Iowa City cab driver charged with sexually assaulting passenger

Charges have been filed against an Iowa City taxi driver Monday after he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman in his cab last week.

According to a criminal complaint, officers responded to a report of an assault between a cab driver and a passenger at 11:50 p.m. Jan. 21. Upon arrival, a woman told officers she entered a taxi in the 300 block of South Gilbert Street and asked to be taken to her residence.

The driver, 36-year-old Jamal B. Younis, allegedly told the woman he had other fares to drop off first and asked if she could wait. The woman agreed and Younis proceeded to drive around, picking up and dropping off fares with the woman in the car for over an hour.

Police said when Younis and the woman were the only ones left in the taxi, Younis put his hand on the woman's knee and started to rub toward her groin area. The woman told police she turned away, but Younis continued to rub up her leg.

Younis later allegedly admitted to police that he will often flirt with female passengers, but it is nothing serious. The woman told officers Younis' actions were “unwanted, unsolicited and offensive.”

Younis was charged with assault with intent to commit sexual abuse without injury, an aggravated misdemeanor. He is being held in the Johnson County Jail on a $6,500 cash only bond.