Man Arrested for The Sexual Assault of a 16 Year Old
The police have been investigating a sexual assault claim. according to the Police a sixteen year old Valley girl was sexually assaulted by an Uber Driver. This happened during her ride home from school in the 2015 year.
An Uber driver is an app that allows you to become or use a personal taxi service pretty much. If you have a car, you can sign up to pick up people in your area and get paid for it. If you need rides to places then you can also put in a request to be picked up.
From the Uber Website
Uber is a smartphone app that makes it easy to get paid for driving your own car. It’s simple to use. When you want to make money just turn on the app and pick up riders. You’ll see how much you made after every ride and you’ll get paid weekly.
It sadly an easy target for predators, even though it shouldn’t be. It’s a great idea, just needs a way to beef up the security a little better.
According to court records, on June 1, 2015 a 16 year old high school student sent in a request for an Uber ride home from her school in Phoenix. She needed to go to her home in North Scottsdale after just finishing up her exams.
The police said that the driver was fifty-three year old, James Richard Stough II. He picked her up as she requested and started talking to her. She told Stough that she was an athlete and she was recovering from a severe ankle injury.
Of course the pervert, must have decided to take his chance to prey on the poor, injured teen. Before they go to the victim’s home Stough had told her that he was actually a nurse. He pulled over in an undeveloped home lots area. This was in Pinnacle Peak and Pima. The man opened the back door of the vehicle and claimed that he was going to look at her ankle.
The girl later told the police that she was scared and did whatever he told her to do as he touched her inappropriately. I can’t imagine the fear that young girl was going through.
Stough later released the victim about a half mile from her home. You would think that he would have taken her the whole way after all of that. The girl’s father called the police and requested an Uber ride, knowing that the same driver might be still in the area. The Scottsdale Police arrived to the victims home the same time as the suspect arrived.
Of course Stough denies any involvement in the incident. But luckily the Uber records support the victims story. The records show that he did stop the fare in the location that the victim said. This is one predator that isn’t going to get away with lying. Thankfully her family was home and was able to quickly think of something with the police.
The victim had give the police her shorts so that the Lab could do some DNA investigating on it. The lab work came back showing Stough’s DNA on the girl’s shorts. Stough was then arrested and is facing charges of kidnapping, sexual conduct with a minor and assault.
Stough was removed from the Uber account. Uber showed that he had no prior complaints against him. Which some girls might have been too scare to come forward or maybe this was his first time doing that. He knew she was injured and she couldn’t put up much of a fight. It’s sad that young girl had to go through that.
Hopefully Uber finds a way to keep track of their drivers a little better. Maybe keep a dash cam going and have someone monitor the driver’s GPS…if they stop other than the intended place, call the person who needed the ride to check on things.
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