Court documents: Rideshare driver rapes drunk woman

THURSTON COUNTY, Wash. – Probable cause documents have revealed more details in connection with the alleged rape of an intoxicated woman by a rideshare driver over the weekend in Thurston County.

A Thurston County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) deputy first responded to an intersection in the early morning hours of June 15 after a woman reported hearing a man say, “I don’t want to kill you,” followed by two gunshots and two vehicles driving away.

On the way, the officer was informed that a black sedan had left the scene of the accident. When the officer saw the vehicle, he initiated a traffic stop.

The officer says the driver looked out the window and then tried to drive off, but eventually stopped after being repeatedly beeped by the officer’s siren. The driver of the black sedan was bleeding profusely from the head and had “numerous bumps” on the front and sides of his head.

The driver told the officer he had just dropped off a woman when four men broke down the doors of his car and attacked him, court documents say. The men stole the driver’s phone and fled, the driver told the officer. A cellphone, a black shirt and a single shoe were discovered in the driver’s back seat, the officer wrote.

The driver attempted to drive away against medical advice, but eventually agreed to be transported to the hospital.

According to the documents, another officer was called to a location on 6th Avenue SE where they found two men. One of them said his girlfriend had lost her phone and “Find my iPhone” showed them the device was at that location.

The officer went to the house with the two men and made contact with the girlfriend and her cousins, including the victim. One of the women told officers that the victim, identified in court documents by her initials, had called her to take her away. When the woman arrived, they found her naked and complaining of pain in her genitals.

Deputies wrote that the victim showed signs of extreme intoxication, “to the point that she was no longer able to give consent,” and that she was taken from her home to the hospital where she was prepared for a sexual abuse evaluation.

At the hospital, the woman who had originally stated that the victim had ordered a ride admitted that she had lied. Instead, this woman told TCSO that they went to a bar and she ordered the victim an Uber ride home. The rest of the group went to another bar and when the woman who had spoken to TCSO returned home, she found that the victim was not there.

The victim’s father checked her location and saw that she was near an address on 6th Avenue Southeast. The woman was walking with the father and two other people.

She told officers that when they arrived, they saw the black sedan parked near the Nisqually River. When the woman opened the back door, she found the victim naked and the driver jumping from the back to the front, pulling up his pants.

The group “allegedly attacked the driver” while trying to get him away from the victim, which is why the driver was injured when contacted by the deputy. Shots were fired during the altercation, but the driver was not hit, TCSO said. The driver was arrested on suspicion of rape and kidnapping and invoked his constitutional rights when contacted by a deputy.

A review of Uber app data revealed that the victim had been dropped off at an address that was not her residence. Data from the Life 360 ​​app on the victim’s phone showed that the vehicle continued driving past the “drop off point” and eventually stopped at the location where she was found in the driver’s back seat.

Probable cause documents state that the driver marked her as dropped off to “hide” her location “because he believed no one would be able to find her so he could sexually assault her.”

KING 5 is not naming suspects until they are formally charged. The driver is expected to appear in court Monday.