Uber driver released; no charges filed
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- An Uber ride-share driver arrested for taking a drunken woman to a motel will not be charged, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday, citing the unavailability of the alleged victim.
The D.A.'s office said an investigating officer was unable to interview the woman because she did not answer or return numerous phone calls. The woman gave police a false residential address.
Encino resident Frederick Dencer, 32, was released from jail Wednesday. An Uber representative said Wednesday, "He remains deactivated."
Dencer was arrested Monday morning at the Panorama Motel in Panorama City after the woman he took there woke up and called police.
The woman woke up next to a shirtless Dencer Monday after a night of drinking on L.A.'s Westside. She went to a 7-Eleven store across the street and called police, telling them she did not know the man and did not know how she got to the location.
Dencer told police conflicting information about Sunday night's events. The LAPD said motel surveillance video showed Dencer carrying the woman into the motel.
Police determined the woman was intoxicated at the Greystone Manor club in West Hollywood Sunday night, and an employee there solicited Dencer to driver the woman home. Dencer was at the location after a previous Uber fare.
Police said the woman was not able to communicate her address, and that her ride was not an official Uber fare since Dencer was asked by an employee to take the woman home.
"It looks like Dencer took advantage of the situation, and drove her to a cheap motel, which he had visited before, and carried her into the room," said LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon.
Dencer was arrested for kidnap for the purpose of sexual assault and was held on $1 million bail.
"No sexual assault occurred," said Vernon. "There was some fondling through her clothes, suggesting what he wanted. She said no. And in the morning when she awoke and that happened, she wanted to leave, he did not stop her from leaving."
