A Colorado state lawmaker is suing the ride-hailing company Lyft and a Colorado-based transportation outfit after she says she was sexually assaulted by her driver on a ride last year.
Rep. Jenny Willford, a Northglenn Democrat, spoke about the new lawsuit during a news conference in the state Capitol on Tuesday. She said she was sexually assaulted in February by a man “using someone else’s profile” and who “wasn’t the driver presented to me by the Lyft app.”
Her suit accuses Lyft of failing to ensure its drivers pass required background checks and don’t share profiles. It alleges that Lyft rolled back safety protections the company announced after media outlets reported several years ago on the extent of sexual assaults by drivers on rides arranged through the apps of Lyft and its main competitor, Uber.
“Every passenger should know that if they pay for a ride-share, the person actually picking them up matches the driver listed in the profile — that the driver can pass a background check, that they meet the legal qualifications to be a transportation network company driver in our state, and that they are safe and the driver will not physically or sexually assault them,” Willford said.
The lawmaker was recently elected to her second term in the House. She was flanked Tuesday by supporters and her attorneys, including former state Democratic Party chair Morgan Carroll.
Her suit, filed in Adams County on Monday, is against Lyft and Shanu Transportation, a local company owned by Kholmurod Halimov. Halimov was the registered user of the Lyft driver profile assigned to pick up Willford, according to the suit.
But she was picked up after dinner with friends by a different man, who was also driving a car registered to Halimov’s company.
The driver made inappropriate and sexual comments to her, she said, and she removed her heels because she believed she would have to run out of the car. She was then sexually assaulted near her home, she said.
Messages sent to Lyft this week were not returned. Halimov also did not respond to an email seeking comment. The Denver Post was unable to contact the man identified in the suit as the driver who assaulted Willford; it is not naming him because he has not been charged with a crime.
James Burlison, a spokesman for the Northglenn Police Department, confirmed that “a report has been filed” with the police department when asked about Willford’s case. But he declined to comment further, citing the open investigation.
Though she was assaulted in February, Willford said DNA samples from the case had not yet been tested. Those samples are caught up in the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s testing backlog: Agency officials told lawmakers last week that it now takes more than 500 days on average to process kits preserving sexual assault evidence.
Willford called that delay “egregious” and called on the state to address it.
Carroll said no arrest had been made in the case because of the testing backlog. She said the alleged assailant was believed to still be in Colorado.
Willford and her lawyers accused Lyft of failing to adequately address the thousands of customers who have reported being sexually assaulted, pointing to the company’s own count of more than 4,150 incidents over a three-year period. Willford argued that Lyft had not done enough to stop drivers from sharing profiles with unauthorized drivers, including with some who may not have passed background checks.
The suit argues that the company violated Colorado laws regulating transportation companies and consumer protection. It alleges that Lyft rolled back plans to require annual background checks. The suit also alleges that Halimov, Shanu Transportation’s owner, would not have passed a background check had Lyft required it, and it accuses his company of negligence and false imprisonment.
When Willford told Lyft about her assault, the company refunded her for the $85.53 ride and said it would not match her with the same driver again, she said.
As a result of the assault, she said, she’s suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I have a platform that most people don’t have and a daughter to raise in this world,” the legislator said. “It’s why I’m here to say that Lyft needs to take their systemic problems of sexual assaults, fake profiles, sold or rented profiles, and profile-sharing very seriously — and do something now.”
Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.
Originally Published:
