Lyft Inc. was sued Thursday by a woman who alleges one of the transportation company’s drivers picked her up from her workplace in the Mid-Wilshire district in 2015 and drove her to Baldwin Park, where he sexually assaulted her.
The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges assault, battery, false imprisonment, negligent hiring and retention and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The plaintiff is seeking unspecified damages.
A Lyft representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
According to her court papers, the woman works as a “Chinese professor.” She says she ordered a ride from Lyft on Jan. 28, 2015, and her intended destination was her home in Westwood.
But after she got into the vehicle, the Lyft driver locked the passenger doors internally, secured the windows and “told plaintiff that he intended to have sex with her,” according to the complaint.
“Plaintiff begged for her life and demanded defendant take her home, which was the opposite direction on the 10 (Santa Monica) Freeway,” the suit states.
The woman was driven to an isolated field in Baldwin Park near the San Bernardino (10) Freeway, where the driver “sexually assaulted and battered plaintiff,” the suit alleges.
After the attack, the driver drove the woman “to a public location where she ran for her life and summoned police,” the suit states.
The suit alleges Lyft negligently hired, supervised and maintained the driver, who is identified in the complaint only as “Marvin Doe.”
–City News Service