Former Pensacola Officer Pierce Cotton Faces 2 New HIV Nondisclosure Charges, Bringing Total to 3
Updated
Updated · WEAR · May 30
Former Pensacola Officer Pierce Cotton Faces 2 New HIV Nondisclosure Charges, Bringing Total to 3
3 articles · Updated · WEAR · May 30
Escambia County deputies arrested 32-year-old Pierce Cotton on Friday on two new felony counts of having sex without disclosing he was HIV-positive, and he was released later the same day on $30,000 bond.
Those charges bring Cotton's total to three after a March arrest on one count tied to a woman investigators said he began seeing in October 2025, months after state lab records showed he tested positive in July 2025.
Texts cited in the first arrest report said Cotton told the woman, who later became pregnant, that his condition was "under control" and that she and the baby could not contract HIV from him.
Pensacola Police said after the March arrest that Cotton had been placed on administrative leave; the department now says he is no longer employed.
When law and science collide, is it justice to prosecute HIV nondisclosure if transmission was scientifically impossible?
How do state health budget cuts impact the public health goals that HIV criminalization laws claim to support?