Headline Of The Week Weak
Filed under: Headline of the Week > Wacky, Tacky & True
"Hollywood couple sentenced in maid 'slave' case"
This is awful! CLCK HERE to read the article accompanying this headline.
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.
Omg I can't believe that I would have goten a million dollars
Fuck that!!!!
hope she makes a killing on a movie of the week deal and oprah tour. what cunts!
And I thought this slave stuff only happened in NY here on Lawn Guyland !
good on Nena! Just cuz you have $$$, doesn't give you ANY right to be a sadistic a-hole. they deserve whatever karma they created. go Nena!!!
They should be treated the same way they treated her. What a slap on the wrist.
THAT'S AWFUL!!! KARMA BITCHES!!!!
go ahead Nena! she should be able to stay in this country even if she was undocumented. Most undocumented immigrants work their ass off here. Look who works as cooks, maids, gardeners, picking the fruit you eat, childcare workers. the least people deserve is to have their human rights respected.
what freaking pigs….who do they think they are? treating a human being like that.
That is some crazy shit. What the hell? WHY? Who does this sort of thing? Poor Ruiz…. now she be living it up though… You go Ruiz… make that heffa be YOUR MAID.
she should've won a trip back to her country
that IS terrible!! what is wrong with the rich in this nation?! this is not the first case of modern day slavery that ive read .. it breaks my heart especially since the juilo on trial has prolly got money in the bank. heartless spinless scum .. and CONGRATULATIONS elizabeth jackson.. for 'owning up to your actions'. as if this will make the jury squeeze tears for you. regardless, i hope you get worse than jail time.
illegal immigration is illegal for this reason. c'mon people. when are you goin to get it.
whenever you hear "our economy will collapse without them" that's what slave owners used to say. LEGAL immigrants deserve to be here. illegal immigration is unsafe and inhumane for AMERICAN CITIZENS, LEGAL IMMIGRANTS and ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.
ENFORCE OUR DEMOCRATICALLY CREATED IMMIGRATION, LABOR, SAFETY & WAGE LAWS NOW! STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION!
signed a LEGAL immigrant
Who's the BItch Now? Sweet revenge!!!
people who support illegal immigration believe in not enforced immigration, safety, labor or wage laws, so they shouldn't care.
those of us who don't support illegal immigration do so just because we know situations like this will happen as a result.
if you don't honor our laws, this is what happens. immigrants are not protected and neither is society.
HOLY SHIT! What a dumb fucking cunt bitch!!!
Send the maid back to fucking Mexico. She shouldn't have been here in the first place NOT paying taxes.
Send the maid back to fucking Mexico. She shouldn't have been here in the first place NOT paying taxes.
Send the maid back to fucking Mexico. She shouldn't have been here in the first place NOT paying taxes.
Send the maid back to fucking Mexico. She shouldn't have been here in the first place NOT paying taxes.
She was awarded $825k but they declared bankruptcy. So they most likely listed that debt in their bankruptcy petition and it got wiped away. But hopefully the poor woman got her money from a homeowners insurance policy or something and didn't go through all of that for nothing.
such an awful thing to happen. They deserve what the judge gave them, I feel should be worse. They do not need to be treating anyone like that. !!!!
That is so wrong………….But maybe, If she wasn't in the country ilegally, they would not have had the chance to do those things. You reap what you sew
That is so terrible.They should have received more time.Can you imagine how much mental abuse that woman went thru.Good thing they are bankrupt and pittyful now…Terrible,terrible.
*I lOve pErezitO*
If she has always tried to do the right thing, then why did she break the law and come into this country ilegally
Re: I heart Perez –
yeahh 825,000 from the law suit.
they meant only 300 while she was working for them.
"I've always tried to do the right thing" How can you abuse someone for YEARS and think you try to do the right thing?!?!?! WHAT A FUCKING BITCH
Jesus Christ!no human being deserves such an awful treatment.community service my ass!life imprisonment is the least these 2 beasts should get.
Jesus Christ!no human being deserves such an awful treatment.community service my ass!life imprisonment is the least these 2 beasts should get.
Re: Stupid – Did you read the fucking article? Those who did can draw from it that she was an illegal immigrant you dumb twat.
THEY SHOULD HAVE BOTH BEEN SENT TO JAIL!
