Uber driver pleads guilty in Boulder sex assault case

Mar. 20—An Uber driver accused of sexually assaulting a woman he drove home in 2019 has taken a plea deal in his case.

Mark Saunders, 42, pleaded guilty on March 8 to unlawful sexual contact and second-degree assault.

Boulder County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Amber Carrion said Saunders stipulated to a sexual factual basis on both counts.

Prosecutors dismissed a charge of sexual assault as a condition of the plea.

Saunders had originally pleaded not guilty in the case and was set for trial in April, but that court date was canceled as a result of the plea.

Attorneys agreed Saunders will serve 10 years of sex offender intensive supervised probation on the assault charge, with prosecutors agreeing not to object to early termination if he completes all requirements and is compliant.

The sentence on the unlawful sexual contact charge, a misdemeanor, is open to a judge.

"The DA's Office consulted with the victim about the disposition," Carrion said in a statement. "Because of her courage in reporting the incident and the outstanding work by the Boulder Police Department, the defendant will be held responsible for his actions."

Saunders, who remains out of custody on a $1,000 cash bond, is set for sentencing on April 30.

According to an arrest affidavit, a woman called Boulder police on Feb. 15, 2019, and said she believed she had been sexually assaulted. The woman told police she had been out drinking with a friend the previous night before calling an Uber driver — later identified by phone records as Saunders — to pick her up.

The woman said she did not remember most of the night except for flashes of Saunders being on top of her. She then woke up the next morning wearing only a T-shirt, and also told police her tampon had been removed.

Police took the woman to get a sexual assault examination, which found the presence of male DNA that matched a sample Saunders had given to police in Florida after his arrest there in a case that was later dismissed.

The woman's roommate told police he remembers the woman came into his room that night "very out of it," and talking about a man in her room. When the roommate went out, he saw a man matching Saunders' description in the home.

Phone records show Saunders was the Uber driver assigned to the woman, and she also had a text from his number.

In subsequent text messages between the woman and Saunders monitored by police, Saunders said the woman invited him in but they didn't "have intercourse or anything. We just made out and you got naked." Saunders also wrote he realized the woman was intoxicated, "but I didn't realize you were that intoxicated."