BALTIMORE — It is a safety measure that ride-hailing services like Uber use to help protect passengers.
"If you drive for Uber, they know where you're going, when you're coming back, when that person gets in, when that person gets out,” Walter Wilson, a longtime Uber driver told WMAR-2 earlier this year, “Everything is tracked."
And when a 25-year-old Baltimore County woman didn't make it home from the city in a timely fashion on June 1, her father tracked the location of her phone.
READ MORE: Baltimore County rape investigation: Woman says Uber driver sexually assaulted her
Her father found a vehicle matching that of the Uber driver parked near the intersection of West Timonium and Jenifer roads.
"When he went up and knocked on the car door, he realized that the driver of the Uber got out of the car and then saw his daughter inside the car also," said Cpl. Shawn Vinson of the Baltimore County Police Department.
According to charging documents, 31-year-old Joshua Robinson emerged from the back seat where the young woman was crying uncontrollably, clad only in her bra.
As the father confronted Robinson, his daughter made her way out of the car, and then Robinson jumped in the driver's seat and took off, throwing the victim's purse out, striking the victim's father in the face in the process.
When asked if the victim was drunk when he picked her up, Robinson later told Baltimore County police that he thought she was just buzzed, and he admitted to having oral sex and intercourse with the woman, but he claims it was consensual.
Prosecutors argued Robinson should be held without bail, since he knows the victim's address and could also pose a danger to the public at large, and the judge agreed.
According to court records, the night in question, two people had to help the victim into the back seat of the Uber when it arrived to pick her up because she was intoxicated.
Both have identified Robinson as the driver, now charged with rape, assault and other sex offenses.
Robinson has no prior criminal record, and his attorney says he is a husband and father of two children with another on the way.
READ MORE: Uber driver arrested & charged with raping passenger
Robinson faces charges of second-degree rape, third-degree sex offense, fourth-degree sex offense, and two counts of second-degree assault.