SHAME ON THEM FO RTHINKING THEIR MONEY COULD WIPE THEIR HANDS CLEAN
Labor laws and wage laws should apply to all people, not just legal immigrants. Hell yeah someone who works in a restaurant or works like Nena should be earning a living wage!
Fatt Ass…….You put these ilegal immigrants on a pedestal and then you have the nerve to Blast some one who is legally here for not having a drivers license in the state they live in. Get your shit straight and stop acting like a big bafoom!
She didn't deserve to be treated that way but THE BITCH NEEDS TO GET HER GREEN CARD!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sick and tired of the illegals get the hell out of the US or get a green card dumbasses. ANd quit demanding things that don't belong to you. aHHHHHHHHHHHH
Re: lupisima –
How do you figure? Why don't YOU go to Mexico to work for a week and see how THEIR labor laws apply to you?
This bitch could have gone to the cops, but she was here ILLEGALLY. Imagine what a shit hole Mexico must be if being treated that way is better than going back.
Re: lupisima –
How do you figure? Why don't YOU go to Mexico to work for a week and see how THEIR labor laws apply to you?
This bitch could have gone to the cops, but she was here ILLEGALLY. Imagine what a shit hole Mexico must be if being treated that way is better than going back.
fucking americans… you're all the same… somebody should nuke your country
$825,000USD for less then 1 years employment? Another fine example of american justice at work. The Jacksons probably were assholes, but it seems to me that the maid became calculating and greedy. How many american citizens go to work everyday and get treated this poorly and worse, and are never awarded anything?
Now that this 'maid' has her money, its time to send her back to the Philipines.
Elizabeth Jackson has always "tried and strived to do the right thing?????"
Puh-Leeze…she got caught is isn't sorry for anything other than she got caught.
Depraved woman.
Fuckin right
bitch should have gotten life for treatin another human being like that. I can't beleive the maid put up with it, how can a human being not be aware of their rights?
personally i dont give a shit about britney spears or any of the other celebrities who you so frequently exploit…however, as hard as it is to believe these are people you are demeaning. You need to get a fucking life man I'm serious I can't believe you've been made rich from making other people feel like shit. I hate you and anyone like you. I hate you for putting this shit on the internet for anyone to see. You should be arrested. You make fun of people on your site saying they are fat..you are fat. you say they are ugly..you are ugly. Just stop.
Re: Lindsay –
Hey Lindsay, obviously YOU CAN'T FUCKING READ! Ruiz won $825,000, not $850,000. Go back to first grade…thanks
that's so sad, but at least she got what
she fully deserved for all the work she did.
as for the couple, they deserve whatever they
got and more
Re: Mary – UHM..the maid was Philipina….not mexican. You can't send her back to mexico since she didn't originate from there….
READ, people….open your eyes and READ before you open your mouths!
825,000 is not enough, half of that goes to the lawyers.
Re: Stupid –
what you dont realize is that a part of slavery is psychological too. These two sick individuals instilled fear into this poor woman. She came from nothing, and those who do always believe America will provide them with better lives. Also, by going to the cops she obviously knew she might get deported, and maybe the thought of that was much worse. Dont judge, its not that easy to all of a sudden stand up to those who have been kicking you down for so long.
the punishment for these two twisted hollywood couple is to treat them worse than dogs
Re: jess – it doesnt say in the article that she was an illegal immigrant. she could have been here on a visa. if she was niave enough to stay with them, then she was probably niave enough to not know her rights- thus believing their threats.
Re: jess –
u should never speak again..
FIRST! You heard it here….FIRST NIGGAS and that's REAL!
to #120 me- homeowners insurance won't pay for that because it wasnt the result of their negligence, and they did it willfully and intentionally… simply put: under liability policies what you do on purpose is not covered. Another thing… she wasnt from Mexico, she was from the Phillipines, and the reason the wife got jail time is because while her husband was at work, she was busy abusing her housekeeper. Clearly, she was the physical abuser here and as such deserves a harsher sentence. Proof that women can be just as vicious if not more than men. The $825K judgement was also likely to be mostly punitive damages, meaning they are intended to punish the defendant monitarily for what they did to the plaintiff, and rightfully so in this case.
