Something Was Wrong - S26 Ep13: [Sophia] Stand Up for Yourself

Starting point is 00:00:00 If you love Something Was Wrong and you'd like to help support the show, become a community contributor on Apple Podcasts, or purchase a sticker from our shop at brokencyclemedia.com. Thank you so much. Something Was Wrong is intended for mature audiences and includes topics that can be upsetting, so please listen with care. All names in this chapter have been changed for anonymity purposes.

Starting point is 00:00:24 Opinions expressed by the guests of the show are their own and don't necessarily represent the views of Broken Cycle Media. sources and resources can be found in the episode notes. This podcast and any linked materials or opinion should not be misconstrued as a substitution for legal or medical advice. If you're a survivor looking for resources, please visit something was wrong.com slash resources. Thank you so much.

Starting point is 00:00:49 The purpose of a rideshare app is to match passengers with individual drivers. While the platform handles information about the party's identities, trips, and payments. Drivers who make their services available on ride share applications are generally classified by the companies as independent contractors rather than traditional employees. Uber was founded in 2009 and its service officially launched in San Francisco in 2010. When it first started, Uber operated as a luxury black car service driven by professional drivers. In 2012, Uber debuted Uber X, a low-cost option that initially utilized commercially licensed vehicles and drivers. In 2013, the company expanded the service to allow non-professional drivers to use their

Starting point is 00:01:43 personal vehicles, the model most people now associate with peer-to-peer ride sharing. The rideshare app Lyft launched in summer of 2012. Today, Lyft and Uber account for approximately 98% of the United States rideshare market, with Uber accounting for approximately 74% and Lyft approximately 24%. Tens of millions of Americans use rideshare services like Uber and Lyft each year, making passenger safety a huge public concern. In 2014, allegations that an Uber driver sexually assaulted a passenger in Los Angeles brought increased attention to the issue of sexual assault involving rideshare trips.

Starting point is 00:02:27 The case also raised questions about rideshare companies' driver screening processes and potential liability when a driver is accused of harming a passenger. In a 2016 Los Angeles Times article regarding the case, Attorney Antonio Castillo III was quoted saying, Right now, their background check largely consists of an online application with no fingerprinting and no in-person interview, more rigorous background checks or an in-person interview, even if someone had a clean background,

Starting point is 00:03:00 would act as a deterrent against certain behaviors, end quote. Just one year after that article was published, Sophia's reported assault would take place. Then, in 2018, an expansive investigation by CNN found that at least 100 Uber drivers in the United States had been accused of sexually assaulting or abusing their passengers over the previous four years. CNN reported that the drivers had been arrested,

Starting point is 00:03:29 were wanted by police, or had been named in civil lawsuits related to the allegations. At least 31 had been convicted of crimes, ranging from forcible touching and false imprisonment to rape. At the time of CNN's investigation, dozens of additional criminal and civil cases

Starting point is 00:03:50 were still pending. And even those numbers couldn't provide a complete picture. They didn't include assaults that were never reported or necessarily every incident that was reported but never resulted in an arrest, lawsuit, or conviction. For example, CNN highlighted the case of a woman in Long Beach, California, who said she fell asleep intoxicated in the back of an Uber in 2016 and woke up to the driver sexually assaulting her. The driver was found the next day with her phone and was later arrested. He maintained that the encounter was consensual and the prosecutors ultimately declined to pursue

Starting point is 00:04:31 the criminal case. As scrutiny of rideshare safety increased, both Uber and Lyft eventually began publishing public safety reports. Uber released its first U.S. safety report in 2019, covering incidents reported in 2017 and 2018. Lyft released its first community safety report in 2021, covering the years 2017 to 2019. Those initial reports and the reports that followed provided a disturbing look at the number of sexual assaults reported in connection with rideshare trips.

Starting point is 00:05:10 Lyft's first safety report documented 4,158 reports, of sexual assault from 2017 through 2019, including more than 360 reports of rape. The number of reports increased each year, from 1096 in 2017 to 1,255 in 2018 to 18707 in 2019. That means the number of sexual assault reports Lyft received increased a approximately 65% from 2017 to 2019, although Lyft reported that the rate of reported incidents relative to the total number of rides actually declined. Uber's first safety report covering 2017 and 2018 documented 5,981 reports of sexual assault. It's important to understand how these companies categorize those reports.

