Thirteen women who all claim to have contracted an incurable STD while at work from a janitor who tampered with their water bottles are filing suit against multiple companies who they say disregarded the janitor’s behavior.
The suit is being filed against the owner of the office building on Westmont Drive near the East Freeway in east Houston, the building’s management company, the maintenance company and the cleaning company Lucio Catarino Diaz worked for are also named in the lawsuit, according to the women’s lawyers.
Initially, the lawsuit was filed by four women but then nine more came forward with the same story, claiming they too worked in the office building and contracted an STD from Diaz.
Diaz is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Court records say the deadly weapon is Diaz’s bodily fluids which contain the herpes simplex 1 virus.
Diaz was exposed when one of his accusers set up a hidden camera in her office after she noticed the water bottles she was bringing from home and leaving on her desk started to have a nasty smell and look, court documents said.
Diaz was caught on camera entering the woman’s office and rubbing his genitals on the woman’s water bottle, court documents say.
The woman called police and provided them with two water bottles as evidence. Her lawyers said she also sent the video from her hidden camera to the building’s management company and told them she would be notifying the other tenants. In response, building management told her not to do that and they would handle it, her lawyers claim.
It wasn’t until six days later that the management company notified the other tenants in the building, the woman’s lawyers said. By then, Diaz was caught on camera appearing to do the same thing again.
He is in jail being held on a $75,000 bond. He is expected to appear in court again in March.
