A 24-year-old woman logged onto a videoconference from her bedroom in Florida on a Friday morning in April 2025 to face a deposition in her lawsuit against Uber.

2025年4月一个周五上午，一名24岁的女子在佛罗里达州的卧室里登录视频会议，就她对优步(Uber)提起的诉讼接受庭外证词询问。

Her driver had already pleaded guilty in criminal court to raping her vaginally, anally and orally while she was unconscious during a ride in Tampa one night in 2021. He was in prison, serving a 10-year sentence. The woman, identified as Jane Doe in court documents, was suing Uber in civil court for negligence, arguing that the company should have done more to screen and supervise the driver, a man with prior violent felony convictions.

接载她的司机此前已在刑事法庭认罪，承认在2021年某晚坦帕市的载客行程中对她进行了阴道、肛门和口腔强奸，当时她失去了意识。他目前正在监狱服刑，刑期为10年。这名在法庭文件中被称为“无名氏(Jane Doe)”的女子在民事法庭以疏忽为由起诉优步，主张该公司本应采取更多措施来审查和监督这名司机——该男子此前曾因暴力重罪被定罪。

Publicly, Uber proclaims itself to be a company devoted to handling sexual violence in a “survivor-centric” and “trauma-informed” way, supporting survivors and treating them with dignity. After years of fielding reports of sexual misconduct, the company developed instructional videos for drivers that stated, “Sexual violence is never the survivor’s fault.”

优步公开宣称，该公司致力于以“以幸存者为中心”和“基于创伤认知”的方式处理性暴力，支持幸存者并尊重她们的尊严。在处理了多年的性不当行为报告后，该公司为司机制作了指导视频，其中声明：“性暴力绝非幸存者的过错。”

But in court filings, Uber argued that Ms. Doe had “conducted herself in a negligent and careless manner” and “contributed to causing her own injuries.” And it said Ms. Doe’s claims of pain and suffering were “unrelated to the at-issue accident.”

但在法庭文件中，优步辩称，无名氏女士“行为疏忽大意”，并且“促成了自己受到的伤害”。该公司还表示，无名氏女士关于疼痛和痛苦的主张“与本案所涉事故无关”。

Now, during her deposition, Uber’s lawyer Taylor Silverberg zeroed in on Ms. Doe’s behavior on the night she was raped. Ms. Silverberg asked Ms. Doe exactly how much Tito’s vodka she had drunk, how many milligrams of Adderall she had taken and whether she had “felt regret” about mixing the two. And she asked Ms. Doe what she had been wearing. “Can you describe the dress?” Ms. Silverberg said. “Were you wearing heels or boots or flats?”

在无名氏女士的证词陈述过程中，优步的律师泰勒·西尔弗伯格将矛头对准她在被强奸当晚的行为。西尔弗伯格询问无名氏女士究竟喝了多少蒂托伏特加，服用了多少毫克的处方药阿德拉，以及她是否对混合使用这两种物质“感到后悔”。她还询问无名氏女士当时的穿着。“你能描述一下那条裙子吗？”西尔弗伯格说。“你当时穿的是高跟鞋、靴子还是平底鞋？”

Ms. Silverberg also probed Ms. Doe’s childhood, asking if she had felt abandoned by her father or degraded by her mother.

西尔弗伯格还盘问无名氏女士的童年，询问她是否曾感到被父亲抛弃，或者被母亲贬低。

She pushed Ms. Doe for details about consensual sex and asked whether she had previously been sexually abused or had sex in exchange for money. That is when her lawyer ended the deposition.

她逼问无名氏女士有关双方自愿性行为的细节，并询问她以前是否曾遭到性虐待，或者是否或曾以性行为换取金钱。就在那时，无名氏女士的律师终止了此次证词陈述。

“I am not anywhere near done,” Ms. Silverberg protested. “It’s her lawsuit, and I have an obligation to defend my client to the best of my ability,” she added.

