SAN FRANCISCO —A man accused by San Francisco police of posing as a rideshare driver in order to prey on women in a stunning series of sexual attacks should go free because cops did not properly collect his DNA, his lawyer argues.
Police said over the course of several years, Orlando Vilchez-Lazo, a driver for Lyft dubbed the "Rideshare Rapist," picked up intoxicated women who got into his car by mistake, beat them and raped them at knife-point.
When he was arrested last year, police were sure they had their man. Police Commander Greg McEachern offered details shortly after Vilchez-Lazo was taken into custody.
"They observed an individual whose behavior and M.O. matched the description from the four previous sexual assaults. The driver of that vehicle, on a ruse that he was a ride-share driver, took that victim to another location and sexually assaulted her," McEarchern told reporters. "There was a traffic stop made on the individual and we were able to obtain DNA evidence from him."
It's that DNA evidence that's at the heart of a San Francisco deputy public defender's effort to see the charges dismissed against Vilchez-Lazo.
Attorney Sandy Feinland contends that the DNA evidence linking his client to the crime was obtained illegally because the traffic stop was a set-up and in fact, was made in order to obtain a DNA sample from Vilchez-Lazo's saliva through an unneccessary DUI test.
Vilchez-Lazo is an undocumented immigrant from Peru. He remains behind bars on numerous kidnapping and assault charges. As it happens, he did drive for Lyft, but he was not on duty when he allegedly attacked women.
