CNN INVESTIGATION REVEALS OVER 100 SEXUAL ASSAULTS BY UBER DRIVERS

by Sara Ashley O'Brien, Nelli Black, Curt Devine, and Drew Griffin @CNNTech April 30, 2018: 5:43 PM ET
After an evening of cocktails in San Diego, a woman got into the back of an Uber for a ride home. She was so intoxicated she had to ask the driver to stop so she could vomit. She says she then passed out in the backseat.  When she regained consciousness, the Uber driver was on top of her, raping her, a block from her home, according to the police report and two sources familiar with the investigation.  She was able to escape and dial 911.

Police later arrested the Uber driver, John David Sanchez, 54. When they searched his computer, they found videos of Sanchez raping women and abusing young teenagers, dating back at least five years.  In November, Sanchez was sentenced to 80 years in prison for the rape of the Uber passenger and 33 other counts against him, including sexual assaults of at least nine other women and children. Sanchez drugged many of his victims.
A CNN investigation has found that Sanchez is just one of at least 103 Uber drivers in the U.S. who has been accused of sexually assaulting or abusing their passengers in the past four years. The drivers were arrested, are wanted by police, or have been named in civil suits related to the incidents. At least 31 drivers have been convicted of crimes ranging from forcible touching and false imprisonment to rape. Dozens of criminal and civil cases are pending, CNN found.

There is no publicly available data for the number of sexual assaults by Uber drivers or for drivers of other rideshare companies. CNN's analysis comes from an in-depth review of police reports, federal court records and county court databases for 20 major U.S. cities.

In another case examined by CNN, a woman from Miami left her kids with their grandmother and went to a bar with a friend. She took an Uber home. She says she passed out along the way and woke up the next morning with her pants and underwear on the floor.  The Uber driver allegedly carried her into her apartment, threw her onto the bed and sexually assaulted her. She is a plaintiff in a proposed class-action lawsuit against Uber.
"You are pretty much hitchhiking with strangers," she told CNN. "How many people is it going to take to get assaulted before something is done?"
According to police, the driver told them he knew the victim had been drinking and was "wrong for what he did." He pleaded not guilty to sexual battery and awaits trial.

A woman in Long Beach, California, who alleges she fell asleep intoxicated in the back of an Uber in 2016, told CNN that she woke up with the driver assaulting her. The driver, 47, was found the next day with her phone and later arrested. He claimed the sex was consensual and the district attorney dropped the criminal case against him. She is suing Uber over the incident and for representing its services as "safe."  "You don't think it will happen to you," she told CNN. "I still feel ashamed ... that's why I'm here. I want a voice. [I'm] tired of being quiet."

Uber: 'We want to be part of the solution'

Uber, which launched in 2010 in San Francisco as "everyone's private driver," is the most valuable privately-held tech startup in the world. It is valued at $70 billion and operates in 630 cities worldwide. Uber provides 15 million rides a day.  The issue of sexual assault conflicts with Uber's brand messaging to provide a "safe ride home." Its print and digital ads show women taking Ubers for nights out, and a partnership with Mothers Against Drunk Driving includes a "designated rider" campaign urging users to take an Uber to avoid driving under the influence. In 2015, Uber set up a pop-up kiosk in Toronto to offer free rides to those who blew into breathalyzers.  This is significant given many of the women raped or attacked by the 103 accused drivers uncovered as a part of CNN's investigation had been drinking, or were inebriated, at the time of the incidents.

The majority of the police reports reviewed by CNN involved incidents that took place in or near major cities across the country. Uber did not provide numbers on how many of its drivers have been accused of sexual assaults.

Five drivers across various states told CNN they were not provided any kind of sexual harassment or assault training. Drivers agree to the company's community guidelines when they sign up to work for the service. Uber said it updated its standards in December 2016 to specify no sexual contact is permitted when using its platform.

Last week, the company posted a sexual assault prevention video on its website to inform drivers and riders "how to create a safer community." It also said it plans to host 50 community forums nationwide for advocates, leaders, drivers, and riders across to talk about the issue. The changes came after CNN first contacted Uber about this story.

Uber was made aware of CNN's reporting for this story months ago but the company failed to make any executives available to speak on the record. It canceled an on-camera interview with an Uber executive earlier this month.  On a call with CNN last week for an unrelated story, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said cracking down on sexual assault is a "new priority for us."  "It is a priority that I expect to remain a priority for the foreseeable future," said Khosrowshahi, who joined the company in late August after co-founder Travis Kalanick stepped down.  In a recent statement sent to CNN, an Uber spokesperson said safety is the company's top priority this year and cited recent protocol updates such as rerunning driver background checks on an annual basis moving forward. The company also said it plans to roll out a dedicated "safety center" within the Uber app where riders can designate contacts they want to share trip details with while they ride; it will also have an emergency button allowing users to call 911 from inside the app.
"This is just a start and we are committed to doing more," the spokesperson said. "Sexual assault is a horrible crime that has no place anywhere. While Uber is not immune to this societal issue, we want to be part of the solution to end this violence forever."

