Trial of Uber driver charged with rape opens
WEST CHESTER >> The national concern over whether ride-sharing passengers are in danger of criminal attacks will play itself out in a Chester County courtroom this week, as a Lansdale man goes on trial for sexually assaulting a Chester County woman while he was working as an Uber driver.
A jury of eight women and four men hearing the case of defendant Ahmed Mostafa Elgaafary was chosen by the two sides before Judge Patrick Carmody, with none of the prospective panelists saying during selection that they had had any negative interactions with Uber drivers — and with some saying they had either worked for the service, had signed up to do so, or had relatives who had been drivers in the past.
Elgaafary is charged with rape of an unconscious person, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, and indecent assault. If convicted, he faces a possible term in state prison.
The allegations against Elgaafary, which he denies, are that he picked up a woman who had been gambling and drinking at the Valley Forge Casino in Upper Merion, and assaulted her after she passed out in the back of his car.
Police said in a criminal complaint that they were able to match his DNA with samples taken from the woman during a physical examination the morning after the alleged assault.
Ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft have been struggling to deal with accusations that female passengers are the targets of unwanted attention by their drivers, or in more extreme cases, the victims of attacks. The situations can range from ones in which the passengers feel uncomfortable with comments made to them by drivers about their appearance or directly personal questions about their marital status to outright physical or sexual assaults.
A CNN investigation in 2018 reported that at least
103 Uber drivers in the U.S. had been accused of sexually assaulting or abusing passengers in the past four years. At least 31 drivers have been convicted for crimes ranging from forcible touching and false imprisonment to rape, and 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 ride share companies, the network stated. A report in the Washington Post stated that both Lyft and Uber have promised transparency reports outlining behavior by drivers in multiple categories of sexual assault, misconduct and harassment, but neither has scheduled those reports’ releases.
Now, members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-6 of Easttown, have taken notice of the issues involving the companies, and some are taking steps to obtain the data on incidences of assault and abuse reported on the companies’ platforms.
“No person should feel unsafe when taking an Uber, Lyft, or any ridesharing option,” said Houlahan in a statement Monday. “Like any mother, my children’s safety is of the utmost priority. I want to make sure that we as a community are doing everything we can to stand up and protect our children, neighbors, and friends. If companies are not aggressively taking steps to ensure riders’ safety, it is up to Congress to step in and ensure consumer protection.”
On Monday, attorney Shanin Specter of the Philadelphia law firm of Specter & Klein said his firm had begun representing some clients in cases involving ride sharing services, but that those dealt generally with negligence or other matters and not criminal assault. Many drivers, he speculated, might know that they are more often tracked by the company and can face scrutiny through their electronic footprints and so act appropriately with clients.
But, he said, any attack would be cause for concern. “The reports are infrequent, but one incident is one incident too many, and would be tragic,” he said.
In the Delaware Valley, there have been few reports of sexual assault by Uber or Lyft drivers.
In 2017, an Uber driver from Philadelphia was sentenced to 7 1/2 to 15 years in state prison for sexually assaulting a female passenger in Montgomery County, who told police that in June
2015 she was in a ride sharing car and fell asleep. She told police that she woke up in West Norriton to find the driver fondling her.
In the current case, Elgaafary was arrested last fall, several months after the woman, a resident of Charlestown, reported her case to police.
The woman told investigators that she had been at the casino and was drinking heavily the night of Feb.
9 and into Feb. 10, 2018, She called for an Uber ride to take her home and was picked up at about 2:20 a.m. She said she did not remember anything about the ride home, and woke up in her home that morning nauseous and with a “bad feeling that something may have happened.”
She had bruises on her legs and forehead, and dirt under her fingernails. She was also dressed only in a bra when she woke up.
Checking the Uber applications, the woman saw that the ride had lasted approximately 58 minutes, when the normal travel time between the casino and her home in Charlestown is about 15 minutes. She was taken to Pottstown Hospital, where a sexual assault examination was conducted, including swabs for DNA.
State Trooper Amos Glick, a seven-year veteran of the state police assigned to the Lancaster barracks, was able to identify Elgaafary as the Uber driver who had picked her up the night of Feb. 10. According to a criminal complaint, the Egyptian national appeared for an interview on March 2, and said he remembered picking the woman up, and noticing that she appeared intoxicated. He said she vomited multiple times during the ride, but he denied having any sexual contact with her. He voluntarily agreed to provide Glick with a sample of his DNA.
When Glick later received the results of the examination, he said the state police forensic lab had detected evidence of sperm on the victim. A DNA analysis of that positively identified his DNA in the examination results, allegedly confirming that he had had sex with the woman.
Elgaafary was arrested on Oct. 31, and charged with rape of an unconscious person, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, and indecent assault.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Vince Cocco and Alexis Shaw. Elgaafary is represented by West Chester attorneys Jonathan Altman and Melissa McCafferty.