PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – A lawyer said a Riverside County jury has awarded nearly $7 million to a 56-year-old woman who was unknowingly infected with herpes by a 77-year-old man.
Attorney Shaun Murphy, who represented the plaintiff, said the defendant knew he had genital herpes for more than 25 years but did not disclose it before his sexual relationship with the woman and did not use a condom.
Murphy declined to release the name of the woman because of the sexual nature of the case. He also refused to name the defendant, whose lawyer Robert Frisbee did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Murphy said his client was awarded $4 million in compensatory damages on Jan. 27 and $2.75 million in punitive damages as a result of the lawsuit filed in Riverside County Superior Court.
Genital herpes is an incurable sexually transmitted disease. Murphy said his client was denied health insurance after contracting it.
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