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A Cicero woman has filed a lawsuit against Uber and the driver she accuses of sexually assaulting her after he allegedly drove miles off course during an early-morning ride in Chicago, CBS Chicago reported.
The woman, identified as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, had ordered an Uber home after attending a friend’s birthday celebration. Her boyfriend was tracking the ride through the Uber app when he noticed the driver had made an unusual turn and was traveling in the opposite direction of her destination.
According to the lawsuit, the boyfriend followed the vehicle and eventually found it stopped on a residential street near Douglass Park.
Boyfriend Says He Found Driver in Back Seat With Passenger
The boyfriend told CBS Chicago that when he reached the vehicle, the ignition was off and the car had been stopped for several minutes.
He said he approached while recording on his phone and saw the driver in the back seat with his girlfriend, who appeared to be unconscious. He confronted the driver and called police after the driver left the scene.
The woman was later examined at a hospital. Her attorney said medical records documented injuries consistent with an assault.
Lawsuit Names Uber, Driver and Raiser LLC
The lawsuit names Uber, its subsidiary Raiser LLC and driver Jaime Arroyo as defendants.
According to the complaint, Uber either failed to discover or failed to act on Arroyo’s prior criminal history during the driver-screening process.
Cook County court records show Arroyo was convicted of felony burglary in 1996 and received 18 months of probation. The lawsuit argues that Uber’s screening and safety systems were inadequate to protect the passenger.
The complaint also focuses on what happened during the ride itself.
The woman’s attorney says Uber’s RideCheck system should have detected that the vehicle had traveled in the wrong direction and stopped for an extended period away from the intended route.
The lawsuit alleges Uber failed to respond adequately to those warning signs.
Driver Has Not Been Criminally Charged
Chicago police confirmed that the investigation remains active.
As of the report’s publication, Arroyo had not been arrested or charged. The woman’s attorney said investigators were still waiting for results from a sexual assault evidence kit collected at the hospital.
Uber banned Arroyo from its platform after the April incident was reported.
The company declined to comment specifically on the pending lawsuit but pointed to safety features it has added to the app and said serious safety incidents represent a very small percentage of Uber trips.
Learn More About Uber Sexual Assault Lawsuits
Thousands of passengers have filed lawsuits alleging sexual assault involving Uber drivers and challenging whether the company did enough to screen drivers, monitor rides and protect passengers.
Learn more about the federal MDL, bellwether trials and legal options that may be available to survivors in our Uber Sexual Assault Lawsuit Guide.
Lawsuit Comes Amid Thousands of Uber Sexual Assault Claims
The Illinois lawsuit is separate from the nationwide Uber sexual assault multidistrict litigation, but it raises many of the same issues involving driver screening, route monitoring and passenger safety. CBS Chicago reported that more than 4,900 cases were pending nationwide in the federal litigation when the story was published.
The federal MDL has already produced two jury verdicts. In February 2026, an Arizona jury awarded a survivor $8.5 million after finding that the driver acted as Uber’s apparent agent, making Uber legally responsible for his conduct. The jury rejected separate negligence and defective-design claims. Read our coverage of the first Uber bellwether verdict.
In April 2026, a North Carolina jury reached another plaintiff verdict but awarded substantially less — $5,000. The jury again found Uber legally responsible for the driver’s conduct. Read our coverage of the second federal Uber sexual assault trial.
Those sharply different verdicts illustrate why the bellwether process matters: each trial gives both sides more information about how juries may evaluate liability and damages across thousands of pending claims.
Lawsuit Questions Whether Uber’s Safety Tools Worked When Needed
The Cicero case centers in part on technology Uber promotes as a passenger-safety safeguard.
The complaint alleges the company could detect that the vehicle went substantially off route and then remained stopped, but did not intervene before the alleged assault occurred.
