Brochez: I did not trespass into mother's home
American involved in HIV data leak was in US court to face charge of criminal trespassing
Mikhy Farrera Brochez, the American at the centre of the recent HIV database leak in Singapore, pleaded not guilty to a charge of criminal trespassing on his mother's property in Kentucky.
In a scheduled appearance before District Court judge Charles W. Hardin at a court hearing on Monday, Brochez, who drove a white car to the courthouse, said it was his understanding that his mother did not want to pursue the charge.
"This is causing me to be suspended from work. I'm not able to support myself," he said at the Clark County District Court in Winchester, a town of 18,000 in the state of Kentucky.
"This is causing me unnecessary hardship," added Brochez, who previously told The Straits Times that news of the HIV data leak had cost him his job.
Judge Hardin told Brochez, 34, that once charges were filed, it became the Commonwealth of Kentucky's case - and no longer his mother's - to prosecute.
Brochez, who was deported from Singapore in April last year after serving a jail term for several fraud and drug-related offences, was arrested for criminal trespass at the home of his mother Teresa King on Dec 8 in Clark County, Kentucky.
He had previously been warned not to return after a Sept 27 visit to her home, according to court documents.
Although he was instructed to leave numerous times, Brochez kept wanting to ask about the property of his which Ms King had, said the post-arrest complaint seen by ST.
On Monday, Judge Hardin said that as Brochez's charge did not carry jail time, an attorney could not be appointed for him and he had to hire an attorney for himself if he needed one.
Brochez said: "But pleading guilty could cost me my job."
He added that he had been told the case was going to be dropped but that the Singapore Government might be interfering with it.
The judge replied: "I know nothing about that, sir."
Brochez was named by Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) last month as the culprit who leaked online the personal information of 14,200 individuals with HIV.
Last Saturday, the Singapore Prison Service made a police report after he sent an e-mail illegally disclosing the details of 13 HIV-positive people scheduled for a health check-up at Changi Prison Complex last year.
Asked why he published the personal data of HIV-positive individuals when doing so could hurt them, Brochez reiterated his claim that he was gang-raped while in prison, which MOH said it investigated and found to be false.
Brochez said: "I was thrown in prison for something that I didn't do, and I was held down and gang-raped by your government. And you want to talk to me about someone's feelings? Do you have any idea what I'm going through right now?"
Asked if he had more data that he was planning to publish, Brochez replied: "I guess the Lee regime will have to find that out if they continue to hold my husband on unlawful charges."
His partner Ler Teck Siang was head of MOH's National Public Health Unit from March 2012 to May 2013 and had access to the HIV Registry for his work.
Ler has been charged under the Official Secrets Act for failing to take reasonable care of confidential information regarding HIV-positive patients.
Brochez is next due in court on March 4.
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