Florida
Florida woman who kept baby after alleged Lyft driver sex attack says 'blessing' came from 'darkest hour'
A Florida woman is suing Lyft after she says her driver repeatedly raped her, resulting in the birth of a child, according to the lawsuit.
The alleged attack occurred April 28, 2019, when the victim was intoxicated after a party in central Florida and contacted a Lyft driver to pick her up and drive her home.
“I am still working to process this trauma and, at the same time, I’m trying to be a mom to my amazing children,” the victim, Tabatha Means, told reporters during a virtual press conference Wednesday. “I need to be a mother to my biological son, whose father was my Lyft driver. My rapist. I love my kids so deeply, but there are a lot of mixed emotions when the biggest blessing in your life can also remind you of your darkest hour.”
The driver arrived with a light displaying the Lyft logo turned on inside his vehicle and allegedly told a clearly intoxicated Means to sit in the front seat of his vehicle. He began making inappropriate comments about her appearance, saying she should not be out alone.
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Florida woman Tabatha Means is suing Lyft after she says a driver repeatedly raped her in 2019 and she became pregnant, resulting in the birth of a child. (Peiffer Wolf)
When they arrived at her drop-off location, the driver allegedly pulled his car into a parking space and touched the victim’s leg while she “rejected his advances.” The driver then offered to help her walk inside, and while the victim “insisted that she would walk inside on her own,” the driver followed her inside her residence anyway and sexually assaulted her despite her pleas to stop.
At one point, the driver allegedly said he had a sexual encounter with “a girl” he “picked up [in a Lyft ride] before you,” the lawsuit states.
Means realized weeks later that she was pregnant. The pregnancy was considered high-risk, and she experienced three hemorrhage episodes before she underwent an emergency C-section and gave birth to her son at 33 weeks. A DNA test revealed a 99.9999999998% probability that the child’s father was the Lyft driver, according to the complaint.
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“Every day is a struggle for me.”
“Don’t wait as long as I did to speak up and say something,” Means told Fox News Digital when asked if she had a message for other people who use ride-sharing apps. “I’m very upset with myself for waiting as long as I did and feeling strong enough to open my mouth and say something.”
Her lawsuit alleges Lyft was negligent in hiring the driver, not applying adequate safety measures to the app over the years, not warning customers of potential risks and inflicting emotional distress onto the plaintiff, among other allegations.
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Means’ lawsuit alleges Lyft was negligent in hiring the sexual assault suspect/driver, not applying adequate safety measures to the app over the years, not warning customers of potential risks, inflicting emotional distress and other allegations. (Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket )
“Safety is fundamental to Lyft, and the behavior described has no place in our society,” Lyft said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “The alleged incident from 2019 did not take place on the Lyft platform while using the Lyft app, but rather involved a separate trip arranged between the individuals involved. Lyft has worked to design policies and features that protect both drivers and riders, and we are always working to make Lyft an even safer platform.”
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Lyft also told Fox News Digital that, according to the company’s investigation and records, Means had taken a Lyft ride earlier in the day to get to her destination, but her second ride home hours later was not an official Lyft ride. Means’ attorney, Rachel Abrams of Peiffer Wolf, disputed this claim.
“Tabatha got into the Lyft vehicle that was ordered for her, and we have the literal ride receipt with the driver-rapist,” Abrams said. “The driver said, ‘[A]re you Tabatha?’ when she entered the vehicle. She confirmed and got in not knowing that the driver ‘ended’ the ride — which is one of the problematic features of the Lyft App. I’m actually dumbfounded that Lyft is using a clear deficiency in its platform as a basis to attack a rape survivor.”
Lyft noted that there was no safety report or customer service report made through the ride-sharing app, and there was no police report. Lyft became aware of the attack years after it happened, and the driver has not worked for the ride-sharing company for years. (Justin Sullivan)
Lyft also noted that there was no safety report or customer service report made through the ride-sharing app, police were never contacted about the incident and there is also no police report. Lyft became aware of the attack years after it happened, and the driver has not worked for the ride-sharing company for years. The suspect is not named in the lawsuit.
Means said she is “not shocked” that Lyft “is trying to blame” her or push her into saying she “wanted this, or it happened off-app or anything of the sort.”
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“I took a ride thinking I was safe. Period,” she said. “You see their light on. And they say your name. And you get in that car, and you’re going to be OK. I trust that, and I’m very upset for not opening my mouth sooner — not doing everything in my power to get proper treatment.”
In response to Lyft’s statement, Means’ attorney, Rachel Abrams of Pieffer Wolf, said the incident “absolutely involved a trip booked through the Lyft App, and Lyft’s attempt to deflect liability is a perfect example of its bad faith handling of this crisis.”
“I took a ride thinking I was safe. Period,” Means said. (Kelly Sullivan)
“There is no dispute Tabatha’s Lyft driver repeatedly raped her, resulting in pregnancy and the birth of her son,” Abrams said. “Lyft is correct about one thing — what happened to Tabatha has no place in our society. And as a society, we must endeavor to protect women from sexual assaults. The unfortunate reality is that one out of every six American women is a survivor of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.”
Means and her attorney are pushing for Lyft to implement more safety measures for victims and more in-depth background checks, including fingerprint-based background checks for new hires; training on appropriate conduct with riders, including sexual harassment training; and required cameras in cars with saved recordings, among other protocols.
“It’s scary, but yet, inside, I can hear my own conscience saying, ‘I’m doing this. I have to. I refuse to be a silenced victim.’ And that is what Lyft is pushing me to do,” Means said. “Refusing to take accountability for their negligence while allowing and excusing the crime and abuse committed against me. Before this happened, I literally had no idea that sexual assault was even an issue with Lyft.”
