CSHB 258(JUD)-SEXUAL ASSAULT BY PERSON WITH HIV/AIDS  CHAIR DYSON announced CSHB 258(JUD) would be taken up for consideration.   REPRESENTATIVE BOB LYNN, sponsor of HB 258, said that CSHB 258(JUD) makes rape or sexual assault by anyone infected with HIV/AIDS an aggravating factor in sentencing. He said that how or why the perpetrator may have acquired HIV/AIDS is not the issue, the sexual orientation of the perpetrator is not the issue, and any perceived stigma that someone associates with this life threatening disease is not the issue. The bill is only about whether a convicted rapist or sexual predator previously diagnosed with HIV/AIDS should be subject to an aggravating factor at sentencing for committing a horrific and life changing crime. He said that this legislation has received tremendous support from both law enforcement officials and victims of sexual assault, and remarked that Anchorage Police Chief, Walt Monegan described a sexual predator with HIV/AIDS as an assailant with an insidious weapon that can be used to further strike out against victims and victim's loved ones. He then quoted the following from Susan Sullivan, Executive Director of Victims for Justice: Adding months of terror and possibly years of illness and a shortened life to the horror of rape makes an attack by an HIV positive rapist a horrendous assault. REPRESENTATIVE LYNN noted that GERAD G. GODFREY, Chairman of the Violent Crimes Compensation Board, urges passage of this bill. He stated that 24 states throughout the country have laws that specifically criminalize exposure or transmission of HIV/AIDS, and that it is time that Alaska joins these states considering that it has the highest rate of sexual assault in the nation. CHAIR DYSON asked how an aggravating factor affects sentencing. 2:52:16 PM SUSAN PARKES, Deputy Attorney General, Criminal Division, Department of Law, who responded that an aggravator allows a judge to go beyond the presumptive sentencing range that is set for a given offence. She added that the finding of an aggravator does not require a judge to enhance a sentence. 2:53:10 PM CHAIR DYSON remarked that the committee has heard testimony from police officers who have had bodily fluids thrown at them by persons at least purported to have HIV. He asked Representative Lynn whether he had considered that kind of assault while drafting the legislation. REPRESENTATIVE LYNN replied that he had not. MIKE SICA, staff to Representative Lynn, noted that the Alaska Correctional Officers Association and the Public Safety Employees Association support this bill and see it as a protection for them, although the primary protection is for victims of sexual assault. BRENDA STANFILL, from the Center for Non-Violence, testified in support of CSHB 258(JUD) and made herself available for questions. CHAIR DYSON asked whether anyone had testified in opposition to the bill. MR. SICA replied that a representative of the Alaska Alliance for AIDS Awareness testified against the bill out of concern for the stigma that any bill that mentions HIV/AIDS might cause. 2:56:34 PM SENATOR GREEN moved to report CSHB 258(JUD) out of committee with individual recommendations and no fiscal notes. There were no objections and it was so ordered.