Starting point is 00:06:15 Uber and Lyft use five categories for the most serious types of reported sexual assault in their public safety reporting. Those categories are non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part, non-consensual touching of a sexual body part, non-consensual kissing of a sexual body part, attempted non-consensual sexual penetration, and non-consensual sexual penetration. In July 2006, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, or GAO, released a report examining sexual assaults involving ride share and taxi services. According to the GAO, Uber and Lyft reported a combined 4,469 incidents within those five sexual assault categories during 2021 and 2022.

Starting point is 00:07:15 But comprehensive statistics are difficult to obtain, especially considering how many sexual assaults are never reported in the first place. The GAO also found there is no federal requirement for rideshare companies to collect and publicly report comprehensive assault data and that the company's reporting practices can differ. Local police data provide only a partial picture as well, and in some jurisdictions, rideshare and taxi incidents are grouped together. So while the available numbers can tell us something about the scope of the problem, they still can't tell us exactly how many sexual assaults occur during ride share trips each year.

Starting point is 00:07:59 No matter what the number is, accountability is required. Since their inception, ride share companies have generally classified their drivers as independent contractors rather than employees. That distinction has become, an important issue in lawsuits involving alleged misconduct by drivers, with rideshare companies arguing in some cases that they should not automatically be held legally responsible for the actions of independent contractors. But independent contractor status does not necessarily eliminate a company's potential liability. Depending on the facts of the case and the laws of the jurisdiction,

Starting point is 00:08:39 courts may consider questions about the amount of control a company exercises over its drivers. Its driver screening and retention practices, what the company knew about potential safety risks, and how it responded when concerns or allegations were reported. And there are many measures that could improve passenger safety, a stronger driver screening process, better reporting systems, more supportive responses to complaints, greater transparency, and additional in-app safety measures. Uber and Lyfts say they have developed internal systems for responding to sexual assault allegations and have introduced additional safety features over the years.

Starting point is 00:09:24 But questions remain about the extent of rideshare company's legal responsibility, the transparency and completeness of their safety data, and how the independent contractor model affects victims' ability to hold the companies themselves accountable. Rideshare companies may not be able to prevent every assault, but they can take steps to make it harder for dangerous individuals to gain or maintain access to passengers and respond more effectively when warning signs appear. I'm Tiffany Reese, and this is something was wrong.

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Starting point is 00:12:50 Thank you. Hi, my name is Sophia. I am a 38-year-old mom of two currently residing in Seattle, Washington. At the time of the incident, I was living in a town on the outskirts of Sacramento, California, which was called Roseville, California. And this was about 2017. You and your friends were going out. Can you share a little bit about where you guys were headed and what you were up to that night? Yeah, so at the time I was bartending, so I was hanging. out with a little bit of a younger crowd. One of the servers at the restaurant I worked at did

Starting point is 00:13:33 drag shows in downtown Sacramento, and a lot of the crew would go to those shows to support him. My youngest daughter wasn't nursing anymore, and so I decided I would go out with everybody. That night, one of my fellow bartenders, we decided that I would start at my house, and then I would catch a ride share to one of my friend's houses. We had a couple drinks at her place, and then we ordered a ride to go to Badlands where he was performing. A very fun bar in my experience. I went there on my 30th birthday party. A time was had for sure. A time has always had at Badlands, that's for sure. And faces is across the street, so it's a good, fun street, if you ever want to have a good time in Sacramento. So how is the evening overall?

