Investigators: DNA evidence links taxi driver to sexual assaults

PHOENIX (FOX 10) -- A Valley taxi driver is arrested, accused of sexually assaulting two passengers years ago.

Investigators say DNA evidence linked the driver, identified as Abbas Jassim Shemisawi, to the unsolved cases. Police say for about seven years, Shemisawi picked up four to five patrons each night he worked in bar areas. In the summer of 2016, investigators believe he raped a woman who was extremely intoxicated. Then, eight months later, Shemisawi accused of sexually assaulting another patron.

While it is normal to catch a cab or an Uber after having a few drinks in Downtown Scottsdale, on August 13, 2016, Scottsdale Police say a woman forgot who picked her up and left her at a location about five minutes away. That woman woke up the next morning to paramedics in a stranger's apartment, but police say the man who lived there never touched the woman, or even knew how she got inside. The woman then took a sexual assault exam with a forensic nurse the day after leaving that apartment.

Nearly two years since closing the case, police say Shemisawi, 56, sexually assaulted a patron in the back of his taxi. According to investigators, DNA taken from Shemisawi matched the DNA found on the victim in Scottsdale back in 2016. Shemisawi was arrested near his home in Chandler Tuesday night.

Shemisawi is held on a $100,000 bond, and is set to appear in court next Tuesday.