Resource Logo
Associated Press

NJ court bars release of ex-cop's medical records


SOMERVILLE, N.J. - Prosecutors in New Jersey can't use medical records in their case against a retired police captain accused of having sex with two women without telling them that he's HIV-positive.

An appeals court on Tuesday found state laws protect health privacy and the patient-physician privilege. But the court says jurors will be able to hear a tape recording that one of Charles Martina's girlfriends made after he invited her to accompany him to his doctor.

The Somerset County Prosecutor's Office had sought to use the 66-year-old's medical records.

Martina is charged with two counts of a diseased person committing an act of sexual penetration. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

Martina retired from the Plainfield Police Department as head of the narcotics and vice bureau in 2000.