“我还远没问完，”西尔弗伯格抗议道。“这是她的诉讼，我有义务尽我所能为我的客户辩护，”她还说。

Later, she offered an apology: “I know this is hard for you, Ms. Doe. I am sorry. I really am. But ——”

后来，她道了歉：“我知道这对你来说很难，无名氏女士。我很抱歉。我是真心的。但是——”

“I’m grateful it is ending,” Ms. Doe said, interrupting. “This kills me,” she added.

“我很庆幸要结束了，”无名氏女士打断了她的话。“这简直要了我的命，”她还说。

Uber’s approach in Ms. Doe’s case is part of its defense strategy as it battles thousands of lawsuits from passengers accusing the company of failing to protect them from sexual violence they said they had suffered during rides, according to thousands of pages of court records, including deposition and trial transcripts.

根据页数以千计的法庭记录（包括证人陈述和审判记录），优步在无名氏女士案件中的做法是其辩护策略的一部分。这家公司正面临来自数千乘客的诉讼，这些诉讼指控优步未能保护她们在乘车期间免受性暴力。

More than 4,000 lawsuits have been filed, so many that thousands were combined to streamline procedural matters. Most remain in the early stages. The New York Times reviewed documents from the three cases that reached trial and about a dozen others that have advanced to the stage when the parties start exchanging documents and conducting depositions.

目前已有超过4000起诉讼被提起，由于数量庞大，数千起案件被合并审理以简化程序。大多数案件仍处于早期阶段。《纽约时报》查阅了进入庭审阶段的三起案件，以及约十几起已经推进到双方开始交换文件和进入取证阶段的案件记录。

The litigation has revealed a clear pattern: Uber’s lawyers scour women’s private communications, medical records, therapy notes and other sources for sensitive details, including other sexual assaults, childhood abuse and domestic violence. They grill the women about those issues, their sex lives and their behavior on the night of the incident.

这些诉讼揭示了一个清晰的模式：优步的律师会仔细翻查这些女性的私人通信、医疗记录、心理治疗记录及其他来源，以寻找敏感细节，包括其他性侵事件、童年受虐和家庭暴力的经历。他们会对这些女性就上述问题、她们的性生活以及事发当晚的行为进行严厉盘问。

In one case, Uber petitioned a judge to force a woman to turn over details about sexual abuse she experienced as a child by a family member and family friend. In another, Uber compelled a woman to undergo a psychiatric exam to investigate other sexual assaults she had reported. And in another, a lawyer for Uber asked a woman whether she had been wearing underwear on the night in question and if she had become “extra sexually active” after the Uber incident.

在一个案件中，优步向法官申请，要求强制一名女性提供她童年时期遭家庭成员及家庭友人性虐待的详细情况。在另一起案件中，优步强迫一名女子接受精神检查，以调查她曾报告的其他性侵事件。在另一案件中，优步的一名律师询问一名女子在案发当晚是否穿了内衣，以及在优步事件之后，她是否变得“性生活特别活跃”。

At trial, the company has put a spotlight on the women, their choices and their credibility. Uber’s lawyers have argued that the women’s past traumas or use of drugs or alcohol made them unreliable narrators. They have suggested that the women consented to the encounters, or that they never happened. And they have asserted that even if an assault occurred, something else was the true cause of her pain.

在庭审中，该公司将焦点放在了这些女性身上，审视她们的选择和可信度。优步的律师辩称，过去的创伤或使用毒品和酒精令她们成为了不可靠的叙述者。他们暗示这些女性同意了性接触，或者指控的事件根本没有发生过。他们还断言，即使发生了性侵，导致她痛苦的真正原因也是其他事情。

Uber’s strategy contradicts its own stance as a champion in the fight against sexual violence and reflects the business calculations of a $145 billion publicly traded company facing an avalanche of litigation.

优步的这一策略与其打击性暴力倡导者的立场相悖，反映出这家市值1450亿美元的上市公司在面临铺天盖地的诉讼时所做的商业考量。

Uber has long said it treats all survivors with respect and compassion, including when they sue. The company has struck partnerships with leading anti-sexual assault groups, and it has committed more than $15 million to organizations fighting gender-based violence.

