BRIGHTON, Mich. (WXYZ) — A Livingston County mother has filed a lawsuit against rideshare company Lyft, alleging one of their drivers transported her 14-year-old daughter to a sexual predator who assaulted her.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, claims the incident occurred three years ago on February 13, 2023 when a man allegedly arranged a Lyft to pick up the teenager from her Brighton home and take her to his residence in Dearborn Heights.
Watch Jolie Sherman's video report below:
The family claims he sexually assaulted her, gave her drugs and forced her to take nude photos.
"It's even hard for me to talk about it. It was surreal," said the mother, who is identified as "M.L" in the lawsuit. For the safety and privacy of her child, she asked to remain anonymous.
The mother says her daughter got into a Lyft to meet a man believed to be in his 20s. The two had met on Wizz, a Tinder-like dating app that was removed from Apple and Google stores in 2024 for safety concerns.
"I start calling her phone, trying to figure out where she is. I can see her moving on her Life 360, and I’m like, where is she going? I think she was on the expressway heading towards Novi. At that point, I go into full blown panic mode, and then she shuts her phone off on me," the mother said.
The mother says she reached out to her daughter's friend who told her the teen was meeting a guy in Dearborn Heights. After calling local and state police, the mother says she repeatedly called Lyft to try and stop the ride but wasn't able to.
"The female driver even asked her if she was OK because clearly, she didn't look OK in the Lyft, and the female driver did nothing," the mother said.
She says she found her daughter hours later, after sending an alert to her phone that revealed her location.
The lawsuit claims policies were violated by driving an unaccompanied minor and failing to verify the passenger's age. The family's attorney, along with the mother who briefly drove for Lyft, says drivers can sometimes be punished for canceling rides.
"If a driver cancels a ride even once, they can be prohibited for weeks from doing another drive and potentially have their ability to be a driver terminated. So, what is a driver supposed to do," attorney Elizabeth Abdnour said.
Abdnour says her client is suing Lyft for violations of the TVPRA, or Trafficking Victim Protections Reauthorization Act, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
She adds the man has fled the country and is believed to be in Morocco. She says criminal charges have been filed and there's an active warrant for the man's arrest.
7 News Detroit reached out to Lyft on multiple occasions but haven't heard back. The family believes the assault could have been prevented if the driver had stepped in.
"I don't want this to ever happen again. There should be some sort of alert system or panic button. There's got to be something better," the mother said.
Both Lyft and Uber offer family profiles that allow parents to receive a notification the second a ride starts and track the car's movement in real time. You can also set it up so that a trusted contact, like a parents, must receive a unique pin before the ride can begin.
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