There’s a sense of concern, sympathy and disbelief surrounding a lawsuit that alleges Roberto Alomar, a beloved ex-Blue Jay, has AIDS.
Alomar is alleged in a lawsuit to have insisted on having unprotected sex, while claiming repeatedly that he was disease-free, with ex-girlfriend Ilya Dall, 31. She makes the charges in a suit that was first reported in the New York media.
Among her more explosive allegations is that Alomar told her he’d been raped by two men while playing baseball in the southwestern U.S. when he was 17 years of age.
The allegations have caused a stir around the baseball world, but especially in Toronto, where Alomar is fondly remembered and honoured, and in his native Puerto Rico, where he has iconic status.
In papers filed in state and federal court in New York, Dall said Alomar, 41, was told repeatedly by doctors to get tested for HIV and finally did so January 2006. The $15-million US negligence suit alleges: “The test results of him being HIV-positive was given to him and the plaintiff on or about Feb. 6, 2006.”
Alomar, who was once engaged to tennis star Mary Pierce, has not commented on the suit and his lawyer would not say whether Alomar is HIV-positive.
