KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A now-former Kansas City, Kansas, Lyft driver remains in custody after being charged with felony sexual assault of a teen who had ordered a ride with her friend.
Greg James Young, 44, was charged last month with rape, aggravated sodomy by force and aggravated sexual battery of a victim no older than 16 year-old in connection to incident last October in Olathe.
On Monday, a Johnson County District Court judge released redacted court documents that provide additional details of the alleged assault.
According to police, the teen and a friend were at a Halloween party in Grandview when they wanted to get something to eat. They ordered a Lyft driver to take them to a restaurant in Independence.
During the ride, Young allegedly made “inappropriate comments” to the two girls.
Young offered to wait at the restaurant while the teens grabbed something to eat and take them back to the party.
After they got back in the car, one of the teens remembered the man giving them a soda and shortly after started to feel side effects.
The friend of the victim said her fiend started to black out and was lethargic and groggy after consuming the soda.
Instead of returning the teens to the party, one of them remembers the driver entering an Olathe address into the GPS.
Court documents indicate that the victim’s mother began to worry when she woke up the following morning and saw her daughter had not returned home overnight.
Her daughter eventually returned home and went to work, but while working, asked to speak to her mother, when she told her mother she believed she had been sexually assaulted.
Early the next day, the victim checked into Children’s Mercy Hospital to seek treatment for a possible rape.
Hospital personnel contacted the Olathe Police Department after learning the alleged assault might have taken place in Olathe.
Olathe detectives were provided a screenshot from a Live 360 application from the victim’s cell phone, which showed the victim and her friend stationary in an Olathe neighborhood for more than two hours.
Police spoke with someone at the address, who said they had hired Young to perform maintenance on the house.
The person said Young would sometimes take breaks from Lyft driving at the house. A search of the home revealed several items that matched the description of the scene provided by the friend of the victim.
Detectives eventually were able to contact Young, who confirmed he was a Lyft driver and admitted to picking up two females who wanted to go to a restaurant. He further admitted to “hanging out” with the females at the house in Olathe for a few hours. Young told police the girls had been drinking and had brought their own alcohol.
Police told Young about the allegations to which he claimed one of the girls tried to rub his genitalia. Police scheduled a formal interview with Young but he failed to appear.
As a result of a SANE examination at Children’s Mercy, police obtained a DNA sample from the victim. Police cross referenced the DNA to a national database, which came back to a match to Young.
After matching the DNA, police obtained a warrant for an updated DNA sample from Young. To help track down Young, police entered his vehicle and license plate information to a license plate reader database.
In November, an LRP reader spotted Young’s vehicle in Prairie Village. At the time Young was contacted, he had another female passenger in the back seat.
Police seized Young’s vehicle and cell phone and obtained a DNA sample. During a search of the car, police found several different styles of medication inside, including several pills identified as Legation PM, a lower body pain reliever and sleep aid.
A Lyft spokesperson told KSHB 41 the driver's account was permanently banned and that the company "has been assisting law enforcement with their investigation."
"Safety is fundamental to Lyft," the spokesperson said. "The behavior described is reprehensible and has no place in the Lyft community or anywhere in society."
Young was arrested and booked into the Johnson County Adult Detention Center on Dec. 15. At the time he was arrested, prosecutors had set a $1 million bond.
A judge overseeing the case reached the bond so $100,000 cash surety on Jan. 2. The judge set a preliminary hearing for May 3.
Lyft has devoted a section of its website to providing rider safety information.
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