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Lyft noted that 99% of all rides occur without any safety reports filed. Lyft reported receiving more than 4,000 sexual assault reports between 2017, 2018 and 2019 in its 2021 safety report. Lyft had nearly 23 million active riders in 2019, according to the SEC.
Florida
Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’
It only took three weeks for a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University (FIU) to become a place where participants eagerly used racist slurs, prompting widespread condemnation from community leaders.
Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of Miami-Dade county’s Republican party and a student at FIU’s College of Law, reportedly started the chat after the killing of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, in September 2025.
But on Wednesday, the Miami Herald published leaked WhatsApp conversations in which the college Republicans made racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic comments, including variations of the N-word used more than 400 times. Knowledge of the chat’s existence was revealed on the same day that Republican lawmakers in Florida pushed forward a bill to rename a one-mile stretch of road alongside FIU in honor of Kirk.
William Bejerano, who the Herald noted once tried to start an anti-abortion group at Miami Dade College, was the most prolific user of the N-word. Using the slur, Bejerano called for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting.
Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans’ recruitment chair, who has recently applied to become a GOP committee member, responded to the calls for violence by saying: “How edgy.” He repeatedly used “colored” to describe Black people, including writing: “Ew you had colored professors?!” and “Avoid the coloreds like the plague,” according to the Herald.
Carvajal, who was appointed to a two-year role on the city of Hialeah’s planning and zoning board earlier this year, confirmed to the paper that the group chat was his doing, but he denied knowledge of the problematic comments until the publication contacted him about its logs last week.
“It’s been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I’ve seen this message,” Carvajal told the Herald.
“I guess to an extent, I bear some responsibility, cause I created a chat. But if I had seen this at the moment, I would have removed [Bejerano] from the chat. I probably would have even blocked his number.”
The Herald found that Carvajal had deleted 14 messages sent by other participants in the chat and 42 of his own messages before the publication obtained the chat’s logs.
He also participated in some of the racist discussions. While referring to a Black student who allegedly left FIU’s College Republicans after a member of the group “called her a [N-word]”, the Floridian reported that Carvajal wrote: “Why didn’t miggress leave?” Elsewhere in the chat, the publication reported that Carvajal used “Miggress”, “Migglet” and “Migger” to refer to Black women, Black children and Black people, in general.
At one point, Gonzalez wrote: “You can fuck all the [K-word, a slur for Jewish people] you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.”
Ian Valdes, the Turning Point USA FIU chapter president, responded, “I would def not marry a Jew,” before changing the group chat’s name from “Uber [R-word slur for disabled people] Yapping” to “Gooning in Agartha”. “Gooning” is a gen-Z slang term for male masturbation, while “Agartha” is a mythical white civilization promoted by Heinrich Himmler, one of the most powerful leaders in Nazi Germany next to Hitler.
Gonzalez reportedly described Agartha to the group chat as “Nazi heaven sort of”.
Kevin Cooper, the first Jewish chair of the Miami Dade Republican party, condemned the group chat in a statement published to X and called for Carvajal’s resignation.
“The majority of our board voted to request Carvajal’s resignation. We have commenced removal proceedings and look forward to resolution from the Republican Party of Florida,” he wrote.
That call was echoed by Juan Porras, a Republican state representative and Miami-Dade GOP state committee member, who said in a statement: “Leadership carries responsibility. When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida. For that reason, I am asking the Miami Dade Republican party secretary to step down from this position.”
In a joint statement, Florida Republican state senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia and Ana Maria Rodriguez denounced the chats and called for the expulsion from party leadership of its participants.
“The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican party of Florida,” their statement said. “We call for the immediate expulsion of the individuals disseminating from any level of leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party … We will not tolerate bigotry or discrimination.”
Multiple leaked group chats from young Republicans have created controversy in recent years.
Last year, Politico published messages from a group chat of more than 100 conservatives across the country in which users also made racist and antisemitic comments. In 2022, a Young Republican group chat from North Dakota was revealed as a cesspool of homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric.
Florida
Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip
Four days into the Iranian conflict, gas prices are rising at many stations in South Florida.
“I’ve traveled all over the United States,” says Stacey Williams. CBS Miami spoke to him as he was gassing up on the turnpike. He paid $66 for 20 gallons of diesel to fill his pickup truck. Williams has noted the fluctuations in fuel as he drives to locations for his work on turbines. He just spent three weeks at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant south of Miami.
“The salary we get paid per hour does not add up to what we pay for gas, housing, and food,” he says.
Mitchell Gershon is also dealing with the higher gas prices. He has to fill three vehicles constantly for his business—Thrifty Gypsy, a pop-up store at musical venues. He’s back and forth from Orlando to Miami and says fuel is costing him 20% more. When asked how he handles these fluctuations, he said, “Have a little backup cash so you are ready for it.”
The rise in oil prices contributed to a drop in the stock market on Tuesday, which means some retirement accounts dipped, too. CBS Miami talked to Chad NeSmith, director of investments at Tobias Financial Advisors in Plantation, for perspective on the drop.
“We are seeing most of the pullback today. Yesterday was a shock,” he says. He’s not expecting runaway oil prices but says investors should stay in the loop: “Pay attention to your portfolio. Stick to your goals. Have a plan because these things are completely unpredictable.”
That unpredictability has Williams adjusting his budget. “You just cut back, cut corners, all you can do,” he says.
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