优步长期以来一直表示，无论受害者是否提起诉讼，公司都会以尊重和同情的心态对待所有幸存者。该公司已与多家领先的反性侵团体建立了合作伙伴关系，并承诺向打击性别暴力的组织提供超过1500万美元的资金。

And a training guide for Uber’s customer service agents who handled reports of sexual violence instructed them to “recognize and interrupt victim blaming attitudes,” stating that people rarely lie about sexual assault and that victims do not provoke attacks by what they wore or how much they drank, according to a copy.

此外，一份用于培训处理性暴力报告的优步客服人员指南要求他们“识别并制止受害者有罪论的态度”，并指出人们很少就性侵问题撒谎，受害者也不会因穿着或饮酒量而招致袭击。

“I’ll be the first to say that our adversarial legal system can be particularly tough for survivors,” Uber’s chief legal officer, Tony West, said in a statement.

“我会第一个承认，我们的对抗性法律体系对幸存者来说尤为残酷，”优步首席法务官托尼·韦斯特在声明中说。

“I’ve made clear to my legal team that they must always treat survivors with respect, compassion, courtesy and dignity, and that’s exactly what I’ve seen them do,” he added. “Defending the company in a lawsuit and treating survivors with humanity are not mutually exclusive; we must do both.” Mr. West declined to be interviewed.

“我已经向我的法律团队明确表示，他们必须始终以尊重、同情、礼貌和尊严的态度对待幸存者，而我看到他们确实做到了这一点，”他还说。“在诉讼中为公司辩护，这同以人道态度对待幸存者并不相互排斥；我们必须二者兼顾。”韦斯特拒绝接受采访。

Katie Waitzman, Uber’s chief deputy general counsel, said in a statement that Uber had a “right and responsibility” to defend itself against lawsuits, which vary widely in severity and validity and included about 30 cases dismissed for fraud.

优步首席副总法律顾问凯蒂·怀茨曼在一份声明中表示，优步有“权利和责任”在面临诉讼时为自己辩护，这些诉讼在严重程度及合理性方面差异巨大，其中包括约30起因欺诈而被驳回的案件。

In multiple statements, lawyers for Uber said their questions about women’s past trauma as well as what they were wearing, drinking or how they acted had been intended to gather and evaluate specific facts — not to blame, shame or suggest they had done anything wrong. Ms. Silverberg acted “with skilled, ethical and professional representation consistent with the law,” her law firm, Bowman and Brooke, said.

在多份声明中，优步的律师表示，他们就女性过去的创伤经历、着装、饮酒情况或行为举止提出的问题旨在收集和评估具体事实，而不是为了指责、羞辱或暗示她们做错了什么。西尔弗伯格的律师事务所鲍曼与布鲁克表示，她的代理工作“专业、合乎伦理且技巧娴熟，完全符合法律规定”。

The Times previously found that Uber received a report of sexual violence in the United States almost every eight minutes, on average, from 2017 to 2022, a rate far higher than what the company had disclosed. Uber maintains that a vast majority of rides are safe, with 99.9 percent occurring without an incident of any kind.

《纽约时报》此前调查发现，从2017年到2022年，优步平均每八分钟就会收到一起发生在美国境内的性暴力报告，这一比率远高于该公司所披露的数字。优步坚称绝大多数行程都是安全的，99.9%的行程没有发生任何类型的事故。

Legal and sexual violence experts said Uber’s tactics go beyond simple fact-gathering and force the women to relive not just the incident in question but also the most painful moments of their lives. This is likely to re-traumatize the women, they said, and intimidate many into settling their claims, or to avoid suing the company at all.

法律和性暴力专家表示，优步的做法已经超过了简单的事实收集范畴，迫使这些女性不仅要重温涉案事件，还要重温她们生命中最痛苦的时刻。他们说，这可能会让这些女性再次受到创伤，并威慑其中许多人去选择和解，或者干脆放弃起诉该公司。

The approach also has “a deep irony at its core,” because the company has long marketed itself as one of the safest ways to get around — especially after a night out, said Nora Freeman Engstrom, a legal ethics professor at Stanford Law School.

