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Tony Perkins

Man Charged With 15 More Counts In HIV Case

Police: Tony Perkins Could Face Upgraded Charges

POSTED: 11:04 am EDT March 16, 2010
UPDATED: 2:57 pm EDT March 16, 2010

A Greenwood man was charged Tuesday with an additional 15 counts of failure of an HIV carrier to warn sexual partners in a growing case that may involve dozens of additional victims, authorities said.

Tony Perkins, 47, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of the same charge.

Slideshow: Police: Man Intentionally Spread HIV

"Since the two original felony counts were filed … several women have come forward to report sexual contact with Perkins," said Johnson County Prosecutor Brad Cooper and Greenwood Police Chief Joe Pitcher in a joint news release.

Investigators said none of the women have tested positive for HIV so far, but if any do in the future, the current Class D felony would be upgraded to a Class C felony, which carries a sentence of up to eight years in prison on each count.

Police said Perkins intentionally tried to spread HIV by having unprotected sex with dozens of women.

In court last month, Perkins pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of intimidation.

"They're not victims," Perkins said in February when asked what he had to say to the women he slept with. "The only thing I did was want a relationship. People treat you like you've got the plague. I just wanted somebody to care about."

Authorities said Perkins may have had unprotected sex with more than 100 women in the more than five years since his diagnosis.

In a probable cause affidavit, police said they had been contacted by multiple women after the initial story broke in February.

The women detailed their encounters with Perkins. Most of them had met him at various bars in Johnson and Marion counties or on the Web site plentyoffish.com and had gone to his apartment to have unprotected sex on multiple occasions.

Police said Perkins also sent mass text messages to women in early 2010 asking for a sexual liaison.

Police asked anyone who had sex with Perkins to get tested at the Bell Flower Clinic at 1101 W. 10th Street. No appointment is necessary.

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