Decision Diagnostics Corp (DECN)

[IPwatcher]

The latest court filing tells us that Berman is HIV positive

Actually, It does not. There is absolutely no reason to suspect or suppose that Berman is HIV positive.
This decision merely cites the precedent of a previous case in which it was upheld that THAT defendent whose name was Vanhorn (and who was HIV positive) did not suffer a material change in economic circumstances by virtue of the HIV diagnosis since he/she not need to fund their own immediate treatment whilst remaining incarcerated. Vanhorn argued (unsuccessfully) that he/she now needed to save money to fund hisor her treatment upon release. But the court ruled that only represented a material change in his or her future economic circumstances, rather than his or her immediate economic circumstances, and this was therefore not sufficient reason for amending the terms of the restitution payments.

In Berman's case, the fact that the payments he was receiving from a charitable institution were not guaranteed in the future was similary deemed not relevent to his immediate economic circumstances, falling into the same trap as Vanhorn's future medical expenses, and so did not justify the reduction in restitution payment terms that Berman had sought.

He's actually quite lucky, I think. The fact that these charity payments may not have been known about at the time the restitution award payment schedule was set up means that a judge with less forbearance might have ruled that Berman's immediate economic circumstances had actually materially improved since the prior assessment, as a result of this charity funding and prison earnings. and consequently increased the speed of his restitution payments schedule.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.225086/gov.uscourts.dcd.225086.221.0.pdf