MARICOPA, AZ — A man is facing charges for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in Maricopa after she got in his vehicle while attempting to order a rideshare home from Mill Avenue in Tempe.
According to court documents, on the morning of January 23, Maricopa police received a call from a woman claiming she had been sexually assaulted by her driver in a parking lot near her home.
The victim identified the driver as a tall, heavy-set man with dark hair who was wearing glasses and a grey hooded sweatshirt.
The woman told detectives she had gone to several bars on Mill Avenue in Tempe the night before and at the end of the night, she got into what she believed was an Uber by herself to go home to Maricopa.
At some point on the way home, documents report that the driver stopped in a parking lot and opened the backseat door where the victim was sitting. She told police he then tried to pull her out but she fought back. Eventually, she stopped fighting because she feared he would hurt her even more and that's when she says she was raped.
According to her Ring doorbell footage, she was dropped off at home just after 5 a.m.
When detectives reviewed her rideshare account, they found she had requested three rides but did not take the requested rides and was charged a cancellation fee for each one. When detectives showed the woman photos of each driver that had been requested, the woman said none of them was her attacker.
She reported she was inebriated and couldn't remember how she came to be in the car with the driver.
When detectives pulled her cellphone location records, they found she had stopped in an area in Maricopa between 4:32 and 4:47 a.m., about 15 minutes before she was dropped off at her residence.
A sexual assault examination was performed on the victim which was then sent to the Arizona Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory for forensic analysis. A search of the database resulted in a suspect being identified as Nathan Whipple.
At that point, the victim was shown a news article from 2014 in which Whipple was reportedly arrested for sexual abuse in Tempe. The victim then reported she was "95% sure" Whipple was the person who raped her.
In March 2014, Whipple was taken into custody after he entered a woman’s home overnight and she awoke to him touching her inappropriately. According to court documents from the incident, he was “playing out a sexual fantasy.” He was booked into jail on a sexual abuse charge.
Previously, in December 2013, Whipple was arrested after he falsely identified himself as a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy to staff members at a hotel, obtaining a master key to the rooms. Gilbert police said he reportedly entered a room and told a woman inside he was hotel security. He was booked into jail after that incident on charges including impersonating an officer.
Following the January 2022 incident, a law enforcement database query for Whipple confirmed his past sexual abuse convictions. His DNA sample was linked to specimens taken from the victim.
When detectives contacted Whipple he said he did not know the victim and did not recall having any interactions with her.
This week, Whipple was arrested and booked into jail on charges of sexual assault and kidnapping.