Starting point is 00:14:23 It was great. That was my first time I had ever been to a drag show. I didn't really know what to expect and it was just amazing. Our friend that we went to go and see, he was so in character and he practiced so hard for it. He was just following us around in his wig and his dress. It was so much fun. When we had decided it was time to go home, our friend that we had gone to watch perform had ordered us a ride to. get home. The ride was going to take my friend that I arrived with home first and then take me home second. When the cab arrived, there were a lot of people on the streets. There was a lot of traffic around and they pulled up and asked for my friend who ordered the ride's name and we said yes. And because we were trying to quickly get into the car to keep traffic moving, I got in the front seat and my friend that I had came with got in the backseat of the car. We had both drank quite a bit. I hadn't been out since I had my daughter, who was at this point, too.

Starting point is 00:15:32 Your tolerance goes away. On the way home, I don't remember much, but I do remember us giving the driver my friend's address to take her home and then to take me home. The next thing I remember is my friend isn't in the car and were pulled off of like the side of a highway. It looked like a wooded area. I come to and the driver is on top of me.

Starting point is 00:15:58 My seat had been reclined back for me. I didn't remember this until I reread the police report, but I do remember that after I pushed him off of me, he slammed my head into the dashboard. I started crying and started trying to get out of the car. I pulled my pants up and started running. I don't remember exactly what I said. It was probably something along the lines of where the fuck am I.

Starting point is 00:16:27 And he just kept saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was just so out of it. I didn't know where I was. I didn't know what was happening. And I couldn't find my phone. My purse had dumped out in the car. He just said, give me your phone number. I'll call your phone and I'll take you home.

Starting point is 00:16:47 So I let him call my phone. I didn't really know what else to do, how else I would have gotten home, but to get back in the car and let him take me home. It was really scary. And I think the hard thing is telling people that, yeah, I did get back in the car. I need to keep reiterating how intoxicated I was. I didn't make this decision with a clear mind, but it shouldn't matter. You were in the middle of the woods. You had no idea where you were. Right, but if this would have happened and I was stone cold sober, would that have made it any better? No. When we got close to my house, I told him to just let me out of the car. I didn't want him to see where I lived even though he had my address. So I ran home and I couldn't even remember the code to unlock my front door. I climbed over the back fence and went through my sliding glass door that we usually left unlocked. and went to bed. The next morning, I woke up with just a horrified feeling.

Starting point is 00:17:54 I remember talking to my friend that I rode to the bar with immediately when I woke up and I told her that I had been sexually assaulted. And if she remembered anything or had any information on the driver. Because the driver had been called on her phone or your phone. Our friend who we went to go see perform, he called the ride share from her phone. She had said that she would look through her phone and call the ride share company and see what happened. From my understanding and from what I read in the police report, they had found the ride and just credited her for the ride. They had told my friend that I went with that the ride had been canceled. When I called, they said that they could see the ride. ride to go to her house. They did say that they saw a ride was canceled. Her and I went back and forth for a little while, just trying to figure out the chain of events, what pieces we were missing from what we couldn't remember. And in the meantime, I told my then, fiancé, everything that I could

Starting point is 00:19:05 recollect. After I talked to him about it, he asked me what I wanted to do, and I said, I think I need to call the police. I did that, I looked up what to do if you're sexually assaulted, and it said that if you don't have recollection of everything that happened, you should go and get a rape kit done. I went ahead and called the police to make a report about what had happened. The incident happened in Citrus Heights, California. We were picked up in Sacramento, California, and my home was in Roseville, California. So we're dealing with two different counties. And so I got the run around from the police for a few days. They said, well, where did it happen? I said, I don't know. Sacramento County told me to call

Starting point is 00:19:54 Placer County. Prosser County told me to call Sacramento County. And then I finally got a hold of a police officer to do a report. From my understanding, when I talked to the DA later on, he should have came and done a physical police report with me and he just took a statement over the phone so he wasn't able to take pictures of any bruising or any marks on my body. After he took a statement, I decided to get a rape kit done at a hospital. I don't remember which hospital it was. I got the information from a place called Stand Up Placer. They had a woman working with me who offered to go with me to anything and everything just for support. She sadly had been very experienced in this type of thing. She knew exactly what questions to ask me and knew exactly how to make me feel supported.

