Ruben Gutierrez of Lakewood faces one count of first-degree assault with sexual motivation, a high-level felony that qualifies as a strike under Washington’s three-strikes-and-you’re-out law.

According to charging documents, two men made a report at the Lakewood Police Department last June after one tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The men told police they had a sexual encounter with Gutierrez in April, about the time medical staff believed he had been infected. Only one of the men had contact with Gutierrez during the assignation.

The men told police that Gutierrez said at the time he had been tested for HIV earlier in the year and the results were negative.

Doctors asked the infected man for a list of the people he’d had unprotected sex with in recent months. When he gave it to them, the doctor said Gutierrez had been diagnosed with HIV more than a year earlier, court records say.

Gutierrez told police he had disclosed the disease, the records say.

Assistant police chief Mike Zaro said it wasn’t clear whether other people might also have been exposed.

Assault with sexual motivation cases are relatively rare, Zaro said, and prosecutors will have to prove Gutierrez knowingly transmitted the virus.

Ian Demsky, The News Tribune