Senator accused of assault by Uber driver
Oklahoma City police are investigating an Uber driver’s complaint that a state senator “made advances on her during transit,” The
Oklahoman has confirmed. Sen. Bryce Marlatt, R-Woodward, is accused of grabbing the driver forcefully and kissing her on the neck while she was driving late June 26.
The driver reported she was assaulted on the Lake Hefner Parkway in Oklahoma City on the way to a hotel. She reported she later took the customer to The Pump Bar in Oklahoma City.
The driver approached a police officer at a convenience store two days after the incident. She said she needed to file a police report. She told the officer she “wants to press charges.”
The victim was able to obtain basic information for the suspect “and was able to find a picture of him on the internet which she showed me,” the officer wrote in a crime report.
Marlatt has not been arrested and police detectives have not brought any paperwork on the investigation to prosecutors yet for a decision on whether a charge is warranted.
Police on Wednesday released the crime report on the Uber driver’s complaint but blacked out Marlatt’s name and any information about his employment. Sources, though, confirmed he is the suspect in the sex crimes case.
Marlatt, 40, is married, and he and his wife celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary earlier in June, records show. “Best wife in the history of the world,” he wrote on Twitter. “Thanks for choosing me!”
Marlatt did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment. Fellow senators were notified Wednesday by email that his grandfather had died and “he probably won’t be able to be reached for the rest of the week.”
“What’s been reported is not tolerated and has no place on the Uber app,” an Uber spokeswoman said Wednesday. “We are working with the Oklahoma City Police Department and will provide any information to them that would be helpful for their ongoing investigation.”
Marlatt was arrested in December 2014 after he was found asleep and smelling of alcohol in his parked pickup on a road in Woodward County. He later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor.
Marlatt was first elected in 2008. He easily won reelection last year, defeating his only opponent in the Republican primary.
The incident is the latest embarrassment involving the Oklahoma Legislature. Two other GOP senators resigned earlier this year after coming under criminal investigation, and a GOP representative quit because of a sexual harassment scandal.