red Cross. Since a nationwide blood screening program was instituted in spring 1985, 24 million units of blood have been screened, according to a Red Cross spokesman.

Markowski, who pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on June 29, was ordered held on $1 million bail.

Acquired immunne deficiency syndrome, which destroys the body's ability to fight disease, is spread by a virus passed through blood and semen, but not through casual contact, medical authorities say.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH