Can Charlie Sheen’s Sexual Partners Really Sue Him?

“Sometimes there are people who make such statements that they intended to infect their partners, but it’s extraordinarily rare,” Warbelow says.

Sheen, 50, said Tuesday that stories about damaging others were false – that all his partners knew his diagnosis and that he had unprotected sex with two people, both of whom knew his diagnosis and who were under the care of his doctor. When “Today” host Matt Lauer asked whether he had transmitted the virus, Sheen replied that it was “impossible.”

He also responded to reports that said he knew he had AIDS – a progression of HIV – and was intentionally spreading it. “They are going to have to reveal a whole lot of proof, because it’s just not there,” he said.

After the interview, one of his former girlfriends, adult film star Bree Olson, said she was never told his HIV status, and said they used lambskin condoms when they had sex, which are less effective at preventing the spread of HIV. Olson, who has tested negative for HIV, has not said whether she would sue.

But even when given proper warning about an HIV diagnosis, a partner in any instance – whether upset about a breakup, or trying to get revenge after a fight – could claim he or she didn’t know. Under disclosure laws, people with HIV can try to avoid prosecution from former partners by saving proof that they disclosed their status to their partners, whether through email, text messages, voicemail or video recordings or social media messages. They can also bring in a trusted third party, or bring partners to doctors’ appointments and have doctors note their presence and knowledge of HIV in their medical records.

SERO, a group working to repeal HIV disclosure laws, has a disclosure form on their website for people to sign to show that they knowingly had sex with someone who has HIV. People with HIV also can note whether evidence like medications, doctor visit reminders, HIV-related brochures or magazines may have seen by their partners.

Still, there is no guarantee they will escape legal complications, particularly given that every state is different. And intercourse isn’t required to sue using HIV disclosure laws: About a quarter of recent prosecutions are for behaviors like spitting or biting, which pose no measurable risk of HIV transmission.

“Many of the states do not reflect current scientific knowledge about HIV,” says Mayo Schreiber, deputy director at the Center for HIV Law and Policy. “These laws are really archaic.”

Opponents of the law say HIV should not receive the kind of criminal charges associated with it, particularly given that when treated it is nearly impossible to transmit, and explain that fear of the disclosure laws may discourage people from getting tested – if you have HIV but have not been diagnosed, you cannot face charges under these laws.

Sheen spoke about his treatment during his “Today” interview. Since finding out his diagnosis four years ago, he has been taking antiretroviral medications, which suppress the virus and stops its progression to AIDS, which weakens the immune system. 

Sheen admitted his struggles with substance abuse in the past and to soliciting prostitutes, though he said he isn’t sure how he got the virus and has never used drugs that involved needles. He added that he no longer does drugs but still drinks, and he has never forgotten to take his four-pill-a-day HIV treatment.

In California, a felony charge is only applied when a partner has demonstrated that someone willfully tried to infect them, Warbelow says. Sheen may face misdemeanor charges that could result in a fine or up to six months in prison. Warbelow says, however, that because he says he is medicated, it would be difficult for plaintiffs to prove that he even willfully exposed them to the virus, given that his doctor says it is undetectable in his blood.

When people with HIV aren’t treated, however, the virus can be fatal, and still kills 1.2 million across the world. Though there is no cure, a diagnosis that was once a “death sentence” is now a manageable chronic illness, treated by taking several pills a day, and people can function normally, with little risk of transmission. Those who knowingly have sex with someone who has an HIV-positive diagnosis also can take Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP, a pill taken every day that prevents them from getting the virus.

Warbelow says HIV disclosure laws do not meet the goal of reducing HIV infection. “They stigmatize individuals and they decrease that people seek to know their HIV status,” she says. “We have a system in which we are encouraging people to not know their status.”

But forgoing a test could open them not only to unknowingly spreading the virus to others, but could keep them from subsequently receiving treatment that prevents them from developing AIDS.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 million people in the U.S. are HIV positive, and 50,000 more are infected each year. Less than one-third have the virus under control.

Still, most Americans tend to support disclosure laws. One study from the University of Minnesota showed that about two-thirds of gay men supported such prosecutions; among gay men ages 18 to 20, it approached 80 percent.

“There was a lot of sensationalism and misunderstanding when HIV first came on the scene and people still have that in mind,” Schreiber says. “There has to be a lot of education by government and public health authorities.”