Prosecutors drop charges against Uber driver accused of rape, citing negative forensic test results
Jiokeng, of Brighton, was ordered held without bail at his Feb. 24 arraignment in South Boston Municipal Court, where
Jiokjeng's attorney, William Gens, said his client's detainment 'undoubtedly did a lot of damage to him.' He said Jiokeng worked at a bank and drove for Uber for extra income prior to his arrest.
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'If the court was going to give any credence to the Commonwealth's allegations, which were self-evidently shaky, other measures short of actually detaining him would have sufficed, such as a bracelet monitor and travel restrictions and an agreement not to even be an Uber driver,' Gens said by phone Friday.
'That way, he could have kept his day job and paid his mortgage and been with his family,' he said. 'Instead, [the judge] slammed him with the most harsh sanction possible.'
In February, Gens questioned the woman's allegations in a brief motion, writing that the 'accuser has provided three different accounts of the alleged incident where the race of the assailant has [changed] from the first two accounts of a white male to that of a [Black] male.'
A police report filed in court said the woman told investigators her Uber driver picked her up around 11:48 p.m. on Feb. 22 outside Loco Taqueria and Oyster Bar in South Boston.
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She initially told police said that when the Uber was nearing her residence, the driver stopped as two white men got out of a second vehicle and dragged her into theirs, where she was raped, the report said.
The woman told police in a subsequent interview at an area hospital where she sought treatment that the driver climbed into the back seat and pinned her down and that a second person 'came out of nowhere' and also assaulted her, the report said.
She described the Uber driver as 'white with dark features' and the second attacker as a man with a 'pale' complexion, the report said.
The woman's roommate told police she had been tracking her whereabouts with an app and noticed the Uber was stopped outside their address, according to the report. The roommate said she went outside and saw 'movement' in the back seat, so she knocked on the window and 'made eye contact' with a Black man.
The report said the roommate ran back inside and was about to call 911 when the woman entered and told her what happened.
Because of the inconsistencies, police conducted another interview with the woman to clarify her prior statements, the report said. She told police she had 'consumed a lot of alcohol on the prior date and has started to question some of the details she has provided,' the report said.
The woman told police 'she believes now it was' two Black men involved and that she knew one was her driver, the report said.
Jiokeng, who is Black, was identified as her Uber driver through a trip receipt.
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He was arrested the next morning outside his residence in Brighton.
Nick Stoico can be reached at
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