Couple file charges against each other

Staff report

BOARDMAN

A woman who called police to report domestic violence was charged herself with felonious assault after police learned she did not disclose her HIV-positive status to her boyfriend.

Tyeashea D. Taltoan, 27, told police her boyfriend David Brooks, 50, punched her in the face Tuesday evening during an argument at the Wagon Wheel Motel on Market Street, where the couple had been staying, and that she wanted to file domestic-violence charges, according to reports. Police said they interviewed Brooks, who told them they were fighting because Taltoan did not disclose that she had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, during their seven-month relationship when they had unprotected sexual relations.

Brooks said he confronted Taltoan after finding HIV-related medicine and that he wanted to pursue charges against her, reports state.

Brooks is charged with misdemeanor domestic violence. He and Taltoan were taken to Mahoning County jail.

In May, a Mahoning County Common Pleas judge sentenced Randal Brown, 23, of Youngstown, to a three-year prison term for having unprotected sex with a woman while knowing he was infected with HIV.

Brown had pleaded guilty to felonious assault and could have faced a prison sentence of up to eight years.