Starting point is 00:20:48 Sometimes I would have her come with me to things and sometimes I wouldn't because I'm just one of those people that doesn't want to burden anybody with my stuff. My entire body was photographed and inspected. The nurse that was doing the examination, she couldn't say 100% that it looked like something happened, but she kind of did say, because of what I found on your body, I think you should take these antibiotics. I took like 15 pills that day just to make sure I didn't get anything from him. One thing that was strange is that the room that I was taken into for my rape kit, it was like a children's room, a small bed with small, small, stir-ups. And I don't know if they used that room because it's more private, or I don't know if it's

Starting point is 00:21:43 because those areas are empty, typically. But that surprised me. It also surprised me the amount of people that were in the room. There was not the district attorney victim's advocate, but my stand-up placer, victim's advocate, she was on the other side of the curtain. And then there was the nurse, and there were like two other people helping her with pictures and swabs. They did tell me that they found some damage to my anal area. I didn't get my rape kit done until two or three days after the attack. I had taken probably two baths since then, not even thinking about it. And I told her that, too. I think the morning after I laid in the bath for like an hour just feeling disgusting. So I'm sure I washed anything off of me that could have been there.

Starting point is 00:22:42 That makes sense. And when you did report to the police, they had encouraged you. Even though it had been a couple days, it's still for the best if you can do the rape kit. Yes. Thanks to Shopify for sponsoring today's episode. Shopify is an e-commerce platform that's responsible for, for millions of sales worldwide. It's an online website storefront creator,

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Starting point is 00:24:33 get this done. There's no time for tears. I don't remember if I cried while I was actually in the detective's office. He was very empathetic so I can see myself feeling a little bit vulnerable. They recorded my answers, which they would then play in court, which was awful. But the main reason he wanted me to come in was to identify the driver. So I went in to the police department. He recorded our whole conversation on video, and he had me identify the driver. I didn't know if it was like a trick. Did they really find him? Like, they haven't really talked to me about much. And how many pictures did they put in front of you? I want to say six or seven, but I looked at the pictures and sure as shit, he was there. And it was not a doubt in my mind that's who he was,

Starting point is 00:25:27 even though it was dark. And I don't remember much. I remembered his face. Seeing his face definitely triggered something, there was a certain smell I thought of when I saw his face. And I thought of when I saw his face and then when people would come into the bar that I was working in, I would catch a whiff of that smell like a certain cologne or something and it would take me like right back there. After I talked with the detective, my case got assigned to the Sacramento District Attorney's Office who were really great with me. The district attorney herself, when I told her what happened, my best friend, she said this at the time too. Everybody just kept saying they believed me. believe your story, I believe this happened to you. And I thought it was so strange because I was like,

Starting point is 00:26:16 why wouldn't you believe me? But then that was like the height of the Me Too movement and everybody was really hyper aware of how big of a problem sexual predators are, especially toward women. So quite a significant amount of time seems to go by before the driver is eventually arrested January 2019. His bail was increased to $1 million. Then he was in jail. The first preliminary hearing happens February of 2019. There's several preliminary hearings throughout February of 2019. Isn't that strange that I wasn't aware of any of that?

Starting point is 00:26:57 The only thing I remember hearing is that he was arrested and his bail was set for a million dollars. How frequent did you speak with the police or the prosecutor leading up to that? Before he was arrested, there wasn't a lot. There was an email sent to me from the detective, hey, can you verify these phone records? And then they would tell me that they pinged the location to where he took me to where he called my phone so I could find it. It was a very slow process. It was honestly really scary because I knew that he knew where I lived. And I hadn't heard anything about an arrest for a while, but I didn't get a ton of communication over the course of waiting for the trial. Summertime of 2019, I had moved to Texas. So most of the conversation

Starting point is 00:27:48 happening from when he was arrested until trial was through the district attorney and my victim's advocate keeping in contact with me. So you moved to another state. The trial was originally scheduled the beginning of the summer 2019. It was then continued to the fall of 2019. Did the DA or anybody on the prosecution prepare you

Starting point is 00:28:14 for court in any way in the days that led up to the trial beginning? She just asked me to tell her what happened and she did that I think twice. She just kept saying she believed me. She had my friend who I rode with come in

Starting point is 00:28:30 to speak to her separately so that We couldn't hear what each other said, but I didn't get like a, hey, be prepared to answer these questions. I was just going in from my understanding to say what happened to me. She wouldn't tell me anything that the defense was saying. Did you then travel from out of state back for the trial? Yes. The district attorney's office bought me a round trip ticket to come to court. They put me up in a hotel.

