Patricia Behr's relationship with Thomas Redmond was the focus of a trial that ended with a jury finding he negligently infected her with genital herpes. Her relationship many years earlier with another man could determine whether the jury's $6.7 million verdict stands.

Ronald Ramsdell

A Riverside County (Calif.) Superior Court judge will hear Redmond's motion for a new trial April 17. And Redmond appears to be pinning his hopes on Ronald Ramsdell, a Minneapolis entrepreneur who came forward as a witness after he heard about the verdict, alleging Behr infected him with herpes long before she met Redmond.

“In 1989, Patricia Behr not only admitted she had herpes, she also gave it to me,” Ramsdell said in an affidavit.

Redmond began a sexual relationship with Behr in October 2003. After an 11-day trial, the jury found him liable in January for failing to tell her he had herpes before their first sexual encounter and awarded her $2.75 million in punitive damages.

“[T]here can be no more material evidence than that Thomas Redmond could not have infected Patricia Behr with herpes because she already had it,” defense attorney Robert M. Frisbee has said in a brief.

But Behr attorney Shaun M. Murphy filed a blistering response to Ramsdell's affidavit, saying it “presents nothing more than hearsay, speculation and lies” and portraying him as a “violent abuser of women and children” who has “seized on an opportunity to further harass and abuse [Behr].”

Two of Behr's sons provided affidavits, with Andrew Behr saying he witnessed an incident in 1992 when Ramsdell pinned his mother to the floor and choked her. “I think Ron is a very disturbed and dangerous man,” he concluded.

Another of Behr's sons is actor Jason Behr. He has so far remained silent in the no-holds-barred litigation, which was kept under wraps until Murphy issued a press release about the verdict in February.

Behr tested positive for herpes after she broke up with Redmond. But according to Ramsdell, the founder of College Aid Consulting Services in Minneapolis, he confronted her while they were dating after noticing “some small white blisters in my groin and pubic area.”

She initially denied having herpes, Ramsdell said in his affidavit, but when he suggested they both get tested, she “stopped arguing, said there was no need to have tests, and admitted that she did in fact have herpes.”

In the response brief filed March 30, Murphy said Redmond had failed to present evidence showing that “Behr previously had herpes and that Ramsdell got it from her. There is no medical proof that Ramsdell has herpes, when he contracted it, or that he even contracted it from Behr.”

Since then, Redmond has filed a doctor's report showing he visited a doctor March 19 and tested positive for the virus. He also denies choking Behr, claiming she “had a vile temper” and “was physically abusive to me.”

“None of Behr's affidavits address the core issue -– whether Behr gave Ramsdell herpes long before she ever met Tom Redmond,” Frisbee says in a brief.

But Ramsdell's medical report does not address when he contracted herpes or show he got it from Behr. So in what amounts to a credibility contest, Retired Judge William E. Burby may well decide not to disturb the jury's verdict.

By Matthew Heller
4/16/09