Online dating: the $900,000 fourth date

On Behalf of | Jun 8, 2012 | Violent Crimes |

Although this unusual case did not take place in New Jersey it might be of interest to readers in this area. Apparently a 49-year-old woman recently won a $900,000 jury verdict against a 69-year-old man who she contracted herpes from. After deliberating for two hours the jury found that the woman was only 25 percent responsible for contracting the disease.

According to the report, the two parties involved in the case met on an online dating site and decided to have sex on their fourth date. One might wonder: if the couple decided to move forward with their physical relationship why didn’t she ask him at that time whether or not he had a sexually transmitted disease? She did claim that he “aggressively consummated” the date but did not file battery charges.

The woman says she had received a clean bill of health before the date and that she requested that her partner wear a condom but he did not. She did not say whether or not she refused to have sex without using a condom. Shortly afterwards the man notified her that he had herpes.

The woman’s attorney accused the defendant of wanting to “sink his hooks into her,” because his client is an attractive 49-year-old woman and the defendant is a 69-year-old man.

The man said that he did not know his herpes was contagious and his defense attorney raised the possibility that the woman could have had sex with another man who gave her the disease. Despite this possibility, the jury found that the man was mostly responsible for the fact that she contracted the disease.

Source: The Record, “$900,000 award in herpes suit,” Kim Murphy, June 6, 2012

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