In a recent report of a woman passenger attacking a fellow passenger in an Lyft Line ride, Sherry Moody, aged 24 was arrested after she kicked 57-year-old Jose Gonzales when the driver told her that she was going to drop Gonzales off first. Kicking Gonzales in the head with her high heels was not enough for moody, she also interjected "You f***ing gays!" making it seem like a hate crime. The driver immediately pulled over and ordered moody out of the car, after which she was arrested for felony battery charges.
Moody was released on Thursday afternoon after being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. She made no statements, and the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office will decide if this is a hate crime. Ed Griffith, Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office spokesman, stated in an e-mail that "Presently, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle has been supporting a broadening of Florida's existing Hate Crime law to allow more victims a legal opportunity to confront hateful actions."
Gonzales has also filed a lawsuit against Lyft, however, in my opinion, his claims that the rideshare company did not protect him will not hold muster in court. Since that would mean every altercation on a public transport system would hold the company liable for any passengers fighting among themselves. Gonzales lawyer made an unusual statement which goes to show how far "stupid" can go, he stated that Lyft should screen passengers as well, and said "If Lyft chose to use technology already employed by the company to screen Lyft drivers, Lyft could potentially discover, warn and protect passengers from other dangerous passengers."
This is one of the dumbest and most idiotic statements made by a lawyer in rideshare history, and if he thought about it earnestly, he would understand why.