Rideshare company Uber is under fire after over 103 claims uncover incidents of drivers raping or abusing their passengers. One woman in San Diego claims that she called an Uber after a night of drinking cocktails with her friends.
The evening took a turn for the worse when the woman asked the driver to stop the vehicle because she had to vomit.
She eventually passed out in the backseat of the vehicle. When she regained consciousness, she was a block from her home with the Uber driver on top of her raping her. The woman was able to break free from the driver and call 911. The driver, John David Sanchez, was arrested. Sanchez was a serial rapist, with investigators finding videos of him abusing women and raping them for at least the previous five years.
He was sentenced to 80 years in prison and raped at least nine other women, including teens. He often drugged the passengers prior to the rape.
Lax screening procedures at Uber have allowed sexual predators to transport passengers for years. Uber settled two claims of sexual assault in November 2016.
A Wrentham Uber driver accused of raping a passenger is expected to be released from jail after a hearing on Thursday. The man was at a party with his girlfriend when the woman made advances to him. A police detective testified on behalf of the man, verifying the claims.
The man, Melvin Guerrero-Encarnacion, claims that he turned down the sexual advances of the woman.
The driver claims that the woman took off her pants in his vehicle and started molesting him. He claims that he did not have intercourse with the woman. Detectives have witnesses that claim the woman was seeking sex at a party and had bruises on her prior to her Uber ride.
Examination of the vehicle found no DNA evidence of a sexual encounter.
In another report, a driver from San Francisco is being accused of kidnapping and attempting to rape two female passengers. Gabrele Amare, who is now in Santa Rita Jail, had been a driver for the company for about a month. He reportedly refused to let the woman out of his vehicle. The woman was forced to jump out of the window to escape.
Police reaffirm that Amare told the police that he intended to use the woman for prostitution. Amare claims that the events never occurred and that he dropped the woman off. Two hours later, another woman claimed that Amare tried to kidnap her, but released the woman after she threatened to break the window.