US event rider Darren Chiacchia was arrested yesterday for “crimes against person”.
The 46-year-old Olympic rider is HIV positive. He was arrested in Marion County, Florida yesterday for having sex without informing his partner that he has HIV. He was later bailed.
US Equestrian Federation communications director Kathy Knill Meyer told H&H this afternoon that Darren’s arrest is “an unfortunate and tragic event”.
“Our sympathies go to all who are involved,” she said.
Darren Chiacchia was part of America’s Olympic bronze medal-winning eventing team at the Athens Games in 2004.
In March 2008, he sustained a severe head injury, multiple rib fractures and a partially collapsed lung in a rotation fall at the Red Mills Horse Trials in Florida.
Updated: 22 February 2017
An online docket for Marion County, Florida dated 15 February 2017 confirms that 2010 felony charges alleging that Darren did not inform a former sexual partner that he was HIV positive have been dropped.
