A career prostitute whose HIV-positive status prompted the Vickie West Law in Ohio pleaded guilty this week to the law bearing her name.
Vickie West, 54, was convicted Tuesday of engaging in soliciting after a positive HIV test. According to her plea deal, she faces up to 36 months in prison and a mandatory five years probation when she is sentenced May 27 in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court for the third-degree felony.
West was indicted earlier this year after she was arrested Dec. 14, 2013, for allegedly offering sex for money to an undercover detective on North Main Street in Dayton, according to the Montgomery County prosecutor's and sheriff's offices.
In 1993, West was featured in a series in the Dayton Daily News that exposed the lives and realities of prostitutes who are HIV-positive.The coverage prompted state lawmakers to make soliciting a felony for prostitutes who know they are HIV-positive. The law took effect in 1996 and is known as the "Vickie West Law."
West's conviction this week is not the first time she's been found guilty of the law bearing her name. She has been arrested more than four dozen times since 1984, including several incidents of prostitution-related crimes since the law went into effect, records show.
At the time of her arrest in December, West had recently finished serving a four-year prison sentence after her 2008 conviction for soliciting and loitering to engage in soliciting after a positive HIV test, Montgomery County court records show.