斯坦福大学法学院法律伦理学教授诺拉·弗里曼·恩格斯特罗姆表示，这种做法“在本质上具有深刻的讽刺意味”，因为该公司长期以来一直将自己营销为最安全的出行方式之一——尤其是在晚上外出。

“Uber’s strategy recycles an old and ugly script: If a woman drank, if she rode alone, if it was late, if her memory is imperfect, then maybe she is to blame,” Ms. Engstrom said. “But those are precisely the circumstances when Uber told consumers its service was supposed to protect them.”

“优步的策略是在重复一个古老而丑陋的剧本：如果一个女人喝了酒，如果她独自乘车，如果时间很晚，如果她的记忆不完美，那么也许错就在她，”恩格斯特罗姆说。“但这些恰恰是优步曾向消费者承诺该公司的服务本应保护她们的情况。”

For decades, defense lawyers routinely questioned sexual assault accusers about their sex lives, mental health and alcohol consumption to characterize them as promiscuous and unstable. That started to change in the 1970s, as state and federal lawmakers began passing rape shield laws that restricted evidence about an accuser’s sexual history at trial.

几十年来，辩护律师经常对性侵指控者的性生活、心理健康和饮酒情况进行盘问，将她们塑造成滥交和情绪不稳定的人。这种情况在20世纪70年代开始发生改变，当时州和联邦立法者开始通过“强奸盾牌法”，限制在审判中提交有关指控者性史的证据。

The lawsuits against Uber are civil disputes, seeking to hold the company accountable for corporate safety issues.

针对优步的诉讼属于民事纠纷，旨在追究该公司在企业安全问题上的责任。

While some involve drivers who were criminally convicted, many do not. Criminal cases require prosecutors to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, which can be difficult with sexual assault cases when defendants argue the encounter was consensual. The standard of proof in civil court is lower, requiring juries find that the plaintiff’s claim is more likely true than not.

虽然一些案件涉及被刑事定罪的司机，但许多案件并非如此。刑事案件要求检察官在排除合理怀疑的情况下证明有罪，如果被告辩称双方属于自愿，要证明有罪往往较为困难。民事法庭的举证标准较低，只要求陪审团认为原告的主张“更有可能属实”即可。

Most of the women suing Uber are seeking compensation for pain and suffering, which means that a key legal question is how much the incident caused their distress compared with other events in their lives. That line of inquiry is common in personal injury cases. In the Uber suits, it has opened the door to an expansive investigation into past trauma, including sexual assault.

大多数起诉优步的女性都在寻求对精神损害的赔偿，这意味着一个关键的法律问题在于：与生活中的其他事件相比，该事件在多大程度上导致了她们的痛苦。这种调查思路在人身伤害案件中很常见。但在针对优步的诉讼中，它为广泛调查过去的创伤（包括性侵）打开了大门。

‘Turning the Lights On’

“打开灯”

When Mr. West joined Uber as chief legal officer in 2017, the company was plagued by scandal, including for how it dealt with sexual violence. One case involving a rape by a driver in India made global headlines after revelations that executives had obtained and mishandled the victim’s medical records, thinking the assault may have been a conspiracy hatched by a rival.

2017年韦斯特加入优步担任首席法务官时，公司正饱受丑闻困扰，包括其处理性暴力的方式。印度发生的一起司机强奸案登上了全球新闻，此前有消息爆出，优步高管获取并滥用了受害者的医疗记录，因为他们认为这起袭击可能是竞争对手策划的阴谋。

Mr. West, a former Justice Department official and brother-in-law of Kamala Harris, painted himself as a champion of women who had fought sex crimes as a federal prosecutor and worked on legislation aimed at protecting women from violence.

