| Cab Company Sued in Dancer's Attack COVINGTON, KY - An exotic dancer who was kidnapped, raped and left for dead in a snow bank by a cab driver has sued the taxi company for hiring a convicted felon. The lawsuit claims Northern Kentucky's largest taxi operator, Community Cab Co. of Elsmere, had negligent hiring and retention practices and is seeking unspecified damages. Other defendants are the former owner of the company, Yellow Cab of Newport, and Northern Kentucky Management. The cab driver, Edward Sanford, was issued an occupational license and hired, as an independent contractor, by the cab company in 1992. It was one of his first jobs after being released from state prison, where he served a five-year sentence for robbing and beating a woman walking across the Roebling Suspension Bridge on her way home from work. On a snowy January morning in 2002, Sanford picked up the plaintiff in front of a dance club in Newport. Instead of taking her home, he drove her to a dead end on a remote Campbell County road. He slit her throat before dumping her on the side of the road. The woman walked in the 5-degree temperature to a home for help. Sanford later confessed to the crime and is serving a 25-year sentence at Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in West Liberty. |
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