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Police: Uber driver took woman to motel on Aurora, raped her

SEATTLE — A man is accused of second-degree rape after allegedly picking up a drunken woman in an Uber, driving to a motel on Aurora Avenue and proceeding to rape her, court documents say.

Documents allege that Mohamed Sylla, now 32 but 30 at the time of the incident, engaged in sexual intercourse with the victim who was incapable of consenting to sexual intercourse. The incident allegedly occurred in April 2018. His last known address is a homeless shelter, court documents show.

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The court documents state that the victim, 38 at the time, got drinks with friends in Ballard, and called an Uber to go home after she decided she couldn’t safely drive.

The victim says she remembers meeting her Uber driver and getting into the car. A police report says that she couldn’t find her house keys when she got back to the apartment, and remembers Sylla helping her find her keys in her purse.

She says her next memory is of a hand stroking her exposed genitals in bed she didn't recognize. Documents state that she then becomes alert and realized it was Sylla in bed with her. She then went to the bathroom and vomited, and when she returned, asked why he was there. Sylla allegedly responded by asking why she drinks so much.

When the victim asked Sylla what happened, he responded that he mostly performed oral sex on her and they had sex "a little," telling her that he wore a condom, documents say.

A police report from the evening said that the victim then asked Sylla to drive her home, and that he provided her with his business card and said they should get together again. The victim described the place they left from as a motel on Aurora Avenue North.

The victim told police that she wanted to "remain calm and not create a situation where she could be physically harmed or killed if she reacted in a different way."

The court set bail at $150,000 for Sylla’s “flagrant abuse of trust and sexual violence inflicted in this case.”

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