韦斯特曾是美国司法部官员，也是卡玛拉·哈里斯的妹夫。他将自己塑造成女性权利的拥护者，曾作为联邦检察官打击性犯罪，并参与旨在保护女性免受暴力侵害的立法工作。

The same month that Mr. West started at Uber, in November, two passengers sued the company, claiming they were raped by their drivers. Uber tried to force the claims into arbitration.

就在韦斯特入职优步的同一个月（即11月），两名乘客起诉了该公司，声称她们被司机强奸。优步试图迫使这些索赔进入强制仲裁程序。

Several more women joined the suit, and in April 2018, they wrote an open letter, pleading that the company allow them to sue in open court. It was the height of #MeToo, and the use of forced arbitration in sexual misconduct cases was a central issue, with critics decrying it as a tool to silence victims and protect abusers.

随后又有几名女性加入了诉讼。2018年4月，她们写了一封公开信，恳求该公司允许她们在公开法庭上提起诉讼。当时“#我也是”(#MeToo)运动正值高潮，而在性行为不端案件中使用强制仲裁是一个核心问题，批评者谴责它是压制受害者和保护施暴者的工具。

The next month, in a blog post titled “Turning the Lights On,” Mr. West said Uber would no longer require arbitration for individual sexual assault or misconduct claims.

次月，在一篇题为“打开灯”的博客文章中，韦斯特表示，优步将不再要求对个人的性侵或性行为不端索赔进行强制仲裁。

“We always want to try to resolve these, these claims in a way that is best for the survivor,” Mr. West told “CBS This Morning” in 2018. “If you can’t do that then we want to make sure that we try to litigate these as fairly as possible,” he added.

“我们始终希望尝试以对幸存者最有利的方式来解决这些索赔，”韦斯特在2018年接受《CBS今晨》采访时说。“如果做不到这一点，那么我们希望确保尽量以最公平的方式对其进行诉讼，”他补充说。

For years, Uber settled sexual assault lawsuits long before trial. Some executives worried that the company could be perceived as attacking victims if it fought lawsuits in court, according to three people briefed on the conversations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

多年来，优步总是在庭审前早早达成性侵诉讼和解。据三名了解对话情况的知情人士透露，一些高管担心，如果在法庭上打官司，该公司可能会被视为在攻击受害者。由于未获授权公开置评，这些人士要求匿名。

But it soon became clear that the move to end forced arbitration had unleashed a wave of lawsuits. Litigation costs mounted as cases increased, the people said. That coincided with a collapse of revenues during the Covid-19 pandemic.

但情况很快变得明朗：终止强制仲裁的举动引发了一波诉讼浪潮。知情人士称，随着案件的增加，诉讼费用不断攀升。而这恰逢新冠疫情期间公司收入暴跌。

Internal discussions shifted: Uber could save millions of dollars if it fought back, the people said.

内部讨论发生了转变：知情人士称，如果优步予以反击，它可以节省数百万美元。

The company did not respond to questions about when or how the strategy changed.

公司没有回应有关这一策略是在何时以及如何改变的提问。

2018年，托尼·韦斯特在优步总部。加入该公司数月后，韦斯特宣布，公司将不再要求对个人提出的性侵或性不当行为索赔进行仲裁。

Sex, Drugs and Trauma

性、毒品与创伤

Uber’s defense kicks into gear long before a case goes to trial. The company uses the discovery process to delve into the plaintiff’s most painful moments.

优步的辩护在案件进入庭审前很早就启动了。该公司会利用证据开示程序深入挖掘原告最痛苦的时刻。

Uber has sought documents about past sexual assault, medical records about diagnoses in the five years before the incident, as well as anything that detailed instances of depression, anxiety or trauma. It also has asked for social media communications related to the women’s mental or emotional state.

优步一直在寻求有关过去性侵犯的文件、案发前五年内的诊断病历，以及任何详细记录抑郁、焦虑或创伤情况的文件。该公司还要求提供与这些女性心理或情绪状态相关的社交媒体通信记录。

In one case, Uber combed through years of a woman’s gynecological records, psychiatric intake forms, therapy notes and other documents, finding references to her birth control, heavy menstrual periods and bowel movements — as well as to childhood abuse, concussions, suicide attempts and other sexual assaults.

