Monday, September 23, 2024 - A live-in nanny has been awarded £2million after her fast food mogul boss secretly recorded nude videos of her by hiding a camera inside a smoke detector.
Kelly Andrade, 25, sued 35-year-old Michael Esposito for
filming her while she lived with him and his family in New York’s Staten
Island.
The dad-of-four was arrested after she claimed he tried to
break her door down when he realised she had discovered the device and the
memory card inside crammed with "hundreds" of clips.
A Manhattan jury has now awarded the au pair $780,000 in
emotional distress damages against Esposito and his wife Danielle, plus
$2,000,000 in punitive damages against him.
Esposito, who owns three LaRosa Grill franchises, was taken into custody on suspicion of illegal surveillance, which carries a maximum sentence of four years.
But he was allowed to walk free on the condition he
completes two years of probation and counselling.
Ms Andrade’s attorney previously described the punishment as
a "slap on the wrist".
Speaking to the New York Post, the nanny said: "It’s
not enough for the whole situation I’ve been through these three years. It’s
not enough.
"I was angry because the damage that he caused me is
irreversible."
In her lawsuit, the Colombian national described spending
hundreds of hours training after being hired by Cultural Care Au Pair and sent
to work in the US.
She told the Post she was thrilled at the opportunity to learn English while working in America.
But she became suspicious after frequently seeing Esposito
tinkering with the smoke detector in the bedroom they had given her, saying it
"was constantly being repositioned".
After several weeks in the job she took a closer look at the
device and spotted the camera hidden inside.
She described having to escape through a window when
Esposito arrived home and started banging on her door.
According to the lawsuit, police later found "hundreds
of recordings" of her "nude and/or dressing/undressing" on it.
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