A Hollywood woman is suing Uber after being raped by one of the company's drivers, saying his light sentence prompted her to fight harder for justice.
Keather Taylor, 27, said she woke up naked in her own bed after hiring an Uber driver to take her to her boyfriend's place in July of 2014. There was a condom wrapper on the nightstand, and her toilet seat had been left up.
"I was so disoriented, because the last thing I remember is heading to the guy that I was dating, his house -- and I wasn't there," Taylor said. "I started to panic."
She began to put together the horrifying situation.
"Through waking up and noticing my toilet seat was left up, which I obviously wouldn’t have done, plus the condom wrapper on my nightstand, I started to panic," Taylor said.
Taylor and her lawyers believe the driver drugged the bottled water he gave her. DNA evidence helped lead to his conviction on sexual battery. Because of a plea deal, he served six months in jail.
But Taylor believes Uber is equally responsible for what happened.
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"My biggest drive is just to let this never happen to anyone else in the entire world," Taylor said.
Her lawyers say the company's criminal background checks on its drivers aren't enough. They say fingerprinting technology could prevent future attacks, although Taylor's driver did not have a criminal record prior to 2014.
"That perpetrator may now think about it -- it will act as a deterrent to them," her attorney Samuel Dordulian said. "[They may think] that, 'if I was going to do this and think I can get away with it, maybe I can't.'"
Uber did not respond to requests for comment. Its CEO recently told CNN that it does not fingerprint drivers to protect those who he says have been unfairly arrested; to give them an opportunity to work.
