A former Uber driver is facing trial in Jefferson County for allegedly raping a passenger near Discovery Bay whom he was driving to an inpatient treatment facility in Port Angeles.

Bikhtiyar Ghafour Salihi was arrested in early April for first-degree rape and first-degree kidnapping.

Both felony charges include sentencing enhancements for “vulnerable victim” if Salihi is found guilty.

Salihi’s trial on the two felony charges is set for Sept. 11.

Prosecutors allege Salihi, a 47-year-old Everett resident, had picked up the victim at Providence Hospital as a driver for Safe Transportation.

The victim was given tranquilizers by hospital staff before the trip to Port Angeles in October 2020, according to court documents.

During the medical transport, Torres said the driver reached into the backseat and fondled her while she was sedated.

He later pulled into a dirt pullout on
US Highway 10 about 2½ miles north of the Highway 20 junction. The victim said Salihi pulled her out of the back seat and dragged her down a hill out of view of the highway. The woman said she “felt loopy due to the tranquilizers and was unable to fight back,” according to court documents.

After the assault, she said he pushed her down, and she crawled back to the vehicle. The driver then took her to the treatment facility in Port Angeles.

Detectives found Salihi in Everett in February, and with a search warrant, took two swabs of DNA from his mouth and sent the samples to the Washington State Patrol crime lab.

Results from the crime lab noted that the DNA profile from Salihi’s samples, the results showed it was
3.2 nonillion (30 zeros) times more likely the DNA sample came from Salihi and the victim than the victim and a person picked at random from the U.S. population.

During an earlier court appearance, prosecutors claimed Salihi knew the GPS in his vehicle was not working on the day of the assault. The defendant has also allegedly told law enforcement that there had been a complaint at the transportation company he had been working for in Everett and he had found work as an Uber driver.

Salihi’s lawyer has told the court Salihi was no longer working for Uber but instead had a cleaning job.

Salihi was initially held in Jefferson County Jail but was released following bail of $50,000. He was also ordered by the court to surrender his passport and to not take employment with Uber, Lyft, or any other transportation company.