Starting point is 00:29:02 I traveled to Sacramento, stayed the night there, had court in the morning. I had to look at him and point to him and identify him for the court to put on record that I identified him. And then he could see you in that instance. Yeah. The defense attorney was ruthless. She was awful to me. It just made me lose a lot of faith in people standing up to do the right thing for each other. The defense attorney came for blood and she said a couple things that I was pretty shocked to hear.

Starting point is 00:29:39 One thing she asked me, she said, you don't remember getting to the wooded area that you were. And I said, no, I didn't come to until the car stopped. And she said, okay, well, then do you remember getting in a bunch of fights that night or breaking things that night? She was trying to say, well, if you don't remember that, what else don't you? remember. And I was like, no, I don't. I can tell you what I remember. Was that true? Or was she just like making it up to prove a point? She was just making it up to prove a point that I later found out from the district attorney. That was her angle. Well, if you don't remember this, what else could you have done that you don't remember? She said, so when this incident happened, you were a lot thinner,

Starting point is 00:30:25 are correct. And that's what took me by surprise because, yes, I was thinner when the incident happened, but I don't understand what my weight has to do with me being assaulted, especially my weight being higher now. Did it feel like she was just trying to throw you off? Yeah, it doesn't make sense to say, you used to be more attractive. It's just trying to get in my head to make me feel more self-doubt to make me feel less confident. And I'd be lying if I said it didn't work. That made me feel like shit. I know that that day, the morning that I spoke was the one and only time that my friend that I went with spoke. And I also saw the nurse that did my rape kit the same day in court. There were some officers there as well. And then I traveled home either that evening or the following morning.

Starting point is 00:31:23 I don't know how long the trial was. I don't know if there were multiple dates where they were questioning him without me there. I'm surprised they wouldn't have even told you like how many days of court there were who was testifying. That seems like basic information that the victim should know and be clued in on. And there's no way I would have known to even, I've never gone through something like this. Looking back, I'm like, what the fuck? How did you get updated after the jury deliberated? The victim's advocate, he called me and told me that he was really sorry and he wishes there was something he could do, but it was a mistrial because the jury was hung.

Starting point is 00:32:05 And they wouldn't give him information on what ratio of guilty not guilty was. It was ruled a mistrial and defendant's bail was not to be reset. There was a motion for dismissal that happened specifically in the court system after the fact. What was it like for you to emotionally process that? And I imagine continue to process that. I've been a victim of sexual assault my entire life. And nobody ever believed me when I was younger or a teenager. And I think that was my last stitch effort to try and stand up for myself as a grown adult, talking to detectives, talking to victims' advocates, pushing myself to do what I think is the right thing. and to still not be believed. I don't know how to explain it.

Starting point is 00:32:58 I don't understand why people are so hesitant to believe victims, and it just made me lose that much more faith in the police system, the court system, everything. I had to get the police reports mailed to me. They sent them to me via snail mail, but I had to call and request and give as much information as I could, and they said, if my information basically is good enough, then they'll send it to me. And they did. Yeah, I imagine it was a lot to emotionally navigate all of the aspects of pursuing justice. Is that what ultimately caused you to not seek out

Starting point is 00:33:36 an appeal the emotional exhaustion from this first experience? I think what it was was that this had been dragging on for a long time and the district attorney had said, do you want to call more witnesses. We can question your whole friend group that you went out with that night. We can get more surveillance. And I was just like, no, I don't want to bring all my friends into this. I don't really talk to anymore. I live in Texas now. And I was just about to get married. I had too much going on. I didn't even live in the same time zone. Two kids. I didn't have any more fight in me. My victim's advocate, he was so incredible. Even when I just contacted him like a month ago. He remembered my case. He was still like sounded sad about the outcome.

