Texas Man Charged with Sexual Assault of Female Passenger During Lyft Ride in Austin

A man is being held in the Travis County Jail after allegedly sexually assaulting a woman during a Lyft rideshare service in May. According to court documents, Maurys Medruga-Mesa was driving a vehicle under the name "Jorge" when he picked up a woman in Austin. Medruga-Mesa allegedly made inappropriate comments about the woman's appearance after she entered the car.

During the Lyft ride, Medruga-Mesa reportedly locked the car's doors and forced the woman into the front seat, refusing to continue driving until she complied. Court documents state that he then assaulted her multiple times, acknowledging during the attack that he was "making a mistake."

At some point during the ride, Medruga-Mesa allegedly turned off his Lyft app. This triggered a safety alert from the rideshare company to the victim, notifying her that the ride had ended and that she was no longer near her drop-off location. According to the documents, Medruga-Mesa then took the woman's phone and gave himself a 5-star rating on the app.

The victim reportedly fabricated a story about her boyfriend tracking her location, which eventually led Medruga-Mesa to drive closer to her home. Once nearby, she managed to escape from the vehicle before he drove away.

Austin police obtained rideshare data from Lyft in connection with the incident, though they have not confirmed whether Medruga-Mesa was officially driving for the service or impersonating a driver. Medruga-Mesa initially denied wrongdoing but later admitted to committing the assault, he is now facing a sexual assault charge and remains in jail on a $40,000 bond.

Lyft has reportedly been cooperating with the investigation, providing ride history and driver information in response to a grand jury subpoena.

According to data obtained by Helping Survivors, a non-profit organization that supports sexual abuse survivors, Lyft published their first and only US-based safety report in 2021, after years of pressure from survivors and government officials. In total, the document revealed 4,158 Sexual Assault Reports from 2017 to 2019. It is unclear if and when the company plans to release their next US Safety Report.

In its latest safety report, Lyft's rideshare rival Uber, revealed a total of 2,847 cases of sexual violence for the combined years of 2019-2020, a 38% decrease from the previous report, which Helping Survivors attributes to the pandemic.