Vickie L. West, the 54-year-old career prostitute whose name became synonymous with an Ohio law making it a felony to solicit sex while HIV positive, was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison.
Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Gregory Singer also ordered West to pay court costs and serve three years of post-release control. West has jail-time credit of 34 days.
She pleaded guilty in mid-May to engaging in soliciting after a positive HIV test — a third-degree felony — in exchange for dropping a loitering charge. West has been arrested nearly 50 times since 1984, including several incidents of prostitution-related crimes since the law went into effect.
"I don't want to be a bad girl no more," she told Singer.
West was arrested last year after allegedly offering sex for money on North Main Street to an undercover detective, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. Prosecutors said the sentence was agreed to by the undercover officer.
West recently finished serving a four-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2008 of the same two charges she was indicted for this time, according to Montgomery County court records.
A 2008 sentencing memorandum prepared by her attorney at the time said that West had "excellent parental role models" who instilled the "concept of religion and appropriate morals and ethics." The memo said West was "embarrassed and ashamed" by her conduct and that she had been molested by male relatives when she was young. The memo also said she had learning disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorder.
A 2008 prosecutors' sentencing memorandum states West has been HIV-positive since 1991 and that she was "very likely to commit future crimes" and that she had been convicted of felonies three times before the 2008 case.
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 are HIV-positive. The law took effect in 1996 and is familiarly known as the "Vicki West Law." West now spells her first name with an E.