Uber Sexual Abuser Sent to Prison as RideSharing App Faces Legal Liability

On December 15, 2025, Julio Alberto Schlaefli, 51, pleaded no contest to sexual battery and was sentenced to roughly five years in prison followed by just over seven years of sex offender probation in a plea deal accepted by Judge Robert Groeb.

Schlaefli was transferred to prison earlier this year and currently resides at the Bay Correctional Facility.

On the night of September 27, 2024, the victim's friend (Witness 1) requested an Uber for her. After leaving the location, the friend saw the GPS tracker on the Uber app was traveling towards her. Assuming she had mistakenly requested the ride for herself, she canceled the ride.  

Shortly after the ride was cancelled, Schlaefi arrived at the pickup location and called out the victim's name. She concluded this was the Uber her friend called and sat in the front seat.

While driving, Schlaefli told the victim the ride was cancelled but that he'd "still take her home."

During the five minute long ride, Schlaefli used his hand to sexually batter the victim and asked her multiple times if she would "go home" with him, to which she said no and told Schlaefli she wanted him to take her home (her friend's (Witness 2's) house).

Schlaefli continued sexually battering the victim until arriving to her destination. Upon getting there, she ran as fast as she could to the door. Witness 2 could see the victim was in extreme distress after the attack.

Detective Desiree Russano reported that police "obtained records from Uber, including GPS data, that corroborates and confirms [the victim's] account of what occurred in the early morning hours on September 28, 2024. Even after the Uber ride was canceled, [Schlaefli] continued to the area of 111 S. Main St, picked up [the victim] and dropped her off at her destination approximately 5-6 minutes later. GPS data shows that the Uber app began to track [Schlaefli] after [he] dropped the victim off at her destination..." Russano reported that after being read his Miranda-rights, Schlaefli admitted to sexually battering the victim. Schlaefli stated he turned his Uber app off on purpose after learning the ride was canceled.

Schlaefi was allowed to drive for Uber despite a prior conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs in 2006.

Schlaefi's case isn't a one-off incident for Uber.

Back in 2017, "Uber's founder Travis Kalanick says he needs leadership help," according to NPR. "The frank acknowledgement comes after video surfaced of him berating an Uber driver, and follows a blistering blog post by a former engineer who said she was subjected to repeated sexual harassment and the company failed to stop it." Kalanick stepped down as Uber CEO that year amid growing pressure of allegations that he ignored the problem of Uber sexual harassment.

Kalanick was replaced by Dara Khosrowshahi, who hasn't solved the sexual harassment problem on Uber.

Between 2017 and 2022, Uber received roughly 400,000 reports of sexual misconduct and/or sexual assault. "The blurred power dynamics of ride-sharing apps, where strangers are matched by algorithms and rides take place in isolated, private vehicles create a uniquely vulnerable environment," reports the Feminist Majority Foundation. "Many incidents follow a pattern: late-night rides, pickups from bars, intoxicated passengers, and offenders with prior misconduct complaints."

Uber has disputed their liability and the frequency of sexual harassment on rides, citing the 400,000 number being taken out of roughly 6.3 billion total trips.

Schlaefi's criminal case was disposed out of trial, however, earlier this year a federal civil lawsuit against Uber regarding a woman being raped by a driver did proceed to trial.

The Arizona-based trial was covered by The Arizona Republic, which reported that the plaintiff's lawyers called data scientist Lacey Keller as a witness, who said that "Uber’s internal records showed 365 rapes were reported on the platform in 2024."

Keller testified that "Uber’s own documents acknowledge significant underreporting because of a fear riders had of driver's knowing where they lived," reported The Arizona Republic. Keller advised that “Uber knows this internally" and that they “talk about underreporting, that one in four, or 25%, of actual sexual assaults are reported.”

Uber's lawyers reportedly said that the chances of being sexually assaulted on Uber were akin to being struck by lightning, but Keller disputed their claims.

Keller reportedly testified that Uber's "Safety Risk Assessed Dispatch" (S-RAD) determines the of risk sexual harassment occurring at a ride and dispatches drivers accordingly.

The Arizona Republic reported that Keller "repeatedly described Uber’s control over the system as a 'dial' the company can turn up or down, determining how many of the riskiest rides the system will flag... [She said] that internal Uber documents show the company deliberately chose to keep that dial set for only a small percentage of rides, because increasing interventions could affect wait times, ride availability and cancellations. In one internal presentation shown to the jury, Keller testified [that] Uber executives praised a setting where S-RAD intervened in about 1.25% of its riskiest rides, describing it as reducing serious sexual assaults without significantly disrupting normal operations."

The jury ultimately found Uber liable for $8.5 million. This trial serves as a landmark for multi-district litigation against Uber, which includes thousands of plaintiffs across dozens of states. The Lawsuit Information Center calls it "one of the largest waves of passenger sexual assault lawsuits in U.S. history."