Lyft Driver From Tracy Accused Of Raping Woman He Picked Up From San Mateo Bar
TRACY (CBS13) — A Lyft driver from Tracy is accused of raping a woman early Saturday after picking her up from a San Mateo bar and driving her to his home.
Tonye Kolokolo is accused of taking the 25-year-old woman who was passed out in his backseat and driving almost 100 miles to his home.
Neighbors who live next door to Kolokolo were shocked to hear this allegedly happened here in their quiet neighborhood.
"You just don't know who your neighbors are," said Maria Gomez.
She says she's horrified to learn Kolokolo is accused of raping that woman in his home.
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"We have a lot of families here, a lot of children, our neighbors have children," she said. "It's just weird, it's hard to hear, that's why I'm like, 'what!'"
Kolokolo was arraigned Monday. The District Attorney said he claimed this act was consensual.
"He had taken her to Tracy where he lives, and he had sexually assaulted her. She was unconscious of the act. She woke up and has no memory of anything having occurred, of what she was doing there, how it happened that she ended up in Tracy," said Stephen Wagstaffe.
Lyft released a statement calling the alleged assault, "terrifying," and said the driver's access to Lyft has been permanently removed.
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But we wanted to know what is the background check process for Lyft drivers? Leaders with Lyft say driving and criminal records are scanned across county-level databases.
Drivers must have a clean record meaning:
- no violent crimes
- no felonies
- absence of drug-related offenses
- no sexual offenses
- lack of theft or property damage offense
We looked into Kolokolo's criminal record and only found one traffic-related offense. We also spoke with some women in Tracy who tell us after hearing this story, they'll think twice about taking a ride-sharing service:
"It's just shocking and I don't know if I want to be calling Uber or Lyft after knowing that these things happen," said Gianna Valle. "They need to find a way to make these things more strict and look into these people and make sure they have good intentions," she said.
Kolokolo is accused of false imprisonment and rape.
