Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 28, 1992                   TAG: 9203280142
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA                                LENGTH: Medium

SUSPECT IN MOLESTATIONS HAS AIDS

District Attorney Lynne Abraham could not release the man's name because of the state's AIDS confidentiality law. She gave a sketchy description of him and urged anyone who may have had sexual contact with him to seek medical attention.

The man, about 50 years old, was known to the boys as "Uncle Ed" or "Uncle Eddie," she said.

Abraham said she was making the announcement, with the suspect's consent, "not to create a panic" but to help people who may have been exposed to AIDS.

The defendant was arrested Wednesday and arraigned Thursday on charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual abuse of children, indecent assault and corrupting the morals of a minor.

Abraham said he was being held in lieu of $3 million bail.

A court official who spoke on the condition of anonymity later identified the man as Ed Savitz, 50, who lives in an apartment building off fashionable Rittenhouse Square.

The district attorney said that after his arrest he admitted he has had AIDS for at least one year, and has been infected with the AIDS virus for one to two years before the onset of the disease.

She said information that led to his arrest came from some tenants in the center-city apartment building.

Abraham said he invited boys to his apartment and paid them for their underwear and socks and for sexual contact.

"These boys would be asked to tell their friends about `Uncle Ed' and ask them to come to Uncle Ed's apartment to do similar activities for pay," she said.