A Lyft driver is facing charges, including sexual battery on an incapacitated person and grand theft, after a woman told officers that he raped her and stole her money inside her Eden Roc Miami Beach hotel room.
Samuel Bucevschi, 35, of Coconut Creek, was being held Tuesday in Miami-Dade County’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $520,000 bond.
In the case involving Bucevschi, police say the woman, who was not identified, reported that she was raped on Feb. 10 in her hotel room.
She told police that she remembered taking a Lyft ride to a bar about 1 a.m. & remembered the driver giving her his cell phone number, according to a police report. Drinking at the bar was her “last memory,” before she woke up alone & naked in her hotel room at about 10 a.m.
She then noticed that her cell phone & $500 in cash were missing & went to the lobby for help.
She handed over her Lyft records & cell phone information to police, according to the report. Her Lyft history showed that there were several ride requests that she never authorized, with charges totaling nearly $300.
Police then obtained surveillance video, which showed Bucevschi carrying the woman in to the hotel at about 4:30 a.m., the report said. He also went to the front desk with her to get a new key.
The video then shows him going into the elevator with her & then enter her room. Bucevschi leaves the room at around 5:30 a.m. alone.
Bucevschi was spotted driving in Miami Beach on Monday & was stopped by officers.
He told police that the woman accusing him was “acting strange” & that she made sexual advances toward him. After being told that a video exists, Bucevschi told police that he carried her, got the key from the front desk & brought her to her room but that “nothing happened,” the report said. He refused to give a DNA sample.
“Surveillance video was a critical component to this investigation,” said Ernesto Rodriguez, a spokesman for Miami Beach police.
Rodriguez added, “Unfortunately, you need to always have in the back of your mind that there are always predators out there who are looking for their next victim.”
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Source: NBC 6
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