Starting point is 00:34:30 He's like, I'll give you as much information as I can legally give you. And he's like, I don't remember why we didn't continue after a mistrial. And I said, well, wasn't it because I couldn't go on? And he said, no, sometimes we take the victim's opinion into consideration, but that's not typically the only reason we won't continue. Because California is one of those states where even if the victim does not want to prosecute, if the DA wants to prosecute, they can. Yeah, I think my original thought was I chose to not move on, but when I talked to him, he was like, you kind of chose, but we also chose. So he's like, and I don't know why. Did that relieve you a little bit of second guessing yourself in any way if you should have pursued it, given they didn't pursue it either? I think so.

Starting point is 00:35:29 How did you emotionally move on after the trial concluded? I think you just say I did what I could. I tried to do the right thing. It didn't work. You just have to move on. What else can you do? You just have a different perspective on safety and people, and it can feel really lonely.

Starting point is 00:35:52 All I can do is walk away saying that I will always believe somebody because I know what it's like to not be believed. Do you regret trying to seek justice, or do you feel that you would have regretted it had you not? I would have regretted it had I not. I put someone away for about a year. I mean, it's not the justice that I would hope for, but at least he was held accountable to some degree.

Starting point is 00:36:23 If I wouldn't have said anything, I would have probably regretted it for the rest of my life. You know how they say, like, if you don't say something's bad happening, you might as well be doing it yourself. You have a responsibility to prevent it from happening to other people to the best you can. And I don't want that to discourage people from speaking up because my conclusion is in everybody's conclusion. What do you think was the most difficult part of the legal process for you? Initially, it was getting the runaround, asking all of these people that are put in place to help and nobody helping you. Instead of making me call Sacramento County, then Placer County, then Sacramento County, then Placer County, then Placer County. Why can't you just help me find out who I need to talk to so that I can get help so that I can file a police report?

Starting point is 00:37:22 That was the initially most frustrating thing. After that, I think it's the amount of time between contact. So it's getting an email from the detective saying, can you provide this? And then I send it to him immediately. And then I don't hear back for like six weeks. And I don't really know what I'm allowed to ask, when I'm not allowed to ask, what I should be doing in the meantime. Am I supposed to be looking into my phone records too? Or am I supposed to be writing down things that my victim, advocate is telling me for when court comes, it's just the lull in between communication that was the hardest because I would a lot of the times ask myself, is this still happening? Why is it taking so long? I was contacted by a company that is doing a class action lawsuit against this specific rideshare company. They've had an incredible amount of women reach out. There's just been so many sexual assault cases from this ride share company that they're doing a class action suit to help these women. And it's funny when we first spoke, I had just heard from them maybe a month prior to that. I'm such a like sucker for this is a sign. And I'm like, I really should do this. And I think after the

Starting point is 00:38:44 first time I talked to you, I was like, I'm just going to call and see what the deal is. And it seems like a pretty good avenue. To be honest, the only reason I'm ever putting myself through these types of things working with this class action lawsuit or talking on a podcast. I just want people to be held accountable and I want people to be aware of how dangerous some of these companies can be. Before this occurred, did you ever consider that this could have happened when using a rideshare app? I've never even heard a whisper of something like this happening, I would have never in my wildest dreams thought that something like this could happen. What advice would you give to survivors of Rideshare facilitated sexual assault? Would you encourage them to seek justice? I would say it's always going to

Starting point is 00:39:38 be worth it to try and advocate for yourself. You're not always going to get the results that you may want, but it's better to try and advocate for yourself and stand up for yourself than to keep it to yourself and create even more harm by harboring those feelings and wondering what could have happened. And maybe if you do speak up, someone will listen to you that didn't listen to me or maybe the justice system in your county will serve you better than mine did. Maybe the justice system in the county I lived in is better now. This is becoming more prevalent. And I would say, don't stay quiet, even though you might not get the results that you want. It's better to speak up than to not say anything at all. Do we know if the rideshare app removed him, or did they ever

