Pedicab driver drugged and preyed on women, Utah officials say. ‘Extreme danger’
A pedicab driver in Salt Lake City is accused of slipping women drugs and sexually assaulting them.
John Riley Harper, 45, is facing 11 felony counts, including four first-degree felony rape counts, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office said in a July 3 news release.
McClatchy News couldn’t immediately find defense attorney information for him July 7.
Harper is described in a court filing as “an extreme danger to the women within this community” who used his job “to prey upon women.”
“Multiple women reported using (Harper’s) pedicab services and being offered water, which put them in a blackout state. It was reported that the defendant would often sit outside of bars and wait until intoxicated women walked out, then offer them a ride,” the filing said.
Harper, who also goes by Alonzo Riley, is accused of sexually assaulting six women since 2019, according to prosecutors.
In one case, a woman said she’d gotten into an argument while out with friends and then spotted Harper, whom she’d known for some time, prosecutors said.
They started to chat, and “he offered her some water, which she drank,” prosecutors said. “After that, she told police she had no recollection of what happened, but she woke up in the defendant’s trailer fully nude, and the defendant was fully nude next to her.”
The woman reported that “she did not consume enough alcohol to experience a blacked-out state” and “when she woke up, she felt groggy, and her body felt sore, and she believed the defendant had drugged her.”
In another instance, a woman said she got into Harper’s pedicab after work and drank water he provided, according to prosecutors.
Then, she “did not remember anything until she woke up the next day,” prosecutors said, noting she reported vaginal soreness.
She found evidence on social media that Harper “had taken her to a second, unknown location that she did not remember visiting,” prosecutors said.
In another instance, a woman said she made plans to meet up with Harper and then blacked out after drinking wine he served her, prosecutors said.
She said she woke up naked and sore, with a condom on the floor, according to prosecutors.
In the news release, District Attorney Sim Gill urged anyone who’s had similar experiences to contact law enforcement.
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