Re: Stupid – um, because she's an illegal immigrant brainiac…
Re: .. – "The Jacksons also threatened to turn her over to immigration authorities if she left them."
If she was on a visa, she would have no fear of the authorities.
HA HA HA FINALLY SOME JUSTICE IN THE WORLD
There was a case almost identical to this in Wisconsin two years ago!
these illegal mexicans are out of control. now they have the balls to sue us in our own courts.
I am a filipina woman who has seen my parents work hard to come to the United States, and they are both educated people. They came to the United States for a better life. Just like Ruiz. The Jacskon's deserve the punishment, if not, more…
That is DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rich people think they can treat others like dirt!
I hope that lady learns what its like to have to serve others. Service industry people do not get enough respect!
I think they got what they DESERVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Re: mylo – actualy its worse than being treated as a dog is forced to eat nasty 3 day old food sleep in a dog bed i bet that your back would get mest up after tring to fit there and specialy if your tired after working 18 hours a day cleaning nasty pee of the bathroom, washing clothes, cooking, and after that being slaped around getting your hair pulled and treatening you to kick you out of the country i woulnt do it for 5 million its degrating so tink again if you say you would do it for 825,000 im sure this girl is gonna have back pains and nightmares
absolutely fucking horrible
Why do some people think they are far superior to others, I cannot stand it, we are all human. It isn't that hard to be nice to others or at least civil. Does nothing for the morale to treat your staff like that - wonder if she spat in their food/drinks, maybe not because she wouldnt stoop to their disrespectful low level! - sleeping in a dog basket - she didnt even get the sofa!!!!
Treat others how you want to be treated yourself.
The couple should feel really ashamed, being so cruel and penny pinching so much so that this was like SLAVERY! - gosh!
That's disgusting. These women come here, not to become American citizens, to work so they can send money home to their families. It's bad enough that so many leave dignified jobs as teachers or office workers or what have you, for the sake of higher wages, but then they are treated worse than dogs? This behavior is despicable. This article made me cry, the inhumanity of some people is disgusting. I'm glad the woman won the case and the money, maybe now she can return home, or bring her family here, and live her life in dignity.
Awww thats sooo sad.
also why do people keep going on about mexico - she was from the phillipines.
they deserve both jail time… cruel cruel people…
So many of you people are so stupid. SHE WASN'T ILLEGAL. She was BROUGHT HERE from the Philippines ON A WORK VISA. However, they could threated to deport her because the Jackson's had the visa under their behalf. If they fire her, her visa is gone–which means if she leaves them, she has to go back to the Philippines. Illegal immigrants are Mexicans who hop the boarder, not Filipino nannies who are brought here to WORK–LEGALLY.
You stupid fucks who have no compassion for a woman who was abused, isolated from her family, from contact with anyone, clearly don't hold any regard to universal human rights. You're the reason shit like this happens. Ignorant fucking Americans.
Winning the $825,000 in damages doesn't mean she got paid..they declared bankruptcy, so mostly likely they didn't pay the money..Don't just assume that winning means being paid..
Re: mark – DId you finish reading it? she got 825,00 in damages- that is, unreceived wages and such.
i guess it was all worth it in the end…almost 900,00 isn't bad
I think that both of those " Hollywood " assholes should have to spend the same amount of time working as live in housekeepers to another " Hollywood" asshole family and get treated like shit, eat old food and sleep on the floor and make only $300 for a years work and see how it feels. What were these sick and evil people thinking! Someone needs to slap the crap out of them and wake their spoiled, over endulged, asses up!
Re: Stupid – Can't you read? She didn't go to the cops because they would have her deported.
Wolvie,
I resent your statement about white people. That is an unfair generalization and is extremely racist. I am white and I would never EVER do what this woman did. It's utterly dispicable, and there are people like this in every race, not just white people. If you are going to make racist comments (and yes derogatory comments about white people are racist) please say them to yourself because i would never make derogatory comments about any other race on here.
Re: I heart Perez – Don't be an asshole!
Re: I heart Perez – Actually you fucking idiot…the article CLEARLY states that she WON the money in court. Learn to read dipshit.
Re: Stupid – she was scared to go to the police because she more than likely illegal, you dumbass
Wow, this breaks my heart.
Re: I heart Perez – for damages dummy….because she was only paid $300 by her employers!
Thats disgusting. They did not get enough punishment for what they put that woman through. Assholes.
Good ol USA….minimizing the wealthy jail time because "They have suffered enough after filing bankruptcy"….WHATEVER….How many everyday working people file bankruptcy and have to get over it….no one gives them a lighter sentence for their crime…..Look at what the hired help suffered and now this lady has to worry about these fools coming after her. The husband and wife should go to jail….PERIOD….but if you have money you can commit crime all day long and get away with it. And the wife giving that sober story "In my life I have always tried and strived to do the right thing, I failed in this case" DUH!!!!…..paying someone $300 for years of cleaning your house while you're slapping me around…..PATHIC..
bloody cunts! they should have just shot them
Re: I heart Perez – the article clearly states that they only paid her 300 dollars from her stay and that she won the 825 000 dollars on damages from her former employers on Y24.im filipino as well and i feel bad for her..tehy shouldn't send the bitch on prison they should make her suffer the way they treated their made.make her eat 3 day old food and sleep on a dog basket..cuz in prison at least she'll be eating 3 times daily and sleep on a bunk..make that bitch suffer along with her assband
That's horrible…but I noticed it's the people with the most money who are the most greedy
poor woman. I'm glad she survived. several years ago, there was a "slave ranch" in kerrville, tx., where father & son used a cattle prod on their workers, among other things, recording the torture sessions laughing hysterically. really sick.
why is everybody writing "first", what does that mean?
Re: Stupid –
SHE DIDN'T GO TO THE POLICE "STUPID" STUPID BECAUSE OF FEAR OF DEPORTATION DUH RE-READ THE ARTICLE AGAIN STUPID
Re: DUH….. – so true. there was a couple in laredo, tx. that went to mexico and came back with a 14 year old girl - they told her mom she would babysit their kids for good $. the wife horribly abused her for months, beatings, etc. the girl finally broke out from the dog chain (they had her sleeping outside chained up) and ran for help. she had been afraid to scream out before because she was illegal.
omg those freakin bastards should be in jail! ewww i hate them!
Those people are NUTS and DESERVE serious punishment but what about her own responsibility? Uhhhh… yeah she could have left, perhaps tried to get legal citizanship? It's not like she would have been deported even if they had reported her, the US lets EVERYONE stay (unless they are actually able to pay taxes, then we deport them). Non US residents DON'T have the rights of citizians (taxpayers)… legally… not that it matters, everyone is so afraid of being called racest they give ILLEGAL ALIENS whatver they want. I'm surprised the state didn't give her a few million and free citizinship for her whole family for her trouble.
So you are telling me that compensation for three years of cruelty was only 800,000??? I can't believe she wasn't awarded more.
What's with the "First" fetish?!?!? Don't peeps get that there is a time delay on these things?????
Anyway, this is sad and truly horrible. How disgusting that these people should get off so easily! Hard jail time for both should have been ordered!
I am glad that they had to declare bankruptcy!
Good for her! I'm glad the maid got some money. I heard that Ilene Chaiken, from the L Word is doing the same thing to her Mexican maid. Who do these people think they are?
It's amazing how something like that could be going on. Goes to show how unhappy that couple was to mistreat another human being like that- even with all that money.
Re: Stupid –
She was probably didn't have papers to be in this country. She was scared and probably needed the money to send back home.
The husband should go to jail also!!!!
How did he get out of it?!
825 grand was awarded, tho i doubt she got to see any of it considering the couple are now bankrupt. this lady was totally screwed over. are you idiots illiterate?
Why is this awful, again? Sentencing the couple for forced slave labor is a good thing. Perhaps it was a mistake on ur end? Fix it or be taken down when the revolution occurs. Class wars, baby!
I agree that there should be a filter to stop people from posting "first" or the popular "first bitches!!!" No one really cares that you're first and you look sad for typing it.
Unfortunately there are probably a lot more people suffering in similar circumstances in LA, because there are so many illegal immigrants who practically work as slaves to the rich, but they're all too scared to go to the cops because of deportation.
Sick, just sick.
Re: Stupid – if she would have done that, she wouldn't have gotten 825,000 dollars… perhaps she knew what she was doing?
Bitch should have paid THEM. Illegal aliens. Fuck them.