A man suspected of raping several women in Texas and Georgia was booked into Denton County jail, where he was found to have HIV.
Carrollton police arrested 25-year-old Carlton Tambaoga after an investigation into a local woman’s sexual assault on February 11 led to him. He secured a $20,000 bond for his release on February 13, according to jail records.
However, he was arrested again on February 16 after five more sexual assault victims were discovered. Investigators suspect that even more may still be out there in the vicinities of Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Atlanta.
“It’s always a concern,” Amy Jones, the CEO of the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center, said about Tambaoga’s HIV status, according to Fox 4 KDFW. “Most perpetrators are not using some form of protection when they perpetrate this sexual violence against another individual.”
So far, Tambaoga has been charged with three counts of aggravated sexual assault and has been assigned a bond of $1.1 million.
Authorities ask that even if an alleged victim of Tambaoga’s does not wish to file a complaint, they should still seek medical care. The testing window for HIV depends on the type of test deployed, with the fastest results yielded by the nucleic acid test as soon as 10 days after exposure to the virus.
Alongside the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center, local victims of sexual assault can seek resources at the Parkland Victim Intervention Program/Rape Crisis Center, Denton County Friends of the Family, The Turning Point Rape Crisis Center of Collin County, and The Women’s Center of Tarrant County.
Nationally, support can be found via the National Sexual Assault Hotline by calling 800-656-4673.
In Dallas, there have been 99 sexual offenses reported this year as of March 14, according to data from the City’s crime analytics dashboard. Council Districts 7 and 6 have seen the most reports, which are represented by Council Members Adam Bazaldua and Omar Narvaez, respectively. Most victims of sexual assault have been black and Hispanic women and girls, per City data.
The Dallas Police Department recently rolled out a new sexual assault filing procedure by telephone at Parkland Health after struggling to deploy officers to take victims’ statements in a prompt manner, as covered by The Dallas Express. Despite a City analysis recommending a force of 4,000 officers, DPD fields only around 3,000, which has dampened efforts to curb crime and respond to public safety needs.
For instance, Downtown Dallas regularly sees less crime than neighboring Fort Worth’s city center, which is patrolled by a specialized neighborhood police unit and private security guards.
However, City leaders have approved a budget of just $654 million for DPD this fiscal year, putting Dallas far behind other high-crime jurisdictions, such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, in terms of spending on police.
