Deputies say Uber driver attacked teenager

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - An Osceola County Uber driver is accused of sexually assaulting a teenage passenger, according to deputies.

David Pena-Melo, 27, is facing a sexual battery charge and appeared before a judge Friday afternoon.

Investigators say a 14-year-old girl used the Uber app to request a ride from a Kissimmee home early Monday morning and that Pena-Melo picked her up.  They say before dropping her off at a home around seven miles away, he sexually assaulted her. 

“Asked her to sit in the front seat, and there he started making sexual advances and statements toward her, he sexually violated her and raped her there and then he drove past the location where she was supposed to be taken to where he parked on the side of a wooded area and asked her to perform a sexual act there,” said Osceola Co. Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jacob Ruiz.

Uber sent FOX 35 the following statement, “We are appalled by what’s been reported, and our thoughts are with the family. This driver has been banned from Uber.”

Pena-Melo is being held at the Osceola County Jail. Deputies say he told them he thought the girl was 19-years-old and that the sexual contact was consensual.