Starting point is 00:40:31 provide any kind of follow-up? They told us that yes, he was a rideshare driver, but he wasn't registering as giving us a ride that night. They said that we were drinking and asking him to take us home. I'm so sorry. There was no record that was provable within the ride share because he canceled the ride. Even the ride sharing app doesn't have a record of that. That's wild. And that's what I was talking about to the class action lawsuit. Lady I'm talking to. Right. Like they should at least have that record. Well, she said that that's a common excuse from them because they said that they could see him, but they saw it as a ride that was canceled. So did you see him as a ride that was canceled? Or did you not see him at all? Why did you offer her a credit if there wasn't a ride? It's scary. And I've heard so many incidences of people saying that they call a ride share and the driver's picture is, for example, like a woman and then a man shows up or vice versa. and it's not even the same driver, but they're just like, get in.

Starting point is 00:41:44 Or a new thing that's been happening a lot is ride share drivers. And this happened to me several times when I traveled for work. Is they're like the ride share apps are like taking so much and they're not passing it on to us. Would you mind if we cancel the ride and you can just Venmo me a lesser amount or give me cash for the ride? And I was like, respectfully, I would not feel safe doing that. One of the things that I do every time I get in a rideshare app is screenshot the driver and their license plate, and I send it to my husband every time. And certainly when this occurred was kind of early ride share days when you were assaulted. So I think people obviously know a lot more now or have more awareness that these things can happen.

Starting point is 00:42:33 Just throwing that out there because I think it's something else that people should be aware of. That's smart. And I think they have a feature now where you can share your ride with someone, where they can, like, see where you are. You can, like, put their number in and it'll text them updates. I also recommend sharing your location with people you feel safe and trusted with. I mean, there's certainly no guarantees that ride shares are going to be safe, no matter what the precautions are that you take, unfortunately. But there are certain things that you can certainly do to help yourself to feel safer. Is there anything that you want listeners to take away when listening to your story or keep in mind in the future?

Starting point is 00:43:18 I wouldn't trust ride share if you're alone. I wouldn't trust ride share for your children. I know they have teen ride share right now. It's supposed to be something that gets you safely home while you're the most vulnerable that you can pretty much be because you're intoxicated or you don't have a car. I know that there are options to choose a women driver. That doesn't always mean that your kids are safe or that you're safe as a woman. I would just say, be very careful, especially with vulnerable communities in using rideshare. I can't thank you enough for being willing to share your experience. And I know sadly and heartbreakingly after looking at the data of Rideshare facilitated sexual assault, that there are a lot of other people who have experienced this.

Starting point is 00:44:09 And I'm really thankful to you that you would speak up so that we could bring awareness to this important issue. Thank you so much for giving me a place to talk about it. I really appreciate it. Next time, on something was wrong. We're going to come up on chapter three here shortly, and it's a really dynamic chapter. And Aaron, the survivor at the center of it is really brave and digging into a lot of topics that we've never explored. Thank you to each and every survivor and guest for sharing their experiences with us. Something Was Wrong is a Broken Cycle Media production created, hosted, and executively produced by me, Tiffany Reese. Special thank you and shout out to my co-producer Amy B. Chessler, who also hosts

Starting point is 00:45:05 our sister podcast, What Came Next, which you should absolutely check out if you haven't already. Thank you to our social media maven, Lauren Barkman, of luxury media, and our glorious graphic artist Sarah Stewart. Thank you to our amazing audio team, our head audio engineer, Becca High, with additional editing support by Stephen Wack. Thank you to our behind-the-scenes partners, our lawyers, accountants, agents, cybersecurity, delivery workers, and anyone who contributes to the work we do, thank you. Last but certainly not least, thank you for listening. If you want to help support the work we do, you can purchase a sticker from our shop at brokencyclomedia.com or become a community contributor on Apple Podcasts. Other ways you can help support the show are by leaving

Starting point is 00:45:52 us a review or sharing the show with your loved ones. Or hey, even those you don't love, they might need it most. Until next time, stay safe, friends.

Something Was Wrong - S26 Ep13: [Sophia] Stand Up for Yourself

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