Former Lyft driver charged in California serial rapes had passed a background check

Reporting from San Franscisco —  Ride-hailing company Lyft said Tuesday that it’s investigating how a former driver now charged in a series of rapes passed a background check even though federal immigration officials say he was living in the country illegally.

The San Francisco district attorney’s office charged Orlando Vilchez Lazo, 36, with raping four women while posing as a ride-hail driver in San Francisco.

Lyft spokeswoman Kate Margolis said the company is investigating Lazo’s employment history.

She said company officials “have no reason to believe these incidents occurred” while the suspect was on duty.

Margolis didn’t respond to requests for the timeframe of Vilchez Lazo’s employment with the company. Company officials told other media outlets that Vilchez Lazo was “deactivated” as a Lyft driver last week, after his arrest.

Margolis also said it appears Vilchez Lazo “fraudulently represented himself” in applying to drive for Lyft and passing its background check despite his immigration status. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said Tuesday that Vilchez Lazo was living in the United States illegally.

San Francisco district attorney spokesman Alex Bastian said investigators are also looking into Vilchez Lazo’s work history with Lyft. Vilchez Lazo was originally charged with impersonating a ride-hail driver.

ICE said it plans to deport Vilchez Lazo to his native Peru if he’s ever released from custody on the rape case.

The charges he faces carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. A judge revoked bail Tuesday and ordered Vilchez Lazo to remain jailed while awaiting trial, which hasn’t been scheduled.

ICE said it formally asked the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department on Friday to detain Lazo for federal immigration custody in the unlikely event he is ordered released from jail.

Vilchez Lazo was arrested last week on multiple allegations, including four counts of felony rape.

Deputy Public Defender Eric Quandt is expected to be formally appointed to represent Vilchez Lazo when he is arraigned Thursday.

“ICE has made this case about sanctuary laws and immigration status, and that has nothing to do with the charges that are being brought by the district attorney,” Quandt told reporters outside court.

ICE officials said they believe their detainer request will be ignored because San Francisco’s so-called sanctuary city policy bars local authorities from cooperating with most deportation efforts.

ICE officials criticized San Francisco’s immigration policy, which has also been adopted in scores of cities and counties across the nation. The policy “not only provides a refuge for illegal aliens, but it also shields criminal aliens who prey on people in the community,” ICE spokesman Richard Rocha said.

San Francisco sheriff’s spokeswoman Nancy Crowley said the department didn’t have a response to ICE’s request to detain the suspect “because there is nothing to respond to.”

Crowley said the suspect “isn’t going anywhere anytime soon” and if he’s convicted, he will be sent to prison.

“ICE asked us to notify them when he’s released,” Crowley said. “The individual is going to be in jail for some time.”

President Trump made opposition to sanctuary city laws one of his main campaign themes. Trump took particular aim at San Francisco’s policy after a man federal authorities say was living in the country illegally was charged with shooting Kate Steinle to death in July 2015 while she walked on a popular pedestrian pier with her father.

The San Francisco Sheriff’s Department ignored an ICE request to detain Jose Ines Garcia Zarate after local marijuana charges were dropped several weeks before Steinle was shot.

A jury acquitted Garcia Zarate of murder and homicide charges after he said the gun that killed Steinle accidentally fired when he found it underneath the pier bench he was sitting on.

Garcia Zarate is now in federal custody after the U.S. attorney’s office charged him with two illegalgun possession charges.

He has pleaded not guilty and faces trial later this year.