DALLAS — A lawsuit has been filed against Dallas Area Rapid Transit Bus Service and one of its drivers, claiming the driver sexually assaulted a woman with a mental disability on a bus.
This is the second lawsuit filed against DART for an alleged sexual assault of a woman with a mental disability. The first suit was filed last June claiming a contract driver working for DART had assaulted her while driving her to work.
The latest suit states that the woman, who the suit states has the mental capacity of a 6-year-old, as well as persistent major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder, boarded a DART paratransit cab with other passengers last December to take them back to their homes after a day at an adult rehabilitation center. The suit was also filed against Irving Holdings, Inc., who operated the paratransit cab in conjunction with DART.
The woman was supposed to be dropped off second, the suit states, but the driver, Mohammad Ansari, dropped off all the other passengers first, leaving her alone with him. Then, the suit states, he reportedly drove her to an unknown location in Richardson, where he reportedly lifted her shirt and fondled her breasts, legs and vagina.
Video recording was captured of this happening in the passenger compartment, the suit states.
After driving the victim back to her home in Plano, the suit states that Ansari reportedly asked the victim, "Are we still friends?"
The woman told her mother what happened and they both went to the Richardson Police Department. Ansari later pleaded guilty to felony aggravated sexual assault.
“It is well-known — and DART is certainly aware — that mentally disabled persons are more likely to be targeted by sexual predators," Turley Law Firm attorney Lacey Turley Most said, who is representing the victim and her mother. "It is tragic but unsurprising that a predator targeted and assaulted a young disabled woman who functions at a 6-year-old level. I hope that DART will work with us to determine where its protections failed Jane Doe and what changes will prevent this from happening in the future.”
