New Orleans Mayoral Candidate Frank Scurlock — a former Republican now running as a Democrat — has styled himself as something of a Willy Wonka figure throughout his campaign, doffing a purple top hat and running on the slogan “Make New Orleans Fun Again.” But following allegations that he masturbated in the back of a California Uber in February, maybe he’s having too much fun.
Scurlock’s female Uber driver alleges that (somewhere on a Santa Monica highway) she heard sounds of a sexual nature coming from the back seat that prompted her to pull over. There, she says, she found Scurlock in the middle of the act and with his clothing in disarray. She told him to get out of her car, and went inside a nearby gas station to call the police. Scurlock apparently fled the scene, but thanks to the Uber app, it didn’t take the police long to track him down. However, it took seven months for the case to reach court rooms because the crime took place not in a fixed location, but on the move and between police jurisdictions.
Scurlock, for his part, says he has no recollection of being caught pants down in an Uber, or anywhere else. “I have no idea what I’m being charged with. What you just told me is more than I know,” he told the New Orleans Advocate. “Someone made a claim against me that I’ve hired representation out there to defend it but quite frankly I don’t know what it’s about.”
The arraignment date is set for October 16th, two days after the New Orleans mayoral primary. If Scurlock’s convicted, he’ll be a sex offender in the state of California. Ironically enough, Scurlock has been running on a platform that includes “Uberizing” NOLA’s police force. He told Inside New Orleans this summer that he wants to develop an Uber-like app for law enforcement “so when you call for help, you can know where the responding officers are and how soon they’ll get to you.” Considering the timeline of events that has since come to bear, perhaps he got the idea from his own life experiences.
(Via The Advocate, NOLA.com & Inside New Orleans)