{"id":216500,"date":"2026-03-12T14:51:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T14:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/216500\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T14:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T14:51:07","slug":"man-posing-as-rideshare-driver-sexually-assaults-intoxicated-passenger-in-orange-county-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/216500\/","title":{"rendered":"Man posing as rideshare driver sexually assaults intoxicated passenger in Orange County, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A man who works as a rideshare driver lured a woman into his vehicle and sexually assaulted her in Newport Beach before abandoning her elsewhere, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p>On Feb. 27, Costa Mesa police officers responded to a hospital about a sexual assault in the 2100 block of Newport Boulevard, according to a <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CostaMesaPD\/posts\/we-are-seeking-to-identify-potential-additional-victims-of-a-man-arrested-for-se\/1365298198970121\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">police department news release<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>During the investigation, police identified the suspect as 43-year-old Ontario resident Felipe Rico-Ceballos, who officials said does work as a rideshare driver but was only posing as one during the assault. Authorities say he told the intoxicated victim that he could help her get home, police said. Rico-Ceballos allegedly drove the woman to another location and sexually assaulted her before dropping her off at a third location. <\/p>\n<p>On Mar. 5, police arrested Rico-Ceballos on suspicion of sexual assault and kidnapping, according to the release. <\/p>\n<p>Investigators are now trying to identify other potential victims. Anyone with information has been asked to contact Costa Mesa police Det. Peralta at (714) 754-5039 or Sergeant Jacobi at (714) 754-5352. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who works as a rideshare driver lured a woman into his vehicle and sexually assaulted her&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,6577,99377,99376,348,25755,5936,1555,611,236,5274,99378,99375,2531,10132,1557],"class_list":["post-216500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-authority","tag-costa-mesa-police-officer","tag-intoxicated-passenger","tag-investigation","tag-kidnapping","tag-location","tag-man","tag-orange-county","tag-police","tag-release","tag-rico-ceballos","tag-rideshare-driver","tag-sexual-assault","tag-suspicion","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}