Silver Spring Taxi Driver Pleads Guilty To Sexually Assaulting Passenger

WASHINGTON, DC — A taxicab driver from Silver Spring pled guilty to sexually assaulting a woman he picked up in his cab in the U Street area of Northwest Washington last spring, U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips announced. (Subscribe to the Silver Spring Patch for realtime, breaking news alerts.)

Yared Mekonnen, 24, pled guilty Sept. 13 to charges of second-degree sexual abuse and attempted kidnapping.

According to government evidence, Mekonnen picked up the victim, a woman from Virginia, and her boyfriend on U Street in the early morning hours of May 28, 2017. Both the woman and her boyfriend were intoxicated, prosectors said. At some point, the boyfriend exited the cab.

Once Mekonnen was alone in the taxicab with the victim, he sexually assaulted her and prevented her from exiting the cab. She screamed as he continued to drive, and a struggle ensued as Mekonnen attempted to convince the woman not to call for help. Mekonnen grabbed the woman's cellphone and it fell out of the window, prosecutors said.

According to The Washington Post, the victim told police she did not remember getting in the cab and had a "black out" due to the alcohol. She "woke up only as the driver was assaulting her in the back seat of the minivan, according to a police report and court documents."

Finally, another driver pulled in front of Mekonnen's cab, forcing it to stop in the 4900 block of 16th Street NW. The Washington Post reports the other driver heard the victim screaming inside the cab and called police. The witness said he made a U-turn and followed Mekonnen's cab to try to help the woman.

Shortly after, officers with the Metropolitan Police Department arrived on the scene and arrested Mekonnen. Mekonnen allegedly told the other driver the woman was "crazy" and that he "did not do anything to her." Mekonnen has been in custody ever since, prosectors said.

Mekonnen will be sentenced Dec. 1 and faces a likely sentence between 42 and 108 months. Following his prison term, Mekonnen will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

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Patch File Photo–a mugshot of Mekonnen was not immediately available.