A RIDESHARE driver has taken legal action after he was wrongfully arrested for abducting a hospital patient.

C. William Harper II filed a lawsuit against Cincinnati’s Christ Hospital, claiming that a worker incorrectly called 911, accusing him of abducting a patient he was hired to transport.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the lawsuit is filed for defamation, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress, asking $25,000 in damages.

The man, an ordained minister and Lyft driver, said he was hired to drive the patient to Wilmington, Ohio.

En route, he was pulled over by Ohio State Highway Patrol, handcuffed and made to stand in the cold and rain while police verified his information according to his lawsuit.

According to the filing, around 5pm on January 18, a social worker was looking for a driver for a patient through the Lyft app.

Harper declined the ride at first, because of the length, and that was when the social worker offered extra cash outside of the in-app transaction to supplement Harper’s compensation.

As the lawsuit describes it, Harper and the social worker agreed on an additional $20 for the ride, which would be sent to Harper’s daughter’s Cash App, as he did not have the app.

While in transit, Harper reached out to his daughter who said that she never received the $20.

This led the Lyft driver to contact the social worker who directed him to speak with her supervisor.

In the conversation with said supervisor, the lawsuit describes the worker as “immediately belligerent, loud and verbally abusive,” claiming that he was blackmailing and extorting them while also abducting the patient he was driving.

Harper took a moment to cool down before calling the supervisor once more.

That second conversation went similarly to the first as the lawsuit claims the supervisor accused the driver of holding the patient hostage and called him a “kidnapper” before demanding he return the patient to the hospital.

While Harper still wanted his total agreed-upon compensation, he felt bad for the patient and decided to still bring them to their destination as the whole debacle was no fault of theirs.

Meanwhile, the supervisor took it upon themself to call 911 and report Harper.

“The driver was basically, like, trying to exploit us for money. We’re, like, ‘We’re not going to pay you,'” the supervisor said in the call.

“We’re in a situation, we can’t make this guy drop him off and, like, we’re not going to pay him more money,” the supervisor said.

“He’s refusing to bring him back to the hospital.”

Harper claims that he continuously attempted to call the supervisor back to explain, but was unable to connect.

As he pulled off the exit to Wilmington, police pulled him over and made him wait, handcuffed, for nearly 45 minutes, before releasing him.

The lawsuit will be heard in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.

Neither Lyft, Cincinnati’s Christ Hospital or Ohio State Highway Patrol immediately responded to request for comment by the U.S. Sun.