Traffic & Transit
Uber Driver Banned For Booting Lesbian Couple Sues City
Cabbie Ahmad El Boutary wants his license back and unspecified damages after the city wrongly revoked his license, his lawyer says.
EAST VILLAGE, NY — The Uber driver who was suspended after he kicked a kissing lesbian couple out of his cab is suing the city for wrongly revoking his livery license after the fiasco, his lawyer told Patch.
Cabbie Ahmad El Boutary, 36, wants his license back and unspecified damages from the Taxi and Limousine Commission after he says the agency suddenly yanked his certification over the June 9 incident and launched its investigation based on news reports, according to his Brooklyn Federal court lawsuit and his lawyer.
“There was never any allegation that would permit the suspension of his license,” said Daniel Ackman, El Boutary’s lawyer.
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A viral video of the incident shows the driver urging couple Alex Iovine, 26, and Emma Pitchel, 24, to leave his car after kissing in the back seat. The pair was traveling from a bar in Gowanus to the East Village and claimed they shared a "peck" on the lips that sent the cabbie into a homophobic rage, but El Boutary says he ejected the women because they were violating Uber's rules by getting hot and heavy.
Two days later, the Taxi and Limousine Commission – which misspells the driver's name as “El Boutari” in its records – suspended his taxi license over the alleged discrimination. An administrative law judge recently recommended he get his license back, but the commission says it is still reviewing the decision.
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In the meantime, the father of two's license remains suspended.
El Boutary also says that the commission falsely accused him of grabbing Pichl's arm and yelling at the women, according to the legal filing. In her recent ruling, judge Joycelyn McGeachy-Kuls found the couple's story inconsistent after Iovine testified that El Boutary was yelling and had grabbed Pichl's arm, but later acknowledged that he did not raise his voice and did not grab her girlfriend's arm.
The city plans to review the suit and it will ultimately fall to the Taxi and Limousine Commission on wether El Boutary gets his taxi license back.
Photo courtesy of Youtube
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