RENWL

Bisexual Air Force Sergeant Hid HIV-Poz Status From Multiple Partners

Sgt. David Gutierrez

From Smoking Gun:

AUGUST 26–An HIV-positive Air Force sergeant failed to disclose his medical condition before engaging in sexual activity with a “multitude” of partners he met at “swinger” parties and through adult web sites, according to a military investigation, The Smoking Gun has learned.

The criminal probe of Sgt. David Gutierrez, a 20-year military veteran, began last month when the Air Force Office of Special Investigations received information that he had “engaged in numerous, unprotected sexual acts…over the course of three years.” According to court records, investigators charge that, due to Gutierrez’s HIV status, these encounters amounted to “aggravated assault against several men and women in and around the Wichita, Kansas area.”

The 43-year-old Gutierrez, stationed at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, was “apprehended” on August 9 for violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. At the time, a “search of his person and vehicle was conducted pursuant to a search authority granted by a military magistrate,” records show. Two subsequent searches–conducted at the Wichita home Gutierrez shares with his wife Gina–targeted his computers and other belongings in a bid to “identify potential witnesses and victims.”

Gutierrez’s wife told investigators that he became infected with HIV in 2007 while stationed in Italy. After learning of the diagnosis, she claimed, Gutierrez “contacted his sexual partners in Italy to report possible exposure to the virus,” according to an affidavit sworn by Air Force criminal investigator Derrell Freeman (that document is excerpted here).

However, after being reassigned to McConnell in 2008, “Gutierrez began having unprotected sex with numerous partners,” Gina Gutierrez told Air Force investigators. She said that her husband used adult networking web sites to arrange “sexual encounters with both male and female partners,” and “bragged” to her “about his numerous sexual exploits in the Wichita area and commented he never informed the other parties of being HIV positive.” Online profiles indicate that Gutierrez’s wife has participated with him in swinging activity, both in Kansas and Italy.

Gutierrez, pictured at left, did not respond to an interview request sent to his Facebook page, and a cell phone number listed for him in the Freeman affidavit is no longer in service.

In his affidavit, Freeman disclosed having interviewed two women who reported having unprotected sex with Gutierrez after meeting him through adult web sites. Both women–whose names TSG has redacted from an excerpt of Freeman’s affidavit–told the Air Force investigator that Gutierrez never disclosed his HIV status. The names of both women appear among Gutierrez’s list of Facebook friends.

One woman told of first meeting Gutierrez in person last summer at a swinger party (she first connected with him through adultfriendfinder.com). The alleged victim, a 44-year-old Kansas woman with two sons in the military, said she performed oral sex on Gutierrez at that initial gathering, as well as at subsequent swinger parties over the following months. She added that he took photos and videos “every time these sexual encounters took place.”

The second woman, 44, told Freeman that she initially met Gutierrez in late-2009 via clubforeplay.com. During the Thanksgiving holiday she “engaged in unprotected oral sex and vaginal intercourse” with Gutierrez at his Wichita home. “At no time did D. Gutierrez disclose his positive HIV status” to the woman, Freeman reported.

In a late-October posting on adultfriendfinder.com, Gutierrez wrote that, “We are looking at hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for all (singles man/woman, cpls) that do not have family here in Wichita.” He added, “Any playing is not expected, but more than welcome.”

According to Freeman’s affidavit, Gutierrez’s online handles include “luv4u269me3” and “wetnwild4u2692.” Additionally, Air Force computer crime analysts determined that Gutierrez “was active on multiple adult web sites used to facilitate meetings between like-minded, swinging couples and singles,” and was “actively seeking sexual partners in the Wichita, KS area…At no time did [he] identify himself as being HIV positive.” In one online profile, Freeman added, Gutierrez reported attending 21 Wichita-area swinger events during the first six months of 2010.

Gutierrez’s online profiles include explicit photographs (as seen above) and details about his sexual exploits and preferences (“Honesty” is a key factor when looking for a sexual partner, he claimed in a profile on eroticsouls.com).

In a June 2007 posting on adultfriendfinder.com, Gutierrez conducted a poll on whether respondents were willing to “play” with partners infected with herpes simplex virus (HSV) or HIV. In a follow-up post, he asked, “Why are people scared of the HIV virus, don’t you wear condoms to protect yourself from HSV?” He added, “The research I have done raises several questions on weather or not HIV is even related to AIDs.”

Records show that investigators searching Gutierrez’s home seized his pornography collection, condoms, and a wide variety of vibrators and sex toys. They also took a “blood chemistry report” addressed to Gutierrez from the University of Kansas School of Medicine, and two manila envelopes containing a total of 146 pages of “HIV related research articles.” (7 pages)