Uber has just been sued by a Butts County mother who says its driver picked up her 14-year-old daughter alone from a deserted gas station at 1:40 a.m. and drove her more than 30 miles to the Jonesboro home of a man who drugged and repeatedly raped her over four days.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Gwinnett County State Court, aims to hold the rideshare company accountable for allowing the child to be transported without parental consent and at the request of an alleged sex trafficker.

Attorney Michael Neff, who represents the mother, said he hopes the case gets the attention of Gov. Brian Kemp and other state politicians as they consider House Bill 339, which would shield Uber and other rideshare companies from liability in many instances.

“We hope they will consider what the value of a young girl’s soul is,” Neff said Tuesday. “I would hope they would consider the value of the ability to seek justice. And I would hope they would contemplate whether or not it’s prudent to pass laws granting immunity to Uber and Lyft.”

A spokesperson for Uber said the details of the case are “gut-wrenching.” They said the company is committed to helping combat human trafficking and continues to build on prevention efforts, including equipping drivers with educational resources about identifying and reporting suspected trafficking cases.

“We take our role helping to spotlight this issue seriously and that work never stops,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement on Monday. “Additionally, we work with advocacy organizations and state Attorneys General to develop educational content and help drive awareness across our communities.”

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr partnered with Uber and others in 2021 to raise awareness of human trafficking.

Neff said he filed the lawsuit just months after the girl, who is now 15, was trafficked on Nov. 1, in case HB 339 and Kemp’s proposed rule changes for civil lawsuits become law. HB 339 passed in the House on March 4 and is now before the Senate.

“I needed to file this lawsuit sooner rather than later to avoid the possibility that my client may have rights taken away from her,” he said. “This is a real human face and a real human loss on something that’s being touted as an economic issue.”

The mother and daughter are not named in the complaint, referenced instead as Jane Does. The lawsuit includes civil claims against Uber, its subsidiary and the driver who allegedly transported the child.

A spokesperson for Uber did not immediately confirm whether the driver worked for the company.

The complaint alleges that the child was communicating online with Jonesboro man Thomas Bonner, who convinced her to leave her home in the middle of the night and walk to a gas station where an Uber driver could pick her up.

A timestamped image of the Uber car entering the deserted gas station in Butts County to collect the child is included in the lawsuit.

The child was found at Bonner’s home several days later by police, who tracked her down using details of the Uber ride, Neff said.

“Uber and its driver profited from this trip,” the lawsuit says. “But for Uber’s involvement in delivering the girl to their attacker’s doorstep without question in obviously suspicious circumstances, none of this would have happened.”

Bonner is in the Clayton County jail charged with rape, sodomy, aggravated child molestation, sexual battery of a minor and enticing a child, county court and jail records show. The public defender representing Bonner did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the case.

Uber faces similar lawsuits in other states alleging it was involved in child sex trafficking. It is also defending hundreds of cases from around the country alleging riders were sexually harassed and assaulted by drivers. Many of those cases are consolidated before a federal judge in California.

The company says it encourages drivers to cancel rides with unaccompanied minors without a teen account, which comes with adult supervision, and to report such situations. Uber says it is trialing new rider verification measures and working with law enforcement to combat human trafficking.

But Neff said Uber routinely doesn’t report suspicious activity to police, require identification from riders, adequately screen drivers, mandate certain driver training or monitor what happens during rides, despite being warned years ago by the FBI and U.S. Senators about the role of rideshare companies in human trafficking.

“It’s not good enough,” he said. “Rather than fixing the problem, Uber and Lyft are trying to eliminate legal liability.”

Uber and other companies are backing Kemp’s proposed lawsuit rule changes that the governor says are designed to fix unfair disadvantages to defendants in the state’s civil litigation system. Kemp claims injury lawsuits are draining family bank accounts, increasing insurance premiums and hurting business owners.

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