When Uber first moved into the Denver-area market, local taxi companies implied that the service wasn't as safe as traditional cabs.
So far this year, however, we've only reported about a couple of Uber-related crimes. One involved a driver as an alleged criminal; Gerald Montgomery was arrested on suspicion of burglarizing a client's home. But in the other, an Uber driver was the crime victim; he was robbed at knife point, with Wenston Williams and Kim Kovinchick subsequently busted in the incident.
Now, however, the Denver District Attorney's Office has formally charged another Uber driver, Luis Galeano-Bedon, with sexual assault. And the details contained in an arrest affidavit on view below will likely disturb some readers.
At about 2:40 a.m. on November 1, according to the document, an officer spoke with a woman on a report of a sex assault.
The victim said she and a friend had rented a room at The Timbers hotel, located on the 4400 block of North Peoria Street, on Halloween, October 31, then arranged for an Uber ride to 1445 Market Street — the address for the nightclub Chloe.
The two women were delivered to the venue sans incident, with the driver, Galeano-Bedon, giving them his personal cell phone number.
He told them to call him when they were ready to be picked up.
The call was made at around 1:30 a.m. on the 1st, and when Galeano-Bedon showed up, the women, both of whom had been drinking, climbed into the back of his vehicle, a mini-van.
At first, both women dozed off, the report maintains. But then, one passenger began feeling nauseous — and Galeano-Bedon suggested that she move to the front seat, so she'd be closer to the window.
Both women wound up sitting up front, and they soon fell asleep again — at least until the victim says she felt Galeano-Bedon "penetrating her vaginally with his fingers," the document states.
In addition, the narrative maintains, "Luis then tried to [deleted]."
After arriving at The Timbers, Galeano-Bedon is said to have followed the women as they made their way to their room.
However, he left after one of the women confronted him while taking cell-phone video of the exchange.
The women shared the video with police and picked Galeano-Bedon out of a photo lineup. Surveillance footage from The Timbers also backed up that part of the story.
For his part, Galeano-Bedon insisted that he'd done nothing wrong. But he also declined to provide a saliva sample on the advice of counsel after initially agreeing to do so, the document allows.
The DA's office subsequently charged Galeano-Bedon with two counts of sexual assault — victim incapable. At this hour, he's scheduled for a formal advisement in Denver County Court.
Look below to see Galeano-Bedon's booking photo, followed by the police report.
Luis Galeano-Bedon Police Report