Lyft, an Uber competitor that provides one million rides daily in the United States and Canada, is also dealing with sexual assaults by its drivers. A similar CNN review using the same methodology found 18 cases of Lyft drivers accused in the past four years. Four drivers have been convicted.
"The safety of the Lyft community is our top priority," said a Lyft spokesperson, adding it has "worked hard to design policies and features that protect our community."
It's common for Uber and Lyft drivers to work for both services. But each company performs its own background checks. Both companies mostly conduct digital background checks via a startup called Checkr.
Uber said it reviews the records of driver candidates that are surfaced to the company by its background check provider. It said any serious criminal convictions, like sexual assault, sex crimes against children and kidnapping, would disqualify candidates.

CARDINAL GEORGE PELL TO STAND TRIAL

By Adam Baidawi NEW YORK TIMES

MELBOURNE, Australia — Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s third-highest-ranking official, must stand trial on several charges of sexual abuse, an Australian court ruled on Tuesday, promising to prolong a case that has already dragged on for months, and which many see as a moment of reckoning for a church racked by scandal.  Belinda Wallington, a Melbourne magistrate, found there was sufficient evidence for prosecutors to bring the cardinal’s case to trial, ending a two-month pretrial hearing, in which witnesses described abuse they said took place decades ago.

But the vast majority of charges against the cardinal were either withdrawn or dismissed, including several of the most serious allegations, which were said to have taken place in a playground, on an altar, on a mountaintop, and during a 1970s screening of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” in Ballarat.   Cardinal Pell, 76, is the most senior Roman Catholic official to be charged with crimes of sexual abuse. As the Vatican’s de facto finance chief, he was granted leave by the pope to return to Australia to conduct his defense.

When asked to enter a plea, the cardinal said “not guilty.” He was ordered to surrender his passport.
The cardinal has been accused of “historical sexual offenses,” meaning they took place decades ago, but the details of the criminal complaint, including the identities of his accusers, have not been made public. Such cases are subject to Australia’s strict contempt standards, and other legal restrictions, which prohibit journalists from reporting on details of criminal allegations.
Robert Richter, the cardinal’s lawyer, said last year there was “voluminous” evidence to prove that “what was alleged is impossible.” Mr. Richter argued that Cardinal Pell was being targeted for the worldwide failing of the Catholic Church to protect victims of abuse.

Cardinal Pell was accused in 2016 in hearings before Australia’s Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse of mishandling misconduct cases against clergy members while he served as the leader of the Archdioceses of Melbourne and Sydney. Then, in 2017, allegations surfaced that he had himself been involved in abuse beginning early in his priesthood and continuing until he became archbishop of Melbourne. He has denied those accusations.

“It’s a historical day for the survivors of Ballarat,” said Phil Nagle, an advocate for abuse victims, referring to the cardinal’s hometown, in which several priests were accused of misconduct. “I didn’t know whether this could happen. He’s the third most important person in the church. It’s good to see him being treated like any other citizen in court.”

NO I WON’T BACK DOWN

Flame-throwing comic Michelle Wolf won’t back down from her controversial White House Correspondents’ Association performance, defiantly saying Monday she was never sought to “cater to the room.”
Wolf stunned the black-tie crowd with a barrage of harsh barbs at White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Vice President Mike Pence, the mainstream media and many others.  “I wouldn’t change a single word that I said. I’m very happy with what I said, and I’m glad I stuck to my guns,” she told NPR’s “Fresh Air.”  “I knew what I was doing going in. I wanted to do something different. I didn’t want to cater to the room. I wanted to cater to the outside audience, and not betray my brand of comedy.”
A day after the performance, which was blasted by President Trump, the WHCA issued a statement disavowing Wolf’s act.  The harshest criticism came over her wisecracks about Sanders. Wolf talked about her “smokey eye” look and compared her to “Aunt Lydia”– the homely taskmaster from the dystopian novel-turned-TV show “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
“I think one of the things about being a comic is getting to actually, as a woman, I have access to hit women in a way that men might not be able to hit them with jokes,” Wolf said.

JAYLIN OUT, CELTICS WIN

BOSTON -- Celtics guard Jaylen Brown sat out Monday's 117-101 Game 1 win over the Philadelphia 76ers as he continues to battle a right hamstring strain suffered in Boston's Game 7 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. Celtics coach Brad Stevens said Brown felt better Monday and tried to lobby team trainers to let him play but the team decided to err on the side of caution.
Marcus Smart started in Brown's place. The Celtics have reinserted Aron Baynes into the starting lineup, where he shared the frontcourt with Al Horford. Boston went small in Games 5-7 against the Bucks, utilizing rookie Semi Ojeleye as a starter. The Celtics went big at the start against Philadelphia's frontcourt featuring Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.
Stevens noted how Brown was on the phone with team doctors about two hours before tipoff trying to talk his way into playing. Stevens said then that Brown remained doubtful. Brown was in Boston's locker room with a trainer before Monday's game and had said he was uncertain if he'd play. "[Brown] went through stuff this morning, though they cut him short of going through the whole workout," said Stevens. "He feels a lot better because he's anxious to play, so that's part of the discussion."  There are two days off before Thursday's Game 2 in Boston. Next!