Houston janitor gave 13 women STDs by urinating in their water bottles: lawsuit

A Houston janitor is being accused of urinating into employee water bottles and infecting them with sexually transmitted diseases. The victims are now suing the companies that hired him for failing to take action about his behavior. 

A lawsuit was filed on behalf of the 13 women who claim that janitor Lucio Catarino Diaz urinated in their water bottles on the job at an East Houston office building, leading them to test positive for the herpes simplex 1 virus (HSV-1). 

The law firm representing the victims, Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner, claims that the companies that hired Diaz "permitted and disregarded the janitor’s disturbing conduct."

Several women had been complaining about their water bottles “smelling and tasting foul” in August 2022, prompting one of them to set up a hidden camera to find out what was going on. The footage revealed that Diaz had been approaching their desks and rubbing "his penis on the interior and mouth of a water bottle."

The woman who set up the camera sent the video to the building’s management company. While they had promised to do something about it, no action was taken and Diaz continued carrying out his actions. It was almost a week later that the tenants were notified of his actions. 

"He was allowed to come back in, and he continued to conduct himself this way and who knows how many people picked up their water bottles during that six days and were affected by his actions," Spurlock added.

Diaz admitted to the crime and was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Court records say the deadly weapon in this case was Diaz’s body fluids, which contained the STD.