Taxi driver arrested for alleged rape
Costa Mesa Police on Monday night arrested a taxi driver on
suspicion of raping a woman he had picked up as a fare.
Rodney Cornell Carter, a 42-year-old Cathedral City resident is
being held on $100,000 bail at the Orange County jail on suspicion of
rape while the victim was under the influence of an intoxicant.
Carter picked up the 36-year-old Placentia woman, whose name was not
released, at the corner of Harbor and Newport boulevards at 11:50
p.m. Monday, according to police.
The woman and some companions had been drinking with some friends
and called the cab company, 1-800-4-MY-TAXI, to take her to their
home on Wallace Avenue, police said. When her friends arrived at the
home, they couldn't find the woman, according to police.
They later found the cab parked in front of the home and saw the
woman lying in the back seat with her pants down, Costa Mesa Police
Sgt. Marty Carver said. They called police and detained Carter until
officers arrived.
Carter is scheduled to be arraigned today at the Harbor Justice
Center in Newport Beach.
Police are asking any other possible victims to call Costa Mesa
Police Det. Ed Everett at (714) 754-5360.
