A Lyft driver was arrested after he was accused of sexually battering a woman in her hotel room then stealing hundreds of dollars from her. NBC 6’s Laura Rodriguez reports
A Lyft driver was arrested after he was accused of sexually battering a woman in her hotel room then stealing hundreds of dollars from her.
Samuel Bucevschi, 35, was arrested Monday on charges including sexual battery of an incapacitated victim, grand theft and three counts of fraudulent use of a credit card, an arrest report said.
The alleged incident happened back on Feb. 10, when the woman ordered a Lyft around 1 a.m.
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Bucevschi, of Coconut Creek, picked her up and took her to a bar on Washington Avenue, and the woman said Bucevschi gave her his phone number so she could call him to pick her up later, the report said.
The woman said she had several alcoholic beverages and the last thing she remembered was being at the bar, the report said.
When she woke up around 10 a.m. in her room at the Eden Roc on Collins Avenue, she was completely naked and realized her cellphone, ID and $500 in cash were missing, the report said.
The woman contacted Miami Beach Police and said she believed she'd been raped in her hotel room, and she went to the rape treatment center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, the report said.
Detectives used Lyft records to identify Bucevschi as a suspect, and discovered that several other Lyft rides from Bucevschi were requested that morning through the woman's account that she hadn't made or authorized, totaling about $300, the report said.
When detectives reviewed surveillance footage from the hotel, it showed the victim being carried into the hotel by Bucevschi around 4:30 a.m. that morning, the report said.
About an hour later, the video showed him leaving her room holding two cellphones, the report said.
"The victim does not recall returning to her hotel room. Video surveillance revealed that the same driver who had picked her up is seen on video surveillance returning to the hotel room with her, actually carrying her because she appears to be too intoxicated to walk on her own," Miami Beach Police spokesperson Ernesto Rodriguez said.
Bucevschi was interviewed by detectives and said he remembered picking the woman up but said she was acting strange and possibly intoxicated, the report said.
He said he walked her into her hotel room but left and said "nothing happened," the report said.
Bucevschi refused to give a DNA sample, the report said.
During a court appearance Tuesday, Bucevschi was ordered held on $520,000 bond. Attorney information wasn't available.
"Safety is fundamental to Lyft. What is being described is horrifying and the driver’s access to Lyft has been permanently removed," a Lyft spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday. "We have reached out to the rider to offer our support and reached out to law enforcement to offer our assistance with their investigation."
The arrest comes about a week after another Lyft driver was arrested for allegedly raping an intoxicated Miami Beach tourist in his car.
