Uber sexual assault trial: Exec ‘trashed rape victims’ in response to investigations

PHOENIX (CN) — Internal messages revealed in federal court indicate Uber executives have known for a decade about the company’s rampant sexual assault problem, and encouraged employees to silence victims.

“In many cases, we can and should squash stories,” global safety communications director Andew Hasbun said in a Slack message in 2018. “Kill stories when possible and mitigate the impact on our reputation.”

In the first of thousands of pending federal sexual assault cases against Uber to go to trial, plaintiff attorneys on Thursday played a recording of Hasbun’s deposition. In it, he discussed messages he sent and received regarding media investigations into the safety practices of the ride hailing giant.

“I trashed rape victims to USA Today,” he wrote, referring to a 2019 story that revealed Uber shared victims’ personal information with third-party claims adjusters without the women’s knowledge.

“I used to look after my soul, but I don’t know where it is anymore,” he said in another message.

In one message, a co-worker mentioned that an in-house attorney had been on vacation.

“While the rest of us are peddling lies and cleaning up their mess,” Hasbun wrote.

In his deposition, Hasbun dismissed the messages as a “poor choice of words.” He said “killing” a story is industry jargon for correcting facts and explaining context to reporters.

“I do believe the company does the right thing,” he said in his deposition. “In the end, I think the company ends in the right spot.”

In 2018, Hasbun was fielding questions from CNN reporters who found that at least 103 Uber drivers had been accused of sexually assaulting their passengers in the previous four years. At the time CNN first reached out to Uber, that number was 92.

“We don’t have a good answer to the 92,” a co-worker said to him. “The actual number is significantly higher.”

In 2019, Uber revealed that it received 5,981 reports of sexual assault and 464 reports of rape in 2017 and 2018. The numbers grew from there, and now more than 3,000 federal cases are pending in a multi-district litigation in the Northern District of California, based in Uber’s home town of San Francisco. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer will oversee the first 20 so-called bellwether cases, the results of which will inform how Uber litigates or settles the rest.

Jaylynn Dean brought this case in 2023, claiming that her Uber driver raped her in Tempe, Arizona, while she was drunk in the back of his car.

Dean says Uber could have prevented the rape by mandating in-car cameras and employing more comprehensive background checks. In a previous deposition, an Uber executive admitted that the company asked for no resume, references or proof of previous employment when it hired the accused Hassan Turay, and ignored previous complaints made by other passengers.

Uber fired Turay for breaking the company’s policy against sex with passengers, but maintains in court that the sex was consensual.

In her opening statement on Tuesday, defense attorney Kim Bueno said it was Dean who initiated sexual conversation with Turay and asked him to give her oral sex. Because Turay couldn’t have possibly been gratified by performing oral sex, Dean must have asked for and enjoyed it, Bueno told the jury of six women and three men.

Taking the witness stand in the afternoon, clinical psychologist Veronique Valliere said that exact line of reasoning is a common myth offenders use to justify their actions and confuse their victims.

“We think all sexual assault can’t feel good or can’t be stimulating or the body can’t have a reaction,” Valliere said. “See, if I was a real rapist, I wouldn’t care about what you get out of this.”

If the offender can create plausible deniability, accusations usually go away, she said.

“We talk about sexual assault like ‘he said she said,’ but almost always, we only believe what he said,” Valliere said. “If there’s uncertainty, nothing else happens.”

Aside from psychological reasons, she said an offender may perform oral sex before penetration simply to add lubrication in the form of saliva.

Valliere was given access to thousands of internal documents and policies and asked to prepare a report on the scope of Uber’s sexual assault problem in preparation for her testimony. She found that Uber “creates a uniquely ripe environment for Uber drivers to sexually assault women riders.”

“These offenders don’t have to work to get victims,” she said. “They’re matched with them.”

Bueno, of the California law firm Kirkland and Ellis, will cross examine Valliere Friday morning. Trial is expected to last through the end of January.

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