I've been a little under the weather this week, so I thought I'd do a post about communicable diseases. One question that comes up frequently is whether an arrestee can be compelled to be tested for a communicable disease when an officer believes that he may have been exposed to a communicable disease carried by the arrestee. For example, suppose that an officer attempts to arrest a suspect in a residential burglary. The arrestee resists, and bites the officer during the scuffle. The officer ultimately subdues the arrestee and brings him to the magistrate's office to be charged. The officer believes that the arrestee may be HIV positive -- he's a known IV drug user, and the "word on the street" is that he's infected. The officer is concerned that the biting incident may have transferred the virus, and wants the arrestee tested. What to do? First, the officer should alert the magistrate to the situation. Under G.S. 15A-534.3, "[i]f a judicial official conducting an initial appearance or first appearance . . . finds probable cause to believe that an individual had a nonsexual exposure to the defendant in a manner that poses a significant risk of transmission of the AIDS virus or Hepatitis B by such defendant, the judicial official shall order the defendant to be detained for a reasonable period of time, not to exceed 24 hours, for investigation by public health officials and for testing . . . if required by public health officials." The magistrate may wish [...]
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