CHICAGO (WBBM) – Two Chicago-area college students are being held in a Danish prison after an Uber ride went wrong. Their parents are doing what they can to free them but keep running into legal roadblocks.
Sara Buchen-Ray had four hours until she was supposed to pick up her 20-year-old son, Owen Ray, from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on March 31 when she got a text message.
“At approximately 6 a.m. in the morning, I got a text from a foreign number saying, ‘Mom, I’m in prison in Copenhagen,‘” Buchen-Ray said.
Now, Buchen-Ray is in an Airbnb in Copenhagen, Denmark, doing anything she can to get her son out of the prison where he’s been held for nearly two weeks.
Ray, a student at Miami University in Ohio, and a friend were visiting friends for spring break in Denmark. Their parents said they got in an Uber, realized they put in the wrong address and asked to get out.
“The Uber driver circled back around and found them walking and started yelling at them,” Buchen-Ray said.
Buchen-Ray says this is according to video played in a Danish court hearing this week. The Uber driver accused Ray and his friend of not paying for the ride, but receipts show they did.
“The Uber driver first says he’s going to call the police, and you can hear them saying, ‘We’ve done nothing wrong. Call the police,‘” Buchen-Ray said.
Six hours later, while Ray and his friend were at the airport, waiting at the gates to board their planes home, they were arrested by the Danish police, according to Jordan Finfer, Buchen-Ray’s attorney in Chicago.
Ray has not been charged or convicted, but Finfer says he was detained due to “flight risk.”
“Owen is still detained, is likely to be detained through the end of the month. He’s never been charged,” Finfer said.
Buchen-Ray says at the prison where her son is being held, they are locked up 23 hours per day. She says she gets to speak on the phone with Ray one day per week and visit him one day per week.
Now, they are waiting for a trial that should take place this month, but it’s the years to come that Ray’s mother is most worried about.
“There are going to be ramifications from this. When you’re locked in a jail cell for 23 hours a day, you can’t come out without nothing,” Buchen-Ray said.
While the trial should take place this month, there is a five-day court holiday for Easter, which could push it back.
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