Thread: Hollywood couple sentenced in maid 'slave' case

Hollywood couple sentenced in maid 'slave' case

A former top Hollywood studio lawyer and his wife were on Monday sentenced by a Los Angeles judge after admitting to mistreating their Filipino maid in a case of "modern-day slavery," a court heard.
US District Judge Dale Fischer ordered James Jackson, 53, a former vice-president of legal affairs at Sony Pictures to perform 200 hours of community service for admitting a charge of alien harboring.

Jackson's wife Elizabeth, 54, was given a three-year jail term after pleading guilty to a charge of forced labor.

In passing sentence, Fischer said Elizabeth Jackson had treated the victim, former schoolteacher Nena Ruiz, worse than her dog.

Ruiz was forced to eat three-day-old food and to sleep on a dog basket after working 18 hours a day. Over the course of several months' employment between 2001 and 2002 she was paid only 300 dollars.

"These defendants subjected their victim to what amounts to modern-day slavery," said Justice Department prosecutor Wan Kim after the Jacksons pleaded guilty in August last year.

In a related civil lawsuit, Ruiz said Elizabeth Jackson regularly slapped her and pulled her hair.

The Jacksons also threatened to turn her over to immigration authorities if she left them, Ruiz said. Ruiz finally fled the Jacksons after she was hit in the mouth with a water bottle in February 2002.

Elizabeth Jackson said in a letter read out in court on Monday that she took full responsibility for her actions.

"In my life I have always tried and strived to do the right thing," she said. "I failed in this case."

Defense lawyers argued against a jail sentence for Jackson, saying the couple had already suffered enough by being forced to declare bankruptcy.

However Fischer denied a request for home confinement, telling the court: "It seems she treated her dog much better than she treated her victim."

Ruiz won 825,000 dollars in damages from her former employers at a 2004 civil trial in Los Angeles.

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TACOMA WOMAN SENTENCED FOR HOLDING DOMESTIC SERVANT IN FORCED LABOR

WASHINGTON - The Department of Justice announced today that a Tacoma, Wash., woman was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for holding a woman in forced labor as a domestic servant. Elizabeth Jackson was sentenced today to three years imprisonment. Jackson previously pleaded guilty to holding a Filipino domestic worker in forced labor.

In 2001, Jackson arranged to have the victim, a Filipino woman, brought to the United States. When the victim arrived in the United States, Elizabeth Jackson confiscated her passport and put her to work for approximately16 hours per day, seven days per week. The victim received no more than $400 per month for this labor. From 2001 to 2002, Jackson compelled the victim’s labor through threats of abuse of the legal process. Jackson frequently threatened to have the victim deported if she ever left Jackson’s employ without permission.

In the same court today, James Jackson, Elizabeth Jackson’s husband, was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and assessed a fine of $5,000 for harboring an alien in the couple’s Culver City, Calif., home. James Jackson previously pleaded guilty to this crime and admitted that from approximately August 2001 to February 2002, he permitted the victim to reside in their home, even though he knew that her visa had expired.

“These defendants used their power and affluence to coerce a vulnerable woman into their personal service for several months,â€