JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local mother, who has asked not to share her identity for her family’s safety, claims her daughter’s repeated sexual assault could have been prevented by the previous owner of her apartment complex.
She filed a lawsuit in December against the former owner of the Mirage on Kernan Apartments on Jacksonville’s southside, along with multiple other companies, after learning the landscaper they hired was charged with sex crimes against her 12-year-old daughter.
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Randy Foster is currently incarcerated and awaiting his trial regarding the 16 sex crimes he’s been charged with, which include coercing the 12-year-old girl into sex multiple times inside of her mother’s apartment, while she was away from home. Foster is also facing 11 charges for possessing 58 sexually explicit photos of the 12-year-old that his arrest report says were gathered during his communication with her over TikTok.
The lawsuit claims negligence against D.M. Koehn Landscaping, where Foster worked before his arrest in 2024, Kernan Owner, LLC, the former apartment owner, Asset Living, the former apartment manager, and Bryten Real Estate Partners, LLC, the former apartment security firm.
The 12-year-old’s mother and her attorney, Adam Finkel, argue that all of the companies played a role in allowing Foster, a convicted sex offender, to work in a community where children were present.
“These companies invited a monster, a murdering sexual deviant, into their community,” said Finkel, an attorney at Haggard Law Firm, “this could and should have been prevented.”
Finkel and the 12-year-old’s mother met with Action News Jax on Tuesday afternoon to share the details of the lawsuit they filed. The mother shared her response in a written statement.
“My daughter is now a victim of abuse because basic safeguards were not put in place for my family,” the mother said.
Foster has a lengthy criminal history in Florida. The Florida Department of Corrections said he served 14 collective years in prison after being convicted of five separate burglaries and robberies between Duval and Volusia counties. Then, in 2002, Foster was convicted in Duval County for murdering a teenage girl during sex, then dragging her body to a nearby house, which he served 20 more years in prison for.
The mother of the 12-year-old girl in this most recent case, along with her attorney, claims that Foster should never have been allowed to work at the Mirage on Kernan apartments in the first place, arguing that not enough was done to investigate his criminal history before allowing him to work.
“When hiring someone to work in a community, especially a community with children, run background checks. Take even the most basic, minimal steps to prevent a known violent sexual deviant from being invited into your property,” Finkel said.
Mirage on Kernan was bought by a new owner last year, and we’ve learned the previous owner does not own any other apartment complexes in Duval County. Foster is scheduled to have another pretrial hearing on March 5th.
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