Kentucky Uber Driver Arrested After Passenger Reports Alleged Assault

An Uber driver has been arrested after a woman alleged she was sexually assaulted during a ride in Richmond, Madison County. The driver, Clifford Partin, 61, faces first-degree criminal charges, Lexington NBC News affiliate LEX 18 reported today.

According to the arrest warrant, the woman requested a ride home from a party on August 30. She said she became incoherent shortly after entering the front passenger seat and lost consciousness soon afterward. When she regained consciousness, the car was parked at a shopping center. The warrant says Partin remained in the vehicle and that the woman demanded to be taken home or she would call police. He complied. The next morning the woman went to a medical facility, where a sexual assault exam was performed. Investigators say surveillance video and GPS data corroborated her account. During an interview with police, Partin allegedly admitted to the assault. He is now jailed in the Madison County Detention Center pending trial.

This case comes amid a growing wave of allegations and legal actions against Uber over its failure to protect passengers from driver misconduct. According to publicly released safety data from Uber, riders reported 2,717 sexual assault and misconduct incidents during 2021–2022, and over 12,000 in total during the six years that Uber has released public safety reports. Court documents unsealed in 2025 reveal a far more alarming scale: over 400,000 reports of sexual assault or sexual misconduct between 2017 and 2022, or roughly one report every eight minutes.

Legal claims against Uber allege that the company has repeatedly failed to implement adequate safety measures, including thorough driver screening, real-time monitoring, and timely responses to misconduct reports. Nearly 3,000 lawsuits are now pending in federal multidistrict litigation (MDL), where survivors seek compensation and accountability for what they describe as systemic neglect.