A Cicero woman has filed a civil lawsuit against Uber Technologies Inc., its driver subsidiary Raiser LLC, and 47-year-old driver Jaime Arroyo, alleging the company failed to catch Arroyo's decades-old felony record before he picked her up for an early-morning ride. The woman, identified in court filings only as Jane Doe, says the ride ended in a sexual assault inside Arroyo's car.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Karen Enright, names Arroyo, Uber, and Raiser as defendants and alleges both negligent hiring and a failure to follow the platform's own safety protocols, according to CBS News. A CBS Chicago investigator separately tracked down Arroyo as part of its reporting on the case, which remains the subject of an active police investigation into the alleged assault inside his vehicle.
Cook County court records cited in the suit show Arroyo was convicted of felony burglary in 1996 and sentenced to 18 months of probation, a record the lawsuit claims Uber never discovered or acted on during its driver vetting process, the station's report notes.
Alleged Failures in Real-Time Safety Monitoring
Beyond the background-check allegations, the lawsuit claims Uber failed to intervene when Arroyo departed from the assigned trip route and stopped for an extended period after picking up the passenger during the early-morning ride. According to the suit, the app's RideCheck safety feature — designed to monitor off-route movement and long stops — was not used according to Uber's safety protocols, per the same account.
Criminal charges against Arroyo have not yet been filed. Chicago police are awaiting results of forensic testing, which the same report says are expected in October. Under the Illinois Sexual Assault Evidence Submission Act, state labs are permitted up to 180 days to process submitted rape kit evidence, a timeline that explains why the criminal case remains open while the civil suit moves forward.
A Pattern of Screening Gaps Under Local and State Law
The case highlights a tension between Chicago's rideshare rules and what the lawsuit alleges happened with Arroyo's vetting. Under Chapter 9-115 of the Municipal Code of Chicago, Transportation Network Provider rules include licensing and background-check requirements, according to GCheck. State law adds another layer: the Transportation Network Providers Act requires applicants to provide additional information for screening. Backgrounds Online describes the change.
The Chicago case is not the only recent example of rideshare-related sexual assault risk in the region. In April, DuPage County prosecutors charged 42-year-old Jose Cornelio Evaristo with criminal sexual assault after police found him on Route 83 assaulting an unconscious woman who had mistaken his vehicle for an Uber she had ordered in Chicago, according to Fox 32 Chicago.
Local Suit Joins Thousands of Federal Claims Against Uber
The Cicero lawsuit adds to a much larger wave of litigation facing the ride-hailing company. More than 4,300 passenger sexual assault lawsuits against Uber have been consolidated in federal multidistrict litigation before U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer in the Northern District of California as of September, according to King Law. Federal bellwether trials this year have produced sharply mixed outcomes, including an $8.5 million jury verdict for an Arizona survivor in February and a $5,000 verdict in April, per Trial Lawyers United LLC.
Uber's corporate leadership is also facing separate scrutiny over how it discloses safety data. Three public pension funds filed a federal lawsuit against CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and board directors, alleging executives concealed information about sexual misconduct in the company's public disclosures, according to Forbes. That suit concerns the company's disclosures about sexual misconduct.
Uber's safety safeguards have also faced broader scrutiny. The Cicero case, still in its early stages, now joins that broader legal reckoning as both the criminal investigation and the civil suit against Arroyo, Uber, and Raiser move forward in parallel.
