Former US Olympian Darren Chiacchia has spoken about
his arrest in Florida for allegedly failing to tell a partner he was HIV positive.
Chiacchia, who was arrested in January, spoke exclusively to wgrz.com's 2 On Your Side programme about the case.
Chiacchia said: "I think all of us have been in a situation where a relationship has gone bad and that's difficult for any of us and people react to that differently. This individual has unfortunately chosen this method of reaction."
The interview can be seen here.
The charge against the 45-year-old rider was laid by the Marion County Sheriff's office.
Jenifer Fisher, from the police department's public information office, told Horsetalk at the time: "His partner came to us with some information he had found - some paperwork regarding some positive test result."
The partner alleged Chiacchia, a 2003 Pan American gold medalist, had initially told him he was not positive for any infection.
Ms Fisher said the partner recorded a conservation with Chiacchia in which he allegedly admitted that he knew he was HIV positive when they became sexually active.
The recording, she said, was not the result of any police surveillance. "The victim recorded it in his own time."
In Florida, is it illegal to knowingly have sex with another person while HIV positive without telling the other person beforehand.
The victim had an email, allegedly from Chiacchia, in which the former Olympian admitted to knowing he was infected with the disease in 2008.
Two years ago, Chiacchia was seriously injured on the cross-country of the Red Hills Horse Trials in Florida.
His horse Baron Verdi hit a jump and somersaulted, falling on Chiacchia. He was unconscious for nearly two weeks and on a ventilator. A year later, he was back competing at advanced level and won at the Rocking Horse Spring Horse Trials riding his veteran campaigner, the trakehner stallion Windfall II.
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