The family of a 16-year-old Long Island girl who was allegedly raped in NYC by a man she met on Snapchat is holding Uber partly responsible for their daughter’s nightmare.
The Orthodox Jewish victim was taken without question to Brooklyn, where she met up with a man she met on Snapchat who sexually assaulted her in his car, and filmed it, her family claimed in a lawsuit against the ride-share company.
“As a result of this assault, my daughter was caused severe physical and emotional harm,” her mother said in court papers.
The nightmare began March 10, when the teen left her “tight-knit” upper middle class home in Nassau County and got into an Uber allegedly ordered for her by the attacker, according to court papers.
The girl’s night should have ended right then, her family contended.
Uber bars strangers from calling for rides for passengers under 18, and youngsters are not supposed to ride alone, unless they have a specific account intended for teenagers, according to the company.
“When picking up riders, if you feel they are underage, you may request they provide a driver’s license or ID card for confirmation. If a rider is underage, please do not start the trip or allow them to ride,” according to the company’s web site.
But instead of ending the ride, the driver brought the victim to Bushwick and dropped her off without making sure she was safe or with a guardian, allegedly breaking another tenet of Uber’s policies regarding youngsters.
The girl “did not understand the danger of the situation,” according to the legal filing.
Authorities said the victim then met Ralfy Figueroa — who has since been arrested and charged with first-degree rape for allegedly attacking the young girl in his car that night.
The two had been speaking online since at least January, when Figueroa paid the victim $35 in exchange for a “nude” photograph, according to a criminal complaint.
The victim instead sent an image she found on the internet, authorities said.
On the day of the assault, Figueroa allegedly called the girl via Snapchat, asking to meet and threatening her.
“You have to, I know your address. Confirm your address, if you don’t, I’m gonna hurt you and your family,” prosecutors said in court documents.
Once she was in his car, Figueroa allegedly offered her $1,000 for oral sex and when she refused, forced her until she vomited and threatened “to send people to your home,” telling her, “I have guns,” according to the complaint.
When the attack was finished, Figueroa, 26, called a second Uber to take the victim home, and canceled the ride once she was in the vehicle, said her family’s lawyer, David Seidemann, who claimed the suspect also filmed the assault.
The victim has been traumatized and has been in mental health treatment at an out of state facility, her family said.
“My daughter has told me that, if the videos of the assault were to be made public, she would kill herself,” the mom said in court papers seeking unspecified damages against Uber.
At the time of the alleged attack, Figueroa had just completed a program called Cases ROAR, meant as an alternative to incarceration for those under 27 years old.
He was sent to the Reframing Opportunities, Alternatives and Resilience program as part of a plea deal after he was arrested in July for selling crack to an undercover officer in Bushwick. The crime was not bail eligible.
Figueroa now faces the revocation of his plea deal in the drug case and a sentence of up to 9 years in prison, according the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, which handled that case.
“We have requested a hearing to determine whether defendant Ralfy Figueroa has violated the terms of his plea to felony and misdemeanor narcotics charges and should immediately be sentenced on those charges,” spokesperson Kati Cornell said.
A lawyer for Figueroa, who has pleaded not guilty to the rape charge and was being held at Rikers Island on $100,000 bail, declined comment.
Uber said it encourages drivers to cancel trips involving unaccompanied minors who don’t have a teen account, and report it to the company for review.
“The details of this case are incredibly distressing,” an Uber spokesman said in a statement. “While we cannot comment on ongoing litigation, our dedication to keeping safety at the forefront of everything we do remains unwavering.”
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