在一起案件中，优步梳理了一名女子多年的妇科记录、精神科接诊单、心理治疗记录及其他文件，从中发现了关于她使用避孕药具、月经过多和排便情况的记录——还有她遭受童年虐待、脑震荡、自杀未遂和其他性侵的记录。

Depositions allow the company to investigate these issues further.

取证程序使得公司能够进一步调查这些问题。

“Other than the deaths of your four family members that we spoke about earlier, was there any other traumatic event that happened to you in high school?” a lawyer for Uber asked one woman.

“除了我们刚才谈到的你四位家人的离世之外，你在高中时还发生过其他创伤性事件吗？”优步的一名律师问一位女性。

“When you say you ended up with a black eye — and I’m sorry, this is unfortunately questions I have to ask — are you saying,” a lawyer for Uber asked one woman about her spouse, that he “hit you in the eye?”

在询问一位女性关于她配偶的情况时，优步的一名律师问道：“当你说你最终被打青了眼睛——很抱歉，这是我不得不问的问题——你的意思是，他打你的眼睛了吗？”

Uber also has deposed the women’s friends, parents, spouses, exes and therapists, according to transcripts reviewed by The Times.

根据《纽约时报》查阅的记录，优步还对这些女性的朋友、父母、配偶、前任和心理治疗师进行了取证。

During some of those depositions, Uber’s lawyers have revealed sensitive information. In one, a woman’s father, from whom she is estranged, learned that she had been sexually abused as a child and had an abortion, her lawyer said in court filings.

在其中一些取证过程中，优步的律师泄露了敏感信息。一份法庭文件显示，在一起案件中，一名女子已经疏远的父亲因此得知了她童年时曾受到性虐待并进行过堕胎。

“What discovery in these cases entails is brutal for someone who is contemplating coming forward, especially against a defendant with resources and lawyers who will comb through everything, ask for everything,” said Deborah Tuerkheimer, a law professor at Northwestern University who focuses on sexual violence.

“对于那些正在考虑站出来的人来说，这些案件中证据开示所包含的内容是残酷的，尤其是在面对一个拥有丰富资源、其律师会梳理一切、索要一切的被告时，”西北大学专注于性暴力研究的法学教授德博拉·特克海默说。

Ms. Waitzman, Uber’s chief deputy general counsel, said that it was “standard practice” to dig into pre-existing trauma. “When plaintiffs claim damages for emotional injuries, and assign 100 percent of those injuries to the Uber-related incident despite evidence to the contrary, we have to pursue that line of inquiry, albeit reluctantly,” she said.

优步的首席副法务怀茨曼表示，深挖既有创伤是“标准做法”。“当原告索赔精神伤害，并在有相反证据的情况下仍将100%的伤害归咎于优步相关事件时，我们就不得不跟进这种调查，尽管我们并不情愿，”她说。

On Trial

庭审风波

Uber tested out its defense in front of jurors during the first three sexual assault lawsuits that went to trial.

在前三起进入庭审的性侵诉讼中，优步在陪审团面前测试了它的这一辩护策略。

In all three, Uber sought to include evidence about other sexual assaults the women had reported. Judges limited how much could be discussed, to varying degrees.

在这三起案件中，优步都试图引入有关这些女性曾报告过的其他性侵事件的证据。法官对可以讨论的范围进行了不同程度的限制。

The first, in California last September, involved a woman identified as Jessica C. who testified that during a ride in 2016 her driver pinned her down, kissed her, groped her and tried to take off her pants.

第一起案件于去年9月在加利福尼亚州审理，涉及一名名叫杰西卡·C的女性。她作证称，在2016年的一次乘车过程中，她的司机把她按倒、亲吻她、对她进行猥亵，并试图脱下她的裤子。

Alli Brown, a lawyer representing Uber, put a spotlight on Jessica’s choices, including that she did not report the incident to Uber at the time. Ms. Brown also excavated painful moments from Jessica’s past, detailing childhood abuse, suicide attempts and other trauma.

