Taxi driver arrested for alleged rape Costa...

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.