Ex-Lover Calls HIV Man a Real Swinger
By STACY MORROW and RANDY MCILWAIN
Updated 9:45 PM CST, Fri, May 22, 2009
Testimony in the trial of a HIV positive Frisco man accused of spreading the disease to six women was more scientific than emotional Friday as prosecutors focused on proving he purposely infected his victims.
Philippe Padieu, 53, was arrested and charged with six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in July of 2007.
Padieu had been active in his own defense, conferring often with his attorneys about the emotional testimony of his accusers. However he was less active Friday as a DNA expert attempted to genetically corroborate the women's stories.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Padieu listened to the sometimes tearful testimony of the six women. They are all former lovers who told jurors that he concealed his HIV positive status and intentionally infected them with the deadly virus.
One woman, who now has full-blown AIDS, testified Thursday that Padieu often visited local swingers clubs, and said he may have infected more than 20 other women.
On Friday, Dr. Lee Metzker revealed the results of blood samples from Padieu, and his alleged victims, that he studied to see if there was a common link for the HIV.
He said he used a national database of HIV positive blood samples and compared the samples taken from Padieu and his six alleged victims. In what was called a blind study, Metzker never knew who each sample belonged to.
"I wanted anonymous samples," he said. "I did not want to know the identity of any of the individuals, we treated them all equally, generated the data, generated the alignments."
Metzker said Padieu is the source of his accusers' infection.
"One sample stood out as the potential source of most, if not all, of the other samples," he explained.
However, Padieu's attorneys got Metzker to admit that the study reaches a conclusion, but cannot be called an absolute fact.
The defense is focusing on the fact that HIV can mutate and change over time.
Padieu's attorney also said that some of the women were not monogamous in their relationship with his client.
Defense attorneys produced two of Padieu's former lovers that were involved with him during the time the other women said he infected them. Both said they are HIV negative. While one woman said she and Padieu had unprotected sex for four years, the other woman said that he always insisted on using condoms.
Testimony continues in the case on Tuesday.
Padieu faces five to 99 years in prison and fines up to $10,000 if he is convicted.
First Published: May 22, 2009 9:25 PM CST
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