PORT TOWNSEND — A charge of first-degree assault against a Port Ludlow woman, which was linked to her having sex without divulging that she had HIV, was thrown out during a hearing in Jefferson County Superior Court on Wednesday.
Dawn Hardy, 34, now faces an unrelated charge of second-degree assault for allegedly hitting a woman in the head with a glass bottle on Oct. 17.
Superior Court Judge Craddock Verser said the first-degree assault charge did not show adequate probable cause because it states that Hardy transmitted by sexual intercourse the human immunodeficiency virus.
Verser said there’s no way of knowing that the virus was transmitted because the person Hardy had sex with had not taken a sexually transmitted disease test.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Katherine Gulmert said she would amend the language of the charge to comply with the statute that would allow Verser to let the first-degree assault charge stand, or possibly amend it to attempted first-degree assault.
First-degree assault carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Second-degree assault carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Hardy was charged Oct. 24 with first-degree assault. She was accused of having sex on Oct. 17 without telling her partner, her ex-boyfriend, that she has HIV.
A warrant was issued for her arrest on Oct. 25, and Jefferson County corrections officers learned of her whereabouts on Tuesday.
She was booked into Jefferson County jail that day and was still there as of Wednesday evening, authorities said.
