According to a spokesperson with the Carrollton Police Department, investigators initially suspected Tambaoga might have HIV when he requested medication that is specific to the condition. The police then confirmed his status through medical records they obtained through a grand jury subpoena received on February 16.
Because the suspected assaults happened in Texas, Tambaoga won’t face any charges that are specifically related to his HIV status. Instead, that illness plays into his being charged with aggravated assault instead of standard assault, although according to the department, it wasn’t the sole reason. However, the charges may very well look different if he ends up being charged with sexual assault in Georgia.
Unlike Texas, Georgia is one of the states with criminal statutes related to not disclosing HIV status before sex and for attempting to purposely transmit HIV to another person. The laws regarding HIV disclosure in Georgia were revised in 2022, and according to advocates for people living with HIV, the revisions resulted in the law being “modernized.”
As of now, 34 states have laws relating to HIV criminalization. Texas isn’t one of them.
What’s the Law Regarding HIV Exposure in Texas?
There is no criminal law specifically against the exposure or transmission of HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in Texas. Once there was such a law, but it was repealed in the 1990s (more on that later). That’s not to say it’s legal to transmit or expose sexual partners to STDs without first disclosing the status, however. In 2009, Philippe Padieu was found guilty of six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in a Collin County court for knowingly exposing and infecting six sexual partners to HIV. In 2018, a Houston man, Karim Zakikhani, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for aggravated assault after being convicted for infecting his girlfriend with HIV.
In short, the aggravated assault charge in Texas covers offenses relating to the type of transmission that other states have more specific laws about.
Dallas attorney Michelle Simpson Tuegel represents sexual assault survivors among others but spent time earlier in her career as a criminal defense attorney. She tends to agree there isn’t a need for a law that criminalizes the transmission or exposure of HIV or a sexually transmitted disease (STD) by itself. Instead, she thinks there should be something that can be tacked onto an aggravated assault charge should an alleged rapist knowingly transmit the disease to the victim.
“Where I think there should be a law is in the form of an enhancement, or even an additional crime, that I don't think exists now that relates to sexual violence in the transmission of an STD,” Tuegal told the Observer Thursday. “It does not criminalize the transfer of an STD by itself; sadly, that happens a lot. Do we want everyone who transmits an STD to be convicted of a crime? Unless the person with the STD has a clear medical record that shows they knew and didn’t disclose the STD to the other person, there could be a lot of proof problems.”
What Are the Concerns Regarding HIV Criminal Statutes?
According to the Center for HIV Law and Privacy, Texas became the first state to repeal its HIV criminalization laws in 1994. Such laws had been enacted in dozens of states as HIV and AIDS spread through the country in the '80s and into the early '90s. The 19th, an Austin-based nonprofit news outlet primarily focused on women’s issues, recently reported on how HIV criminalization laws in Tennessee have resulted in the targeting of certain marginalized communities.
“Thirty-four states have laws that criminalize people living with HIV in some capacity — policies that largely arose in the 1980s and '90s, driven by fear, homophobia and a lack of medical answers,” the report read. “But significant advancements in HIV treatment have drastically changed a person’s health outlook. Over the years, critics say, these laws have become another tool to criminalize Black people, LGBTQ+ people and sex workers, which are groups that already face discrimination in public health care and law enforcement.”
Tuegel remembers hearing the discussion involving how civil rights played into the repeal of the Texas HIV criminalization laws in 1994.
“There was concern over individual protection and civil rights, and sort of flagging people who have a certain medical issue as a criminal and the inherent individual liberties that would go along with that,” Tuegel said.
Tambaoga is currently being held on a total of $600,000 in bonds. Carrollton police are asking possible victims to contact the local police department where an assault occurred.