代表优步的律师阿莉·布朗将焦点放在了杰西卡的选择上，包括她当时没有向优步报告这一事件。布朗还挖掘了杰西卡过去痛苦的时刻，详细列举了她遭受童年虐待、自杀未遂和其他创伤的情况。

“Having a history of trauma like that can affect the way you perceive the world,” Ms. Brown told jurors during closing arguments, citing testimony from Jessica’s psychiatrist.

“有这样的创伤史会影响你看待世界的方式，”布朗在结案陈词中引用杰西卡的精神科医生的证词对陪审团说。

The second trial started in Arizona in January. Jaylynn Dean testified that her driver raped her during a ride in November 2023, while she was “dozing in and out of consciousness.”

第二场审判于今年1月在亚利桑那州开始。杰琳·迪恩作证称，在2023年11月的一次乘车过程中，她“在半睡半醒、意识不清”的状态下被司机强奸。

Kim Bueno, another lawyer representing Uber, called attention to the driver’s side of the story, telling the jury that “in his heart” he believed that the encounter was consensual.

另一位代表优步的律师金·布埃诺呼吁大家注意司机的说法，她告诉陪审团，他“在内心深处”相信这一接触是双方自愿的。

“He said she was wanting to do it and was encouraging this situation,” she said.

“他说她是自愿的，而且是她在鼓励这件事的发生，”她说。

Ms. Bueno challenged Ms. Dean’s claims that she had been too intoxicated to consent to sex, arguing that Ms. Dean appeared “lucid” in video footage shortly after the ride. In graphic detail, she went through Ms. Dean’s history of sexual assault and other traumas.

布埃诺对迪恩声称自己因醉酒而无法表达性同意的说法提出质疑，认为迪恩在行程后不久的视频画面中看起来“神志清醒”。她随后以大量露骨细节梳理了迪恩遭受性侵和其他创伤的历史。

Ms. Dean’s lawyers urged jurors to focus on other testimony from the driver, who said during his deposition that Ms. Dean had told him that she was “very drunk” when she entered his car. In his deposition, the driver said that he “had a responsibility to make sure that she is in a right frame of mind to give consent, and I didn’t do that.”

迪恩的律师敦促陪审团关注司机的其他证词。司机在取证时说，迪恩在上车时曾告诉他自己“喝得酩酊大醉”。在取证记录中，该司机表示他“有责任确保她当时处于正常的心智状态以做出同意，但我没有这么做”。

In the third trial, in North Carolina in April, Brianna Mensing testified that her Uber driver grabbed her upper, inner thigh and asked if he could “keep it with him” during a ride in March 2019.

在4月于北卡罗来纳州进行的第三场庭审中，布里安娜·门辛作证称，在2019年3月的一次行程中，她的优步司机抓住了她的大腿内侧上方，并问她能否“把它留着”。

Uber’s lawyer, Ms. Brown, described the allegation as a brief leg touch and said the driver denied it. Ms. Brown focused on Ms. Mensing’s history of substance abuse, saying the ride occurred “during the height of her drug addiction.”

优步的律师布朗将这一指控描述为对腿部的短暂触摸，并表示司机予以否认。布朗将重点放在了门辛的滥用药物史上，称这次行程发生在“她药物成瘾最严重的时期”。

During each trial, lawyers for the women accused Uber of shaming and blaming them.

在每场庭审中，代理这些女性的律师都指责优步对她们进行羞辱，并把责任推给她们。

“What kind of evidence does Uber need to actually believe a woman?” William Smith, a lawyer for Ms. Mensing, said during closing arguments. At trial, Ms. Brown and Ms. Bueno said that they did not intend to shame the women.

“优步到底需要什么样的证据才会真正相信一位女性？”门辛的律师威廉·史密斯在结案陈词中说。在庭审中，布朗和布埃诺均表示，她们无意羞辱这些女性。

Uber won the first case but lost the next two. All are being appealed. After both defeats, a company spokesman said the plaintiff won far less money than she could have. The jury awarded Ms. Dean $8.5 million, for example. She had been seeking $144 million.

优步赢得了第一场诉讼，但随后两场均告败诉，三案目前均在上诉中。两次败诉后，公司发言人均表示，原告实际获赔金额远低于其主张金额。例如，陪审团判给迪恩的赔偿金为850万美元，而她此前的索赔金额高达1.44亿美元。

In an interview, Ms. Dean said that she was proud to hold Uber to account but that its courtroom tactics added trauma — beyond the pain of reliving the Uber incident.

迪恩在接受采访时表示，她很自豪能够让优步为自己的行为承担责任，但优步在法庭上的策略增加了她的创伤——这还不算重提优步事件本身所带来的痛苦。

“Focus was shifted away from the actual assault and on to my choices,” she said. “It just made me feel like coming forward was a mistake.” When she returned home to Oklahoma, she said she needed to take a break from nursing school.

"焦点从真实的侵害行为转移到了我的个人选择上，"她说，"这让我觉得，当初站出来是一个错误。"她说，回到俄克拉荷马家中后，她不得不暂时中断在护理专业的学业。

In a statement, Ms. Bueno and Ms. Brown, partners at the prominent law firm Kirkland & Ellis, said that they have an “ethical and professional obligation” to examine the credibility of each claim.

布埃诺和布朗是知名律所凯易的合伙人。她们在一份声明中表示，她们有“道德和职业义务”去审查每项指控的可信度。

旧金山的优步总部。该公司目前正面临数千起诉讼，被指控未能保护乘客免受性暴力侵害。

“We believe we performed our jobs as defense lawyers, and perhaps more significantly, our responsibility as women lawyers in these trials with a deep regard and appropriate deference not just to the seriousness of the allegations but also the impact of the trial on both these plaintiffs and women more generally,” they said.

“我们相信，我们作为辩护律师履行了自己的职责。也许更重要的是，作为女性律师，在这些庭审中，我们中不仅对指​​控的严重性给予了深切的尊重和应有的审慎，对庭审对原告乃至更广泛的女性群体所产生的影响亦是如此，”她们在声明中表示。

Uber recently agreed to settle hundreds of lawsuits, including some nearing trial.

优步近期已同意就数百起诉讼达成和解，其中包括一些即将开庭的案件。

With others, it continues to fight — even in cases when drivers have been criminally convicted.

对于其他案件，优步则继续抗辩——即使涉事司机已被刑事定罪。

A woman in Texas claims that Uber was negligent after a driver forced her to perform oral sex while driving down the highway. In a criminal trial, a jury found the driver guilty, sentencing him to 11 years in prison. The conviction was affirmed on appeal.

得克萨斯州一名女性声称，一名司机在高速公路上行驶时强迫她为其口交，优步对此存在过失。在刑事审判中，陪审团裁定该司机有罪，判处11年监禁，该判决在上诉后得以维持。

The woman’s lawsuit is scheduled for trial in October. Uber has referred to the assault as an “alleged incident” in court documents. During a hearing in June, a judge asked Uber’s lawyers whether the company would contest that the sexual assault happened.

这名女性提起的民事诉讼定于10月开庭。优步在法庭文件中将这一侵害事件称为“被指控的事件”。今年6月的一次听证会上，法官询问优步的律师，公司是否会对性侵事实本身提出异议。

“We certainly don’t know enough at this stage,” responded Geoffrey Wyatt, a Kirkland & Ellis partner representing Uber. “Having a criminal trial transcript is a nice start to understanding the factual allegations in the case,” he added. “That’s all it is. It’s just a start.”

“我们现阶段当然掌握的信息还不够，”代表优步的凯易律师事务所合伙人杰弗里·怀亚特回答道。“有刑事审判记录，是对了解本案事实指控的一个不错的起点，”他补充道，“但也仅此而已。这只是一个开始。”