An Uber executive obtained medical records of a passenger who was raped during a ride, apparently to question her story
An Uber executive reportedly obtained the medical records of a woman who was raped during a ride in India and showed them to other company executives, apparently with the intent of questioning if the woman's story was true, Recode reports. The executive, the president of small business in the Asia Pacific, Eric Alexander, was not among 20 employees fired following a sexual harassment investigation Tuesday, although he is now no longer with the company.
Alexander reportedly traveled to India after a 26-year-old woman was raped and assaulted by her Uber driver in New Delhi in 2014; it was not clear if Alexander made the trip "of his own volition or was directed to do so," Recode writes. "It is also not clear if he obtained these files legally."
Alexander then showed the documents to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and senior vice president Emil Michael. "Travis never should have looked at the report and he should have fired him immediately," one executive told Recode. Instead, the three executives apparently began to probe if Ola, Uber's competitor in India, had set up the incident as a kind of sabotage.
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"Neither Kalanick, Michael, nor Alexander has medical training, even though they questioned the incident based on the medical report," people familiar with the situation told Recode. Additionally, "Alexander carried around the document for about a year before other executives — presumably the legal department — obtained the report and destroyed his copy, according to the sources. It's not clear if Uber continues to have a copy."
Read the entire report at Recode.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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