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JACKSONVILLE - The mother of an alleged serial killer's victim is suing a Jacksonville taxi company for allowing the man charged in the slayings to drive a cab.
Surita Ann Cohen's mother charges Gator City Taxi & Shuttle Service should have conducted background checks to see if Paul Durousseau had been convicted of a crime. Police believe Cohen was Durousseau's passenger when she was killed.
Cynthia Cohen Davis' lawsuit alleges that Gator City Taxi & Shuttle Service was negligent in leasing a cab to Durousseau, who had been on probation since July 2001 after pleading guilty to aggravated assault in a rape case.
Lee Schlissler, a spokesman for Gator City, would not comment on the lawsuit Thursday.
Audrey Moran, a spokesman for Mayor John Delaney, said Durousseau had been issued a temporary taxi license for 60 days after police determined he had not been convicted of a felony.
Cohen, 19, disappeared Feb. 4 and her body was found the next day in a ditch in a vacant lot with another victim, Jovanna Tryica Jefferson, 17.
Other victims of the slayings were Nicole Williams, 19; Kikia Kirkpatrick, 19, and Shwanda McCallister, 20.
Prosecutors say Durousseau also is linked through DNA to the 1997 slaying of Tracy Habersham in Columbus, Ga.