From the Cape Cod Times

BARNSTABLE — A 39-year-old Bourne man who, according to his attorney, worked as a driver for the Uber ride-sharing service pleaded not guilty Thursday in Barnstable Superior Court to rape and assault charges.

Yves Goin had been indicted Dec. 11 by a Barnstable County grand jury on one count of rape, two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 and one count of assault to rape, according to Superior Court documents.

In July, he was indicted and arraigned on separate charges of rape and assault and battery, according to court documents.

Because the charges involve sexual assault, police reports were not available and the Bourne police would not comment on whether the more recent charges were connected to his job. The ride-sharing service, however, has come under fire nationwide for the way it handles background checks for its employees, and some of the charges against Goin date back to 2002.

Goin was released on $25,000 cash bail. He is required to live with his mother and abide by a curfew between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., except for when he’s working.

His attorney, Matthew Schmitt, said in court that Goin worked as an Uber driver but declined to comment further on the case when reached later.

When asked for Goin’s employment status late Thursday afternoon, Uber spokeswoman Carlie Waibel said, “Mr. Goin is not currently an active driver-partner on the Uber platform.”

The indictments stem from attacks on two victims stemming as far back as 2002, according to Tara Miltimore, a spokeswoman for Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe.

Yves was arraigned that year on a rape charge in Falmouth District Court but then disappeared. He was located in 2014 and brought back to court, Miltimore said.

Uber, a service that matches local drivers using their own cars with customers looking for rides, launched its lowest-cost UberX service on the Cape and Islands in May.

Sexual attacks by drivers for ride-sharing services around the country have gained media attention.

In October, a 47-year-old Boston man pleaded guilty in Middlesex Superior Court to kidnapping and raping a woman he picked up while working as an Uber driver in December 2014.

The man, Alejandro Done, was indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury in September for attacks on four other women between July 2006 and June 2010 while they were walking or jogging.

“This issue is going to be enormous in Massachusetts,” said Dave Sutton, a spokesman for the “Who’s Driving You?” campaign by the national Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association, which calls for more regulations on ride-share programs and tracks reported criminal incidents involving Uber and Lyft drivers. “Uber ignores these fingerprint checks.”

Uber screens potential drivers using the private company Checkr, which runs automated background checks, according to the company’s policy, which Waibel provided to the Times.

The company runs a Social Security trace to identify addresses associated with the potential driver’s name in the past seven years and then searches for his or her name and addresses in a series of national, state and local databases for convictions in the last seven years, according to the policy.

In Massachusetts, several bills filed by legislators to regulate ride-share programs are awaiting a vote.

A joint bill by state Rep. Michael J. Moran and Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry calls for Uber and Lyft drivers to be fingerprinted and their prints submitted for state and national criminal checks.

It also would require ride-hailing cars to be registered as livery vehicles and have commercial insurance that covers at least $1 million in bodily injuries. The bill is still in committee and nothing is scheduled yet, according to Forry’s office.

Read more from the Cape Cod Times