US cab driver accused of masturbating on job loses taxi license

A cab driver in the US, who lost his license after he was accused of masturbating while driving, has been told he will not get his job back, by an appeals court.

Angel Bautista, 55, who insists he was merely adjusting his open fly when a disgusted passenger complained he was playing with himself, had sued the Taxi and Limousine Commission to get his taxi license back and a 1,350-dollar fine reversed.

But an Appellate Division panel tossed out his appeal, saying there was "substantial evidence" to support the passenger's complaint in March 2008 that he whipped it out while driving her from Brooklyn to a doctor's appointment in Manhattan.

"You're not doing what I think you're doing!" the woman gasped, according to Taxi and Limousine Commission records. Bautista, a father of two, had insisted in 2009 that he had not pleasured himself behind the wheel, and that he felt "horrible" about the accusations.

"Of course, I didn't do that," the New York Daily News quoted him as having said. Bautista said he kept a box of tissues handy because he had a "runny nose", but the state appeals court did not buy it.

"Substantial evidence, namely the testimony of the complainant who was a passenger in (his) vehicle, supported the findings that (he) exposed himself... and engaged in lewd behaviour as he was driving," the judges wrote in a two-page decision.