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DA: Man who pretended to be an Uber driver to kidnap and rape a woman in January now charged in seven more attacks

Alvin Campbell, 39, arrested in January on charges he raped a woman he picked up at the Harp downtown now faces arraignment on seven similar cases dating to 2017 in Roxbury, South Boston and Downtown, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

According to the DA's office:

The details of each account vary, but in all cases Campbell allegedly targeted the women at or near bars or other locations where intoxication had made them incapable of consenting or resisting. And in each case, the women believed they were with a ride share driver they had summoned.

Campbell last worked for Uber in 2016, but when his vehicle was seized in the first case, it was festooned with Uber stickers and logos. Most of the assaults took place in Campbell’s vehicle, and he also took video of five of the unconscious victims, according to prosecutors and sexual assault unit detectives who obtained a warrant to search his cellphone. 

The DA's office adds:

With no grand jury available to hear the extensive additional evidence during the COVID-19 pandemic, detectives from the Boston Police Sexual Assault Unit obtained the new complaints Thursday in order to lodge arrest warrants in the system until Campbell can be brought to face them in court. Further information about the allegations will become public at that time. 

Campbell has been held behind bars on $250,000 bail since January, lives in Cumberland, RI - to which he allegedly drove his January victim. He is the older brother of Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell (Dorchester, Mattapan).

In a statement, DA Rachael Rollins noted the January arrest was only the latest in a series of attacks on women by both ride-share drivers and men pretending to be ride-share drivers:

have only been DA for nearly 19 months. This long list of women – each targeted, assaulted, kidnapped, raped and/or murdered – is heartbreaking. Sexual violence is a form of hate crime and gender should be a protected category. It isn’t. Violence against women is not a woman’s issue, it is a civil rights issue. Men, we are calling on you to step up and intervene when you see questionable and criminal behavior. Speak to your sons. Real men don’t rape.

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

I drove mostly part time for Uber until last year. It is easy for anyone to get the Uber stickers for your car. Go to the uber Greenlight office on Route 1 in Saugus and ask for the stickers. Nobody there will demand proof, that you're a actual Uber driver.

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sticker on the windshield mean you don't need verify the make and lic.# that appears on your cell phone before you get in the car.

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I'm sure the women would do things differently if they had a chance. They shouldn't have been raped for making a mistake.

The ride share companies should add a feature to the app where it beeps if it detects vehicle movement but the correct driver hasn't pressed the pickup button. At least that would let the passenger know right away they might be in the wrong car.

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Most passengers never asked my name. I always asked their name and checked their destination, because it was to my financial benefit to have the right passenger in the car going to the right destination.
I never had a problem with young drunk men, but I did have problems with young drunk women. In the worst cases when we reached their homes, I couldn't wake them up, even by shouting at them.
I would call the town's police, and a officer would wake them up and get them out of my vehicle.

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I could ask the driver's name and if they were up to no good, they could lie and say that was their name. I always check the license plate and make of the car, but that still doesn't guarantee a safe ride, unfortunately.

I had a Lyft driver once pick me up, but then he did not start the ride on the app. I kept getting texts from Lyft telling me that I had been reassigned a new driver. When I asked the driver to accept the ride, he didn't and then started to drive not in the direction of my destination. I jumped out of the car at a red light and then called to report him. I don't know what or if any repercussions he faced.

Another time, an Uber driver hit on me the entire 20 minute ride. It was super gross and demeaning. Another Uber driver berated me for not having children and said that I was not fulfilling my duty to God as a woman.

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Many times people would get in to my car without verifying my vehicle, Just because they saw the stickers. It is shocking how many passengers do it (sober or drunk)
Some passengers would even get upset, that I would not take them to their destination. They didn't care, that I was waiting for someone else.

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Councilor Campbell has been on the public safety committee for a few years. Always had a cordial and professional relationship with Boston Police. Her brother gets popped in January and now she’s a strident critic of Commissioner Gross.

I don’t believe in coincidences.

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Couldn’t possibly be any other explanation for shifting opinions on police... nope, can’t think of anything

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The police do there job. Better late than never.

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Why do taxis have to be registered with the police but Uber and Lyft don't?

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Don't know about lyft. But Uber employees many illegals. They wouldn't want the police snooping around them too much.

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I don't think your choice of the insulting term "illegals" is accidental at all, so I won't go there. But Uber drivers are not "employees".

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I am a legal Alien, it said so on my paperwork.
The opposite is illegal. Yes. uber 'employees' are partners, independent contractors.

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Employees and independent contractors have different rights and expectations under employment and tax laws. They are 100% NOT THE SAME.

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You need to have a valid driver's license and proof of insurance to drive for any rideshare company. An undocumented immigrant wouldn't have that.

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You don't need a social security number to drive for Uber, Anyone can get a ID from the IRS. California gives illegals drivers licenses. And while I'm at it , housing authorities have paperwork labeled 'no SSI number ' so they can get welfare apartments.
And you don't need "documents " to prove your citizenship when voting, so illegals vote as well.

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Why would someone here "illegally" (to use your words), willingly go to the government that they are fearful of and say on the record that they are undocumented? When that would increase the chances of being detained by ICE or deported?

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Fear, that's Funny. Housing authorities aren't going to rat them out.
They wouldn't get 'iced'.

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