Serial Sexual Predator Accused of Kidnapping and Raping Cleveland Women Waiting for Uber Rides!

A Cleveland, Ohio man has been charged with terrorizing women in the area who were waiting for Uber rides. The reign of terror began in 2018 when authorities say 27-year-old Christian Burks sexually assaulted a 20-year-old woman at a party at an apartment near East 4th Street and Prospect Avenue. Burks and the woman were among several people who went to the party, and the woman at one point went into a separate room to lie down, prosecutors said. Burks went into that room and sexually assaulted the woman, who tried to stop the attack several times, prosecutors said.

The other three incidents took place between May and December of 2020, prosecutors said.

On May 24, a woman and a man, who were both 23 years old, hailed an Uber outside a bar on West 6th Street near Johnson Court. Burks drove up to them and they got into his car because they thought it was their ride, prosecutors said. The woman passenger said that when her male friend decided to ask for an additional stop at a Lorain Ave. gas station that Burks sped off with her in the back the minute her friend went into the store. That woman says that Burks stole her credit cards and made fraudulent purchases. The details of this story are murky but the woman says that she woke up in her apartment alone. Burks is not charged with sexually assaulting her. Three days later, he abducted and assaulted another woman.

He seemed to take a few months off with the next assault happening nearly six months later. On Nov. 15, a woman who got separated from her friends when she left a bar on West 6th Street near Lakeside Avenue, prosecutors said. The woman got into Burks’ car and he sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.

The final attack came Dec. 14, when Burks sexually assaulted a 24-year-old woman he picked up on West 6th Street, prosecutors said. The woman and a friend ordered an Uber and were waiting outside a bar near Johnson Court, prosecutor said. The woman’s friend saw the Uber approach and went to get in, but realized the woman had gotten into another vehicle, prosecutors said. Prosecutors say Burks was driving the other vehicle. He sexually assaulted the woman in the vehicle before he took her to a motel in East Cleveland and left her there, prosecutors said.

According to Cleveland.com, Burks plead not guilty Friday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to eight counts of rape, seven counts of kidnapping and six counts of gross sexual imposition in connection with the attacks. The charges accuse him of being a sexually violent predator, and he faces several decades in prison if he is convicted.

He is also charged with domestic violence, kidnapping and abduction in a separate incident in which he is accused of forcing a woman he knew into his truck and dragging her by the neck when she tried to escape.

Burks is being held on $250,000 bond. His cases are assigned to Judge Joan Synenberg.

We're glad this man is off of the streets. Ladies, and gentleman, please be careful when you're using rideshare services. In case you didn't know it, every day is a good day to get your CCW.