CHICAGO -- A federal judge Tuesday refused to release six reputed Chicago mobsters who demanded to be freed from the Metropolitan Correctional Center because they are afraid of contracting AIDS.
The bail request followed published reports that a dentist who treated inmates at the facility had tested positive for HIV virus that causes AIDS.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel turned down the bid filed on behalf of reputed hitman Harry Aleman, reputed mob leader Ernest Rocco Infelice and four others. He ordered the six be given copies of the Centers for Disease Control report on preventing AIDS to ease their minds.
'Everybody in jail ... has been exposed to the same thing,' Aleman attorney Alan Ackerman said. 'It's not their fault. It's the fault of the administration. The administration didn't want it to happen. There's no question in my mind that they weren't looking forward to something like this but it's a timebomb.'
Ackerman said two of the six men, whom he refused to identify, were treated by the dentist and one has been exposed to tuberculosis since his arrest.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell A. Mars called the arguments by Ackerman and defense attorney Patrick Tuite ridiculous.
The attorneys Monday demanded an immediate release of their clients in seeking the emergency hearing. The lawyers described the federal prison as 'a warehouse of death.'
The Federal Bureau of Prisons Friday said it would notify about 2,800 patients whom the dentist treated before voluntarily withdrawing from clinical practice. About 900 of the patients remain in prison, including 188 at the Chicago center, making up 28 percent of its current population, officials said.
The dentist tried to block disclosure of his infection except in medically justified cases. A federal judge, however, refused to issue a temporary restraining order, clearing the way for the bureau to disclose the dentist's condition.
The bureau said in releasing the information that the infection risk to the dentist's former patients 'is virtually zero.'
The six reputed mobsters -- Infelice, Aleman, Robert Bellavia, Solly DeLaurentis, James Nicholas and William DiDomenico -- are being held pending their trial in September on racketeering and murder charges.
