HOUSTON (KIAH) — A group of women in Houston have filed a joint lawsuit after alleging they contracted a sexually transmitted disease from a janitor who is accused of urinating in several water bottles in their office building.
Thirteen women, who will be represented by Houston law firm Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner, along with Samantha Spencer of Spurlock & Associates, P.C., have filed suit against multiple companies, alleging that they “permitted and disregarded the janitor’s conduct.”
The suit was initially filed by four women who worked in an east Houston office building where Lucio Diaz worked as a janitor. He was accused in Nov. 2022 of urinating in a water bottle in a woman’s office while being diagnosed with herpes simplex 1 (HSV-1).
According to the suit, the women said that in late August, they noticed a foul taste and smell to the bottled water in their building, similar to urine. One woman then placed a hidden camera in her office.
The hidden camera allegedly showed Diaz putting his cleaning equipment down, and rubbing his penis on the interior and mouth of a water bottle left on a desk. He then put the bottle back and resumed cleaning the room, the lawyers said.
The next day, the woman sent the hidden video to the building’s management company and said she would notify other tenants of what was going on. According to the suit, the company told her not to do that, and assured her that the situation would be handled and that they would notify the tenants.
But no notification was given, and the woman then captured Diaz doing the same act later that evening, the suit alleges.
It wasn’t until October that the company let other tenants know about Diaz alleged actions, the suit said.
The defendants in the suit are the owner of the building, the building’s management company, the maintenance company, and the cleaning company that employed the accused janitor.
On Oct. 13, Diaz was charged by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He is currently being held by immigration officials.