Charges Dropped in HIV Saliva Case

Denver, Colo. district attorney announced Thursday that it would drop attempted second-degree assault with a deadly weapon charge for a local HIV-positive man who allegedly spit on another man.

Lynn Kimbrough, a spokeswoman for the DA told The Colorado Independent that they will still, however, pursue a harassment charge for William O'Kelly. She said her office was unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that O'Kelly had "intent to cause serious bodily injury" when he spit on Jason Arb during a dispute. She said the charge did not reflect whether the office was questioning if HIV can be transmitted through saliva, however, the charge read that O'Kelly spit "infected saliva" at Arb.

According to the report, Arb was a technician installing a monitoring system to track O'Kelly, who was on probation for a DUI.