An American sex worker from Ohio is claiming she engaged with over 200 clients despite knowing that she was HIV-positive, triggering the police to warn people who contacted her for the ‘risky business’ to immediately get themselves tested.
The woman was identified as 30-year-old Linda Leccesse.
Authorities said that she had interacted with at least 211 clients from multiple states in the past two years since January 1, 2022, when she had tested and found herself HIV-positive.
Leccesse solicited most of those clients on Market Street in Marietta — a small city in southeast Ohio on the border of West Virginia — but the possibly infected people are believed to be spread across the East Coast, reported New York Post.
“On May 14, 2024, the (Southeast Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force), through an investigation, indicted a local sex trafficker,” Washington County Sheriff’ Office Chief Deputy Mark Warden said during the press conference as quoted by Parkersburg News and Sentinel.
“During that investigation they had learned that this individual had tested positive for HIV in 2022 …This individual still continued the sex trade and through the investigation the agents had learned over 211 individuals … have either had contact or contact physically or by phone with this individual,” Warden said.
He said an officer from the Sheriff’s Office and the Marietta Police Department will be reaching out to contact those 211 individuals to inform them and ask them to be tested.
“We want the citizens out there to understand that there will be a deputy sheriff reaching out to these individuals that we have numbers for,” Warden said. “They’re not in trouble, this is public health awareness. This is not a scam.”
Leccessee was arrested on May 13 for soliciting sex.
It was during this time that police came to know that she knew that she was HIV-positive for two years.
The next day, she was indicted for engaging in solicitation after a positive HIV test, a third-degree felony, New York Post reported.
