Thread: Long Island Slavery Case, a Snapshot of a Hidden U.S. Probl

From Stand in Long Island Slavery Case, a Snapshot of a Hidden U.S. Problem
By PAUL VITELLO
Published: December 3, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y., Nov. 30 — The two tiny Indonesian women know just a handful of English words. They know Windex. Fantastik (the cleanser, not the adjective). They know the words Master and Missus, which they were taught to use in addressing the Long Island couple they served as live-in help for five years in the sylvan North Shore hamlet of Muttontown.
Their employers, Varsha Sabhnani, 35, and her husband, Mahender, 51, naturalized citizens from India, have been on trial in U.S. District Court here for the past month. They are charged with what the federal criminal statutes refer to as involuntary servitude and peonage, or, in the common national parlance since 1865, the crime of keeping slaves.

The two women, the government charged in its indictment, were victims of “modern-day slavery.â€

My question is why would anyone with an ounce of dignity and 10% of their brain functioning stay after the first year didn't work out? These two sob stories hung around for 5 years!

At some point, people have to become responsible for themselves, and if you're in a bad situation but choose to stay rather than assert your rights, then it's your own fault.

Originally Posted by corhanem

My question is why would anyone with an ounce of dignity and 10% of their brain functioning stay after the first year didn't work out? These two sob stories hung around for 5 years!

At some point, people have to become responsible for themselves, and if you're in a bad situation but choose to stay rather than assert your rights, then it's your own fault.

LOL
This is the land of the free, they could have went any where and stole a job.
LOL

Regardless of the jury’s verdict, the case has raised the profile of a population, mostly of women, hidden in the folds of some very affluent American households, according to advocates for exploited workers.

There is the reason there are so few prosecuted. Only the rich can afford slaves. The rich protect the rich.

My question is why would anyone with an ounce of dignity and 10% of their brain functioning stay after the first year didn't work out? These two sob stories hung around for 5 years!

At some point, people have to become responsible for themselves, and if you're in a bad situation but choose to stay rather than assert your rights, then it's your own fault.

Have to disagree on this one. Feature yourself in a foreign country where you know no one, don't speak the language, and have no idea if leaving where you are will save you. You or I would probably run and take our chances. These people are from a different culture where a caste system still exists. Slavery still exists. They are not going to do anything until they hit the limit of what they can endure.

Originally Posted by 1_paint

Have to disagree on this one. Feature yourself in a foreign country where you know no one, don't speak the language, and have no idea if leaving where you are will save you. You or I would probably run and take our chances. These people are from a different culture where a caste system still exists. Slavery still exists. They are not going to do anything until they hit the limit of what they can endure.

I understand. However, with the way the American culture is presented to people in other countries, it would stand to reason that these women came here at least with a twinkling that they would no longer be oppressed in such a way. Once they found themselves in a supposedly bad situation, that twinkling should have sparked anger, leading to their freedom 4 years sooner. You know what I mean?

I'm sorry. I lived in an abusive marriage for 7 years, and it was my OWN fault -- not that I instigated his beatings, but because I stayed to let it happen again.

I also have my doubts about whether the two "slaves" in the original article are actually telling the truth about their situations.

How do we know they were made to clean all night? Maybe it was one of those situations where they were awake at night and decided to clean rather than do something else.

The intent of "force" is tough to prove, especially since it's a he-said she-said deal.

December 18, 2007
Long Island Couple Convicted of Enslaving 2 Domestic Workers for Years
By COREY KILGANNON
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — The so-called Muttontown slave trial involved a wild barrage of testimony by two Indonesian domestic workers who were employed — and, prosecutors say, enslaved and tortured for years — by a well-to-do couple on Long Island. And the verdict Monday morning made for no less wild a scene.

When it was announced that the jury in U.S. District Court here had found the couple, Mahender and Varsha Sabhnani, guilty, Ms. Sabhnani and one of their three daughters fainted, according to the authorities and to friends of the Sabhnanis.

Both were taken to the hospital, from which they were later reported released.

Judge Arthur D. Spatt cleared the courtroom before he had a chance to poll the jurors and ask them what monetary damages the couple should be ordered to pay the two former employees.

The Sabhnanis — who were convicted on 12 counts, including involuntary servitude, conspiracy, forced labor and the harboring of aliens — could also face up to 40 years in prison.

The determination of damages was postponed until Tuesday morning.

In the trial, defense lawyers argued that the victims — identified only as Samirah, 51, and Enung, 47 — inflicted wounds on themselves as part of a traditional Indonesian folk cure, and cleverly devised the slave charges to obtain the immigration status conferred on victims of torture and abuse.

The Sabhnanis’ daughters and their son huddled with relatives and friends in the courtroom, hours after the verdict.

“They’re just devastated,â€