A Montgomery County Uber driver has been charged with raping a Villanova University student last month after dropping her off on campus.
Mirvan Dinler, 26, of the 200 block of Washington Court in Trappe, is charged with two counts each of rape, indecent assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, as well as one count each of sexual assault and reckless endangerment.
According to an affidavit of probable cause written by Delaware County Detective James Simpkins and Radnor Detective Jonathan Jagodinski:
The alleged victim, 21, reported Sept. 20 that she had been raped in a residence hall of the university in Radnor Township.
Simpkins and fellow county Detective Nicci Young met with the alleged victim Tuesday, who reported that she had five alcoholic drinks on an empty stomach before going out to celebrate her friend’s birthday. She said she does not usually drink and began to feel ill on the ride to a Philadelphia nightclub.
The alleged victim decided not to go inside the club and her friends waited with her for an Uber to arrive and take her back to the university.
She provided a receipt of the ride being placed at 10:14 p.m. on Sept. 13 and that she was picked up by “Mirvan” at approximately 10:19 p.m. on the 900 block of North Watts Street. The receipt indicates the ride ended at 11:08 p.m. at Villanova.
Detectives determined a license plate number for the vehicle provided on the receipt was registered to Dinler.
The alleged victim said that after arriving on campus, the Uber driver followed her to her residence in Hovnanian Hall, where he entered her room and raped her. She described the assault as penile penetration as well as forcing her to perform oral sex on him.
“(She) said all she could remember was she woke up in her bed and he was on top of her, and she was completely naked,” the affidavit reads. “She said he had vaginal intercourse with her without a condom. He grabbed her head and forced it down, at which time he placed his penis in her mouth.”
The woman said she remembered him taking off her shirt, but only her shirt. She noticed that her clothes were all over the room and said she would not have taken them all off herself.
At one point he left, but returned a short time later and was banging on her door. She said she asked a resident assistant to tell him to go away. She then handed the driver her cellphone through a crack in the door and he used Venmo to transfer $150 to “Siyamend Ilhan,” after which he left the residence.
The next day, the alleged victim said a “Siyamend Ilhan” was following her on Instagram.
Detectives reviewed campus security footage that showed the woman being escorted toward Hovnanian Hall by a man at 11:09 to 11:10 p.m. that night. The alleged victim’s access card was used at 11:10 p.m. to enter the hall, and then two minutes later used to access her room. The woman identified the man in the video as her assailant.
Investigators were able to match images of that man to a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation photograph for Dinler.
Detectives also spoke to the resident assistant, who reported encountering a man outside the alleged victim’s room between 12:08 and 12:09 a.m. Sept. 14. The man indicated he was an Uber driver and wanted to collect a fee from his fare after she left a mess in the back of his vehicle.
The witness said she helped make contact with the alleged victim and that some sort of transaction took place over Venmo, after which the alleged victim asked the RA to make the Uber driver leave. The man did leave after the transaction was complete, the witness said.
Another witness with the same first name as the alleged victim, who lives on the same floor, said she was awakened by someone banging and shouting her name that night. She said she looked in the hall and saw a man.
Both witnesses identified Dinler from photo arrays as the man they had seen that night.
Radnor Township police were also able to capture a Toyota Prius with a license plate matching that on record for Dinler traveling east on Lansdale Avenue toward the campus at 11:03 p.m. on Sept. 13, and heading west on Lancaster, away from the campus at 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 14.
Detectives reached out to Pennsylvania State Police at the Skippack station. Troopers were able to locate the Prius outside a townhouse on Washington Court in Trappe on Tuesday.
Dinler was arraigned Friday morning before Magisterial District Judge George Dawson, who set bail at 10% of $250,000. He was remanded to the Delaware County jail in Concord after failing to post bail and is awaiting a preliminary hearing Oct. 17 before Magisterial District Judge Sloan Walker.
No defense attorney is listed on electronic court records.
