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Mass. delivery driver arrested for allegedly raping customer
Roiber Andres Rodriguez Melendez was arrested on Feb. 13.
A man working as a food delivery person was arrested and charged with raping a customer in her Wilbraham home earlier this month, authorities announced.
Roiber Andres Rodriguez Melendez, 21, of Springfield was arrested on Feb. 13 and charged with rape in connection with the Feb. 9 incident, Wilbraham police said. He pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on Friday and was ordered held without bail, pending a dangerousness hearing, according to court records.
In a statement of facts filed with the court, police said officers responded to a home in Wilbraham around 7:13 p.m. on Feb. 9 after a person called, reporting that a delivery driver would not leave her friend’s home, later informing dispatch that the man had sexually assaulted her friend before fleeing.
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The victim told officers at her home that she’d placed an Uber Eats food delivery and when the driver arrived, it was a man, rather than the woman listed on the driver’s profile. The man, later identified by police as Rodriguez Melendez, allegedly did not speak English, but told the woman that she needed a code to complete the delivery, according to court records.
The resident called a friend who speaks Spanish to help resolve the issue, allegedly inviting Rodriguez Melendez inside because of the cold while they worked to solve the problem, according to the police statement of facts. While on a three-way call with Uber tech support, Rodriguez Melendez allegedly hung up the call, forced the woman into a bathroom, and raped her.
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The woman told police her phone was ringing “incessantly” and when the alleged assault stopped, she called her friend back, asking her to tell the driver to leave, which the friend did, according to court records.
Rodriguez Melendez left the residence, and the victim then allegedly called her friend back and told her the driver had raped her.
Footage from an interior pet camera in the home and surveillance video from the restaurant where the victim’s food was picked up were used in locating the suspect, Rodriguez Melendez, police said in the statement of facts filed with the court.
Rodriguez Melendez allegedly told police he had no physical contact with the woman and consented to giving a DNA sample after his arrest, according to court records.
He will return to court for a hearing on Wednesday. His attorney declined to comment on the case on Monday evening.
Uber did not respond to a request for comment Monday evening.
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