New York Multimillionaire Widow Keeps Maid as Slave
A multimillionaire widow allegedly used her Saratoga County mansion as a "forced labor" camp where she forced an illegal immigrant maid worker, to work 17-hour days and sleep in a closet.
Annie George, allegedly made the Indian born woman prepare meals, clean the 30,000-square-foot estate and take care of the family's six children.
The maid identified in court papers as "V.M." told police she was forced to sleep at night on the closet floor of the children's bedroom, in spite of the fact the mansion had 34 rooms, five bathrooms and 10 bedrooms and was sitting on a 12-acre property.
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She told police she took the job as a maid in 2005 on the promise of $1,000 a week salary, but says that in six years she worked at the mansion all she was ever paid was a total of $29,000. For six years she also says she was never was allowed a personal or sick day off.
The woman could only speak a dialect of Indian which was understood by her boss who also came from India.
The situation was revealed when Homeland Security agents went to the mansion on April 27, 2011, and demanded that the woman be released from the house.
George whose wealthy real-estate mogul husband died in a plane crash in 2009, tried to hide the maid in the basement, but in the end gave in and let her go.
While George managed to escape charges of slavery, she was however charged with encouraging an illegal alien to live in the United States
When asked by the New York Post her lawyer Donald Kinsellasiuta, refused to comment on the charges, but said "The woman was not a servant, and she [George] wasn't keeping her in the house or anything else."
