A Texas man has been jailed after urinating into a water cooler at the doctor’s office where he worked, which resulted in other employees contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
Lucio Catarino Diaz, who worked as a janitor at the practice, was sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, namely, his urine. He was sentenced to six years but has already served two.
The crimes were first flagged in the summer of 2022 at the doctor’s office along Houston’s East Freeway. According to court documents, obtained by The Independent, the practice had a five-gallon water dispenser in a shared common area that was used by staff and others.
On August 30 2022 an employee, known as M.A., noticed "the water she got from the water dispenser had a funny taste and smell to it," according to the complaint. She later told police she began to bring her own water bottle rather than drink “sour” water.
The employee later "noticed her water from her personal water bottle that she brought from the store smelled nasty," the documents stated, adding that the woman had decided to throw away the bottle rather than investigate further.
Since the office did not have security cameras, the woman then bought a small camera online and attached it to her computer. She also bought a large bottle of water and put it in view of the camera.
The woman was alerted later that evening to movement on the camera. “What she would witness moments later was far worse than anyone could imagine,” the court papers stated.
“The video clearly showed the nighttime janitor, Lucio Diaz, approach M.A.’s desk as if to clean, set the cleaning rag and cleaning bottle on the desk, unzip his pants, pull out his penis, grab the water bottle sitting on the desk, unscrew the cap, and begin to insert his penis into the water bottle (turning it upwards to ensure the water in the bottle touched his penis), and rub his penis on the mouth of the bottle.
“He then put the cap back on the bottle, set it back where he found it, zipped up his pants, grabbed the cleaning bottle and rag, and continued to ‘clean’ the desk. Lucio Diaz was not phased, he was not nervous—he had done this before—and it had now become just a part of his daily ‘cleaning’ ritual.”
Diaz confessed to the crimes when questioned by police, according to the complaint, saying he "did it because he knew [the employee] would drink it the next day." He added that he had a “sickness.”
The woman later had several STD tests done which came back positive for Herpes simplex virus type 1, something she had never previously tested positive for, according to the complaint.
Tests on Diaz revealed he was positive for the same virus, as well as chlamydia.
Following the discovery, multiple other women working at the medical practice found they had also contracted STDs. The Independent has viewed multiple civil suits against Diaz.
The District Attorney's office has classified Diaz's urine as a "deadly weapon" because Herpes simplex virus type 1 can "weaken the immune system" and cause "bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death."
However, Diaz will not have to register as a sex offender, according to court documents.
In a statement shared with KPRC, Diaz’s attorney Jimmy Ortiz said: “Mr. Diaz was remorseful for his actions and did not want to go to trial and put the complainants through that process as well.
“He accepted responsibility for his actions and accepted the negotiated plea offer.”
