never fails

its even worse if its your own.

- from cnn.com-

Wealthy couple guilty of enslaving maid
Woman earned just $18,000 over 19 years

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- A federal jury found a wealthy suburban couple guilty Friday of harboring an illegal immigrant and forcing her to work as their maid for 19 years.

The Filipino national testified during the eight-day trial that she felt like a prisoner in Jefferson and Elnora Calimlim's home.

The couple was found guilty of harboring an illegal immigrant for financial gain, conspiracy to harbor an illegal immigrant for financial gain, forced labor and attempted forced labor.

Their eldest son, 31-year-old Jefferson M. Calimlim, was found guilty of harboring an illegal immigrant, one of three charges against him.

Irma Martinez testified she worked 16 hour days for minimal pay for the couple, physicians who are legal residents of the United States but citizens of the Philippines.

The Calimlims face prison, fines, deportation and forfeiture of their $1.2 million home when sentenced September 15. Their U.S.-born son faces prison and fines.

In closing arguments Thursday in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed Martinez volunteered to work for five years as a live-in maid and nanny for the Calimlims and their three children.

But prosecutors said Martinez "lost the best years of her life" because she feared imprisonment and deportation if she left the family.

"The defendants stole 19 years of Irma Martinez's life," said Susan French, a prosecutor from the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C. "They stole 19 years of freedom."

She said the couple benefited from Martinez's cheap labor.

Jefferson N. Calimlim's attorney, Tom Brown, told jurors the couple had plenty of money to hire an American worker. He said Elnora Calimlim wanted a Filipino maid because she had one while growing up in the Philippines, and she wanted only to help a fellow Filipino.

(what, she had a frickin' toy back home, and now she also wants the same toy here?)

Elnora Calimlim testified Martinez earned $150 a month for the first 10 years and $400 a month thereafter. Most of the money went to Martinez's parents, who French said received about $18,000 over the 19 years.

Martinez would have earned about $480,000 over that period had the Calimlims paid her a U.S. minimum wage for her 16-hour days, a U.S. Department of Labor witness testified.