LOS ANGELES -- A clinic offering $100 AIDS tests and providing identification cards guaranteeing the bearer has been found free of the deadly virus was ordered shut down Tuesday for violating city zoning codes.
Angry operators of the National Association for AIDS Awareness immediately vowed to defeat the effort to shut down the clinic and threatened suit against an L.A. City Council member who accused the company of fraudulent activity.
Peter Brown, an attorney for the company, said in a news conference called to respond to the city's actions that the clinic has done nothing wrong and invited individual council members to tour the facility.
He said that if the landlord failed to secure the appropriate permits, 'We will take that up with the landlord. But as soon as that's done, this (clinic) is going to open.'
City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, along with Building and Safety General Manager Frank Kroeger, said at an earlier news conference that the clinic does not provide adequate parking and had been cited for violating its operating permit.
The center was the subject of bitter criticism by the City Council last week when it was disclosed that the company planned to sell AIDS tests and issue cards to patients who tested negative for the HTLV-III virus.
The council Friday passed an emergency resolution calling for an investigation into the company and a review of its building permits.
'They circumvented our city codes,' Yaroslavsky said Tuesday.
The councilman also criticized what he called deceptive advertising by the company, saying, 'I think there is an issue of exploitation here.'
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome is a deadly virus that strikes mainly homosexual men and intravenous drug users and has no known cure.
The order issued Tuesday morning states that 'The permitted use of the building shows only office use.' It orders the center's operators to 'discontinue medical clinic use at receipt of this notice or submit all necessary plans and permits.'
Yaroslavsky said the firm was 10 to 15 parking spaces short. He said the clinic was ordered shut down until it can find additional parking and obtain the proper permits.
'If they choose not to close down, I will talk with the city attorney personally for prosecution -- this is a high priority.'
The clinic was scheduled to start operations Monday, but turned customers away on grounds that the presence of television camera crews outside the building deprived customers of their privacy.
Critics of the clinic, including Councilman Joel Wachs, say the cards stating that the bearer has been found at the time of testing to be free of aids 'are only as good as the last (sex) act.' He has pointed out that other nearby clinics offer the tests for free.
The company plans to open other clinics in New York, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco and another site in Los Angeles.
In addition to the $100 card that bears a photo of the patient and the letters 'OK,' the clinic planned to offer renewals every three months for $45.
