The Arkansas Supreme Court said Thursday that a woman who was raped and left for dead during a 1996 assault by an installer working for Comcast Cablevision of Arkansas can sue the cable operator, AP reports.
The court said that while the operator committed no wrongdoing in hiring Ceotis Franks -- currently serving 30 years on an attempted-murder charge in the attack and 27 years on the rape charge -- it was on notice that he could be potentially dangerous.
According to the AP report, the Little Rock woman went home for lunch to find Franks working in her yard, then let him enter her house to adjust her cable reception.
Afterward, she said, Franks raped her, hit her in the head with a blowtorch canister, bound her hands and feet, dropped her in a bathtub filled with water, slit her throat and dropped an electric lamp into the tub.
When she survived those assaults, Franks forced her into a closet and set fire to the carpet with his blowtorch, she added.
"Miraculously, [the woman] lived, and Franks was convicted of rape, kidnapping, arson and attempted murder," the court said.
