dashcam

A former Taco Bell executive by the name of Benjamin Golden who was fired after a video of him went viral assaulting an Uber driver, has now filed a lawsuit for $5 million against the transportation company. This bizarre case was a response to the $25,000 lawsuit filed by the Uber driver, Edward Caban, who is shown in a dashcam video being slapped and hit by Golden, last year.

Last October, Mr. Golden allegedly got into an Uber driven by Mr. Caban, in Costa Mesa, California. He was ordered out of Caban’s vehicle for being too inebriated to give directions. The dashcam video from Caban’s car shows Mr. Golden getting angry, and then beginning to strike Caban from the back seat and slamming his head against a window. Mr. Caban used pepper spray to fend Mr. Golden off, and subsequently posted the footage online. It later went viral, and Mr. Golden was terminated by Taco Bell.

Golden has been charged with assault and battery by the Orange County District Attorney. Golden has pleaded not guilty, and decided to file a counter-suit, claiming that he “fear[ed] for his safety and well-being” after being ejected from the vehicle and has “suffered severe emotional distress, humiliation, anxiety, fear, pain and suffering and the loss of his job.” Mr. Golden claims that Mr. Caban did not have a right to record him, and he is claiming “invasion of privacy, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault and battery.”