MTA-contracted driver sexually attacks disabled woman: suit
'I will never forget his face,' Deshawn Curley, 54, said of her accused assaulter — who allegedly later told her he 'just got carried away.''
8 Deshawn Curley is suing the MTA's Access-A-Ride program after one of its drivers allegedly sexually assaulted her twice on a ride home.
Stephen Yang
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Curley — a 54-year-old former Postal Service worker who has a nerve disability that makes traveling by train difficult — says in her Queens suit that her nightmare unfolded when she called for an Access-A-Ride on Feb. 4.
A White Tesla pulled up with Kakha Chomakhidze behind the wheel to take Curley from LaGuardia Community College, where she was taking healthcare classes, back to her home in Flushing, the suit says.
8 The lawsuit claims that driver Kakha Chomakhidze touched the plaintiff's inner thigh twice as he drove her home.
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Curley said she told Chomakhidze he was late.
'He said, on his translator on his phone, that he didn't speak English,' she told The Post in an exclusive interview.
The Russian-speaking driver then began using a translation app to tell her, 'I like black girls' multiple times as he drove them slowly along the Long Island Expressway, claims her suit against Access-A-Ride, which is run by the state and city taxpayer-funded Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
'I turned up my nose, and I was like, 'Just drive,' ' Curley told The Post.
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8 'I was crying,' Curley recalled of her alleged ride from hell.
Stephen Yang
But he kept speaking into his phone, translating over and over the same message, 'I like black girls' and asking her if she wanted to sit in the front seat, which she refused to do, she said.
He then reached back with his right arm and touched the inside of her thigh, her suit says.
8 A text exchange between Curley and the MTA-contracted driver shows he apologized for his actions, according to her lawsuit.
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'I was like — do not do that again,' Curley told The Post.
Chomakhidze continued to make crude remarks through his phone app — then soon reached for her leg the second time, court documents claim.
8 Access-A-Ride provides paratransit for thousands of disabled New Yorkers.
MTA
'I grabbed [his hand], and I said: 'I asked you not to do that — and you did it again,'' Curley told The Post.
'I'm so angry,' Curley recalled. 'My anxiety was on 100, my head started hurting.
'I was crying. I was like, 'No.' I'm like, no, that's not right for him to put his hands between my legs — not once, but freaking twice.'
Curley told The Post that after finally arriving home and fleeing the car, she still had the driver's number and texted him the next day expressing her disbelief.
8 Chomaxidze allegedly sent an apologetic text the day after the incident.
Kaxa Chomaxidze /Facebook
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He replied, 'I just got carried away, I apologize,' her suit says.
Curley filed a police report and called the MTA and was told he would be fired, court documents say.
But Curley's suit says it took three phone calls and a month for Access-A-Ride to confirm he was gone.
'The first time they said, 'We did an investigation, and the driver said that you're lying,' ' Curley told The Post.
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8 Curley's suit says it took three phone calls and a month for Access-A-Ride to confirm the accused driver had been fired.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The disabled passenger was so traumatized that for months, she couldn't return to her continued-learning classes, where she was training to be a community health worker after her disability got worse years ago and forced her to retire, court documents say.
'I will not forget it,' Curley said of her experience, 'And it messed me up so bad, I didn't want to go to school no more.
'Who's to say that I'm the only person he did that to,' Curley added. 'He was too comfortable.'
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Curley's lawyer, Mark Shirian, said, 'This case is about more than just one driver — it's about a system that utterly failed to protect a vulnerable passenger from sexual assault.
'When she bravely reported the assault, she was met with silence. Only after she presented written proof of the driver's admission did the companies involved act — weeks too late.'
The MTA did not respond to a Post request for comment, but the contracted car service that Chomakhidze worked for, Belle-Rock, said he was fired after the alleged incident.
8 'When she bravely reported the assault, she was met with silence' for too long, said her lawyer, Mark Shiran.
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Chomakhidze was unable to be reached for comment by The Post.
A pair of women at a Queens apartment listed online for the driver said the defendant does not live there but occasionally stops by to collect his mail.
Chomakhidze meanwhile did not respond to Post texts or calls to the phone number attached to the text he allegedly sent Curley.
Curley told The Post she hopes her lawsuit can push the handicapped-aid service to do better for disabled New Yorkers.
'When it happened to me, I couldn't advocate for myself at that time because I was in shock and I just took a step back,' she said.
'I'm complaining about somebody touching me, assaulting me, touching me between my thighs,' she said. 'They don't care.
'Just because you're disabled and you have Medicaid, they feel that low-income and stuff like that … no — I worked all my life, and I've been working since I've been disabled.'
-Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton
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