Prosecutors drop rape charges against Boston Uber driver
Prosecutors have dropped a rape charge against an Uber driver accused of sexually assaulting a female passenger in South Boston last month.
Hermann Ngoufack Jiokeng, 39, of Brighton was arrested on February 23. Police said he picked the woman up outside a bar and drove her home the night before.
Prosecutors said the passenger's roommate saw the car parked outside their apartment with a man in the backseat, so she called 911. The roommate also said when the woman came upstairs to their apartment, she noticed that her dress had been torn open.
Negative results of forensic testing
"Additional information obtained and reviewed by the Commonwealth, including negative results of forensic testing, establishes that the charges against the defendant cannot be proved beyond a reasonable doubt based on the current state of the evidence," the Suffolk County District Attorney's office said in the nolle prosequi filing.
"By entering a nolle prosequi the Commonwealth is not precluded from reopening this matter," the filing stated.
During Jiokeng's dangerousness hearing last month, the prosecutor said the woman was "highly intoxicated" at the time. The judge ordered him held for 30 days without bail.
Prosecutors said Jiokeng told police he went into the backseat to tell the woman she needed to get out of the car.
Jiokeng's defense attorney said the woman's statements to police changed several times and that the roommate never reported seeing a sexual assault happen when she looked in the car's window.
Jiokeng's attorney said he has no criminal record and has strong ties to the community.
