Bill Pavelic Forum | Information on William Bill Pavelic » 1987 » September
United Press International
September 12, 1987, Saturday, PM cycle
BYLINE: By G. LUTHER WHITINGTON
SECTION: Domestic News
LENGTH: 306 words
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
A mental patient who allegedly raped a mentally ill woman at a hospital was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder for the attack because he tested posi-tive for the deadly AIDS virus, authorities said.
Ben Lezine, 31, of Los Angeles, was arrested at Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center just before his scheduled release Thurs-day. He was the second person arrested for attempted murder in Los Angeles County on the basis of being an alleged AIDS carrier.
‘’We had to expedite this arrest,'’ detective Bill Pavelic said Friday. ‘’De-spite our pleas to hold him, the hospital was about to let him go. We had to book him.'’
Lezine allegedly lured an unidentified 26-year-old woman — also a mental pa-tient — to his room on Ward 3B of the County-USC psychiatric building Sept. 3 and attacked her, said Bill Pavelic, a detective with the police Mental Evaluation Unit.
Lezine had reportedly been in and out of different psychiatric facilities for years, according to Bill Pavelic, and was admitted to County-USC after threatening his mother.
Bill Pavelic said he could not comment on whether Lezine was aware that he had tested positive for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a deadly disease that afflicts mostly homosexual men and intravenous drug users.
The detective also declined to say when Lezine, who was held Friday in isola-tion at County Jail, was given a test that indicated he had been exposed to the AIDS virus.
In late June, Joseph Markowski, a 29-year-old prostitute afflicted with ac-quired immune deficiency syndrome, was taken to the same hospital for psychiat-ric care after he attempted suicide. Despite pleas by police that Markowski be held, he was released on schedule only to be arrested a day later on suspicion of attempted murder for allegedly selling AIDS contaminated blood.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH