Uber must pay NC woman assaulted by driver 7 years ago, federal jury decides
At the end of a trial based almost entirely on testimony, a federal jury believed a North Carolina woman who said her Uber driver assaulted her.
Despite Uber’s efforts to paint Brianna Mensing as an unreliable narrator with substance abuse issues, the jury found her account true. The driver grabbed her upper inner thigh before dropping her off in Franklin County, north of Raleigh, the jury found.
North Carolina law makes Uber responsible for that assault.
Mensing is one of more than 3,500 plaintiffs who filed a civil multidistrict litigation against Uber. U.S. Judge Charles R. Breyer of Northern California presides over all of those cases, and Mensing’s was the second case to go to trial in the United States. At the first trial, an Arizona jury last year found that a driver raped a woman, and awarded her more than $8 million in damages.
Mensing didn’t ask for a specifc amount of money for the one-to-two-second touch that happened just before 2 a.m. on March 26, 2019.
“All she wants is accountability,” William Smith, Mensing’s attorney said in his closing arguments Monday. “All she wants is an apology.”
The jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina awarded Mensing $5,000.
“This is a great result ... Uber comes into court and tries to trash victims, but nine people sitting on the jury believed her,” Smith said in an interview Monday.
Mensing said she felt “good” after the verdict. She declined to be interviewed at the end of the weeklong trial, where she took the stand to testify about the assault and answered questions from Uber’s attorneys.
Uber on trial in Charlotte’s federal court
Uber hinged its defense on Mensing’s reliabilty.
The driver, who was never charged with assault, denied touching Mensing’s leg and told jurors (in a recorded video) that he did not recognize Mensing, Law360 reported.
In March of 2019, attorney Alli Brown said, Mensing was 23 years old and at the height of her drug addiction. Medical records showed Mensing used crack cocaine and heroin, Brown said. She didn’t remember much else about the day before or after the ride, Brown said.
Mensing didn’t deny she struggled with addiction.
“Drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs” — that was Uber’s defense, Smith told the jury.
“Mensing took accountability for every blemish, every flaw,” he said. “Uber isn’t.”
Mensing’s mother and family friend testified that Mensing told them about the assault after it happened. Her best friend and her former boyfriend said they didn’t remember hearing about the assault, even though Mensing told lawyers they would.
Brown also questioned why Mensing did not report the assault to police or Uber. Mensing said she was scared nobody would believe her. Sitting on the witness stand, she told the jury she was still scared of that.
“What does Uber need to actually believe a woman?”
That’s the question Smith posed to the jury — and the one that still hangs over the more than 3,500 cases like Mensing’s.
This is a developing story.
This story was originally published April 20, 2026 at 4:33 PM.
