A downtown Salt Lake City pedicab driver is accused of drugging and raping four women and sexually assaulting two more since 2019, according to the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.
District Attorney Sim Gill announced 11 felony charges against John Riley Harper, 45, on Thursday. Those included four counts of rape, two counts of forcible sodomy, two counts of forcible sexual abuse, one count of aggravated assault and two counts of covertly giving someone a controlled substance without consent.
If found guilty of the most serious charges, Harper could face up to life in prison.
Prosecutors are seeking pretrial detention, arguing in court filings that Harper poses “an extreme danger to the women within this community” and that he used his role as a pedicab driver to “prey upon women.”
Harper — who also goes by the name Alonzo Riley, according to court records — has been held in the Salt Lake County jail since June 25, according to jail records.
Prosecutors wrote that Harper offered water to women using his pedicab services that caused them to black out, and that he would wait outside bars for intoxicated women to walk out and offer them a ride. Law enforcement received information suggesting Harper may have been assaulting women in Salt Lake County and surrounding areas for the past 15 years, prosecutors wrote.
Gill, in a news release his office issued Thursday, is asking other people who may have encountered Harper to come forward.
“If there are other individuals that may have had similar alleged experiences as the victim-survivors in this case, we urge them to report that to law enforcement,” Gill said. The Salt Lake City Police Department’s non-emergency phone number is 801-799-3000.
The rape and forcible sodomy counts announced Thursday are first-degree felonies, which in Utah carry a maximum sentence of up to life in prison, according to the release. The sexual abuse charges are second-degree felonies, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, while the aggravated assault and controlled substance charges are third-degree felonies, which carry a maximum sentence of up to 5 years.
The charges include one class A misdemeanor — possession of a controlled substance, specifically cocaine — that is punishable